Touring wheels - advice needed

[Danny]

Need to replace both the 700c wheels on my No.2 touring bike as they were recently stolen and am looking for some advice on what to get.

The wheels will be used for a mixture of commuting and short tours (3-5 days) rather than major expeditions and ideally I would not want to spend more than £200 on replacements.

One of the options I am considering is getting some new wheels from Spa Cycles - either the ones with Deore Hubs at £148 or XT Hubs at £185.

Some questions:
1. What is the actual difference between a Deore and XT Hub? Would I notice the difference?

2. Are there any alternatives to Spa cycles I should be looking at?

3. Ideally I would prefer to buy from my LBS, who I am sure would be happy to build me a pair of wheels. Any suggestions for other combinations of hubs and rims that would come within my £200 budget?

 

[mcshroom]

I'm not sure about the XT rear hubs. They changed the design a couple years back to include a lighter axle which had reliability problems. I think the deore built wheels would be pretty bulletproof and if it were me I'd choose them ahead of the fancier, lighter XTs, but I think the difference may be how well sealed the bearings are. I have a set of deore lx with rigida snyper rims from Spa which have done about 7000km now and have barely needed retruing (I had one broken spoke after LonJOG but that was with 4 panniers on the bike for 900 miles and I think it was actually snapped when we shoved the bike in the boot of a rail-replacement coach at Fort William).

What sort of tyre widths are you looking at using? The rims I've seen used by other tourers seem to be either Rigida Sputniks or Mavic A719s. I went for the snypers as the 17mm internal diameter meant I could use 25mm tyres if I wanted, and there's also an Exal LX17 that I know quite a few audaxers are using.

 

[mcshroom]

ETA: Another place to look is Rose Versand in Germany - www.rose.de

Even with the shipping they can be competitive price wise, especially if you are wanting a dynamo in the front wheel.

 

[Danny]

I'm not sure about the XT rear hubs. They changed the design a couple years back to include a lighter axle which had reliability problems. I think the deore built wheels would be pretty bulletproof and if it were me I'd choose them ahead of the fancier, lighter XTs, but I think the difference may be how well sealed the bearings are. I have a set of deore lx with rigida snyper rims from Spa which have done about 7000km now and have barely needed retruing ...

What sort of tyre widths are you looking at using? The rims I've seen used by other tourers seem to be either Rigida Sputniks or Mavic A719s. I went for the snypers as the 17mm internal diameter meant I could use 25mm tyres if I wanted, and there's also an Exal LX17 that I know quite a few audaxers are using.

I've actually previously had problems with an XT hub (though actually a newer one on a different pair of wheels) which is one reason why I am wary about forking out the extra for XT given that the weight difference isn't that great.

I would normally use 28mm or 32mm tyres.

 

[mcshroom]

In which case either any of the rims I mentioned above would be fine.

I've had a quick look rond and there's a bit more info on the newer XT hub issue here: -
http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=60889.0

I was wrong about the axle being weak, but rather to add a beefed up aluminium axle they made the bearings smaller so less durable.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Deore will be fine. XT not worth the premium imo for on road use. 36 hole three cross. I like double butted myself. Brass nipples and a mavic rim.

 

[Danny]

Deore will be fine. XT not worth the premium imo for on road use. 36 hole three cross. I like double butted myself. Brass nipples and a mavic rim.

I've always gone for Mavic rims in the past, but only out of habit and because they always seemed to do the job.

Is there anything inherently better about Mavic rims compared to the Rigida rims used by Spa cycles?

 

[mcshroom]

I don't think there's anything massively different myself, but as many riders I've only tried one side of the equation. There's a thread on the CTC forum here which started debating the differences but I think it's mainly people sticking with what they are used to.