Originally Posted by
moyariffic
Having ridden a few short (4-7 day) tours, I feel that such wheel/tire failure is too rare to warrant sustained consideration. I'm planning a cross-America on 650bs, and think that I'll bring a spare tire in case of blow out (which, with newish tires, seems unlikely). But the risk of wheel failure seems overstated. Given the fat tires, smaller wheel size, and assymetrical rear rim, failure seems unlikely on my 650Bs
On our last two week tour up the coast of Vancouver Island I got two flats (one on the way up, rear tire, and one on the way back, front tire). I was using brand new 700cx38mm Schwalbe Marathon Racers (still had the ticks on them). Patching the rear tube was almost impossible so I whipped out my one spare tube but then the stem core broke on it so I had to go back to the punctured one but to patch it I had to use all but one of my patches. If it had been a blowout, I would have been screwed, so don't delude yourself in thinking it's unlikely that you'll have problems.