First post on this forum. Short background: 6'2", 240#, 58, been biking just short of a year. Did bike about 15 years ago, off road only. Now riding a road bike. I need to know about wheels. I bought my first road bike in January of this year. My first road bike started having a back wheel problem, and then the wheel broke. For the road bike I have now I bought a set of Neuvation wheels that were advertised for us bigger people. The back wheel lasted 3 1/2 months - read yesterday. Broken hub flange. The wheel is being replaced, but my questions is: What wheels last?

Velocity deep Vs have a good rep -- mine are too new to comment other than they seem very stiff and strong. I have 36 in the rear, and run wih ultegra hubs

The wheels I am going to suggest have held up incredibly well for me, 6'6 207. I am a racer and I use these wheels, so with the amount of torque I am putting on wells I have popped spokes and broken flanges, I even sheared a Ti QR. These wheels are amazingly strong, yet still light.

The only downside is the price, which is really not bad at around 700 for the set with Ti QR's and DA cassette body.

The wheels are the...

Roval Échappée Wheelset

I was having lots of broken spoke problems. I bought a set of Campy Zondas a year ago. 5800 miles later they are still perfectly true and roll great. I'm the same size as the OP.

I Averaged 238lbs for many years. I find that a set of conventionally laced 3X wheels with 36 hole hubs and rims are fantastic. I prefer Mavic Open Pro but Velocity rims are also good. I happen to use Campy hubs but Shimano or DT make fine hubs as well. Excelsports in Boulder Colorado can build you a great set of wheels typically for less than $500. The wheels are hand build not machine built. I don't think there is a better deal around.
I build my own wheels and use 32H for the road and 36H for my cross bike. I get a lot of miles and haven't broken a spoke in over 15 years. I average 4 to 6K miles a year and ride quite often on washboard hard packed dirt roads. I have one set with 5K without touching it with a spoke wrench. I would stay away from any botique wheels and absolutely stay away from radial spoked wheels.
Buy a bike mechanic book to learn about wheels or try Sheldon Brown's web site. He has some very understandable but very throrough articles on everything you ever wanted to know about wheels.
By the way, Neuvation are terrible wheels for big guys.

I have thousands of miles on a set of Velocity Fusions. (24 front, 32 rear) http://www.bikemania.biz/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VeloCity_Fusion&Click=113

I have a pair of Mavic cxp30s on ultegra hubs. They were hand built and I only had to true them once and that was after a crash.

I have about 1200 trouble free miles on a set of Ritchey Aero Tour wheels. They are a deep V wheel. You will hear from a few guys on here that a well built set of Velocity Deep V is the way to go. Based on my experience, I buy that.

They cost, but I have run Aerospokes on my Long wheel base recumbent for 5 years with no problems. They have carried up to 350 lbs (me and cargo), and with a recumbent, you can't "lighten the load" by standing on pedals going over bumps, so they have taken a beating without complaint.

Tom

Welcome! I know nothing about wheels, except that they need to be straight, true, and strong... but where in AR are you?? Are we neighbors?

Sorry, I just suggested the same wheels you broke.

" read yesterday. Broken hub flange. "
Which points out a wheel consists of several components. One weak link and it all goes down the tube.

Hand built are the way to go. Deep V rims work well for us larger people (spreads the strain across more spokes). I have a Sun Swift rim on the rear wheel and haven't had problems with it. As long as the wheel builder knows what they are doing and you have quality components you shouldn't have problems with your wheels.

I've been riding Mavic Open Pro's with Shimano Ultegra hubs. 32 spoke as well as the 36 spoke. I sold my road bike with the 36 spoke wheels and no problems after 1800 miles. The 32 spoke wheels have 1600 miles... I broke a spoke but I'll take the blame... a few months of commuting and hitting speed bumps at 20 mph day-after-day. I take a different route now. I bought both sets of wheels from Performance Bike... $199 less 20% (double points sale)... so $160. These are not "hand built" but the guys at the shop checked them for me and they were true and the spoke tension was consistent. I've heard many times that "hand built" wheels are better.. and i'm sure it's true.. but, I thought for $160, how wrong could I go? The guys at the LBS also told me that if I start having any problems, they could rebuild (by hand) the wheels with the existing components for $40 a piece and they would be "hand built" wheels.

I think if you research through the forums, that you're going to find alot of people that think the Mavic Open Pro's are a good set of wheels. They aren't elite racing wheels, but great for everyday use and training.

If you do have your LBS rebuild your wheels definetly have them use new nipples. These carry the stress of you and the spoke tension. They need to be thrown away after they have been stressed then unstressed. A wheel is nothing without nipples.

The 32 spoke wheels have 1600 miles... I broke a spoke but I'll take the blame... a few months of commuting and hitting speed bumps at 20 mph day-after-day.

At 6'6", 250lb, my 32 spoke rear wheel gave up the ghost with somewhere between 1000 and 2000 miles on it. I was riding Mavic MA3s. The rim failed around one spoke hole. I hear this is fairly common when big guys ride 32h rims.

I just laced on a new rim. We'll see how long this one lasts. One one of my commuter bikes, I have 40h rims. Now THOSE oughta' be bomb-proof.

- FBB

I am a fairly big guy riding a 24 spoke (Roval's) wheel for training and I have a Race XXX lite carbon tubular as my race wheel (mad torque). The real thing about is buying quality wheels.

I am around 207.