Cevenne

I have been riding road cycles for 20 + years..I am 235 Lbs (yes in shape !) My first wheels in the 1980's mid 1990's lasted about 5000 miles with no broken spokes, but have recently discovered that I have been blowing out spokes in the rear wheel like mad.. 3 diffrent wheel set-ups (Ultegra and better) in 3 months only with 150 miles per wheel.. I have figured out that there are far to many bogus DT spokes on the market ( I fully understand wheel building- tensions / stress/ hubs /rims ect.. but have had little luck in finding a relaible rear road wheel what last more than 100 miles and does not cost $800.. do they exist for the heavy people ?

late

Man,
that is bad luck. There are equally strong fancy wheels, but this is
what I use. I have Mavic CXP33 rims. 32 spokes, straight gauge in the back, and DT up front. DA hubs. The CXP33 rim is strong. I knocked the rear wheel out of true once. I hit a pothole doing over 40mph. It was in shadow, and I found out about it when I hit it. I weigh 250. If a wheel can survive me it can survive anybody.

markm109

I use Mavic Open Pros / Ultegra that came on my Litespeed Blue Ridge. I am 245lbs and have over 1,200 miles on the bike. I ride on smooth and rough pavement as well as smooth dirt rail trails and not so smooth dirt/gravel roads. I got a tinging about a month ago (500+miles ago) in the rear wheel, and the lbs said that about 1/2 of the rear spokes lost tension??? They loosened all spokes and retensioned it and I haven't had any trouble since. I have never broken a spoke.

It may be worth mentioning that I run 35cc / 90psi tires so that I don't have trouble on the bad roads. When the rear wheel starting it trouble I had just switched to 25cc tires and swiched back after they rebuilt it thinking I am too heavy for that setup. I just switched back to 25cc last night and I'll see if I get trouble in the rear wheel again or not.

Mark

Cevenne

I had the exact same wheel mavic cxp 33 .. great rim.. no problems.. however that wheel was made about 7 years ago.. since then there have been a ton of wheels made that have (unknown to the builders) DT sopkes that are immitations .. hence the problem....the hub , rim(s) are not the real issue when built correctly.. the spokes are the devil...I have figured out just to say away from wheels built with DT all togather until the situation is corrected(At Performance Cycle the wheel guy down there said he has seen a lot of recent bogus DT made in China made spokes on all sorts of set-ups...) I heard that Wheelsmith makes some good wheels .. but don't know any heavy's that can recommend which modle......??

Cevenne

...also all I ride only perfect roads .. no holes bumps of any great size.. all three wheels popped the spokes when riding along a flat road.. taking it easy .. no pot holes.. which indicates there is trouble in the spoke head.. all on the rear wheel which is subjected to more stress then the front from weight and tork.. the 2 last wheel was an open pro.. great rim .. but also had bogus DT spokes... u can tell a bogus spoke by looking at the head with the DT logo.. spokes that are china knock offs have the DT logo stamped in the head.. ( it looks almost blury)real DT have a raised NON stamped logo which looks much better.. I found old Dt spokes which are real... At most bike shops u will see this problem with spokes, as I did.......

MichaelW

Find yourself a reputable wheelbuilder. The labour is not that much.
Check out the prices at
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/Wheels.asp

P. B. Walker

I had a wheel set build last year and I have over 8000 miles on them. I'm 265-275lbs... it varies throughout the year. The set I have is a ultegra hub with a velocity rim (dyad I think). 3 cross, 36 holes. 14 gauge DT Swiss spokes. Super strong and actually pretty fast. Much better than the mavic rims I had before. Velocity has several different rims that you can use.. a deep v... and then a aero rim that looks good. I think I'll go with a deep V on my next set. And if you are willing to pay the bucks... get Chris King hubs.

But stick with the 36 hole and 3 cross pattern.

https://www.speedgoat.com

They have excellent wheel builders and their web interface for getting hand built wheels is really cool. Let's you play with all the different options and shows you the weight of the wheel as you are choosing options, plus the price.

I spec'd out a wheelset recent.... Velocity Deep V rims, Chris King Classic Hubs, 36 holes, 14 gauge DT Swiss Champion Spokes, 3 cross pattern... and for the whole wheelset it was something like $570 or $580. But most of that cost is the hubs. If you go ultegra you'd drop a lot off that price. And they were reasonably light... something like 2000-2100 grams... which is about 4 to 4.5 lbs for the entire wheelset. You'll never get a super light (ie. around 1000 grams) as a big guy... at least not one that's going to stand up.