Wheels for Cross Country Clyde
 

I need stronger wheels for the Trek 7.5 fx I'm riding across the country. I should be down to 220 pounds for the ride, but I'm going to be carrying gear on the bike and in a trailer. Any suggestions?

"Moderation is a fatal thing, nothing succeeds like excess." ~ Oscar Wilde

Why not go with a rim/spoke combination meant for a tandem bicycle? Maybe a 48 spoke one would do the trick.

Bau

Check out ebay there are some good strong wheels at the present time, you may score big.

In the last 7 summers, with 3-5 bikes on tour, on gravel often times, tandem riding for two summers, we have broken 1 spoke. I am 250 lbs, my wheels are standard 36 spoke on the singles and one tandem and 40 spoke on the other tandem. Interestingly the one spoke we broke was on a front wheel.

I would suggest any good wheel with 36 spokes should be fine for loaded touring even for the average clyde.

If you have the cast call peter white and see what he can do for you.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/

He's the man of tour wheel building. Not cheap, but indestructible.

Alternatively, a good set of Deep V's on a quality hub and 36 spoke or more with quality spokes (DT Swiss or equivalent) would do you well.

Be sure to carry a fiber spoke and a cassette Cracker tool as well. Not that heavy and can save your butt if you do break a drive side spoke. There are a lot of shops along the way, too. Once you have your route finalized, shoot it to me and I'll get you together a comprehensive list of bike shops for the trip as well. :D You know me.....Google is my brain :D

I agree, the Deep V set I have on my road bike are probably the stiffest and strongest wheels set I have ever owned. I feel I could easily runs these on a tandem fully loaded for a tour. I am that confident in these wheels.

Historian, besides Tom, you should tap Machka. She is a touring/long-distance badass up in Canada. Her web page has a lot of good info. Look in her signature.

I learned to build and tune wheels myself.

Phil Wood hubs and DT DB spokes to a pair of Trek Matrix rims have excess of 5000 miles with no problems.

Shimano XT hubs DT DB Spokes mated to Mavic touring rims. Picked these up on Ebay at a great price. Only 1000 miles on these but no true ups needed.

I do tension and true them before the first use.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-XT-M760-Mav...QQcmdZViewItem

Isn't 48 spokes for a 220lb rider a bit excessive?

I'd call someone like Peter White or the Odds & Endo's guy and see what they think.

Mavic Touring Rims will work just fine.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/tourtand.asp

I did a month long tour when I was 270 lbs. With a full set of panniers on the bike, the whole package came in around 330.

I used 36 spoke Mavic T520s (now called A719's) with Schwalbe Marathon 28 tires. I ran on roads, and hard packed dirt paths with no problems at all.

My two cents worth: go with the Aerospokes (http://aerospoke.com/). I did and have never looked back. They ride like a dream. No spokes to break! Yeah, their pricey, but you will pay the same for a top-notch 36 or 40-spoke, and you still have spokes to break. Easy to swap hubs, too. Only issue is they can be a little "noisy" due to the resonation.

Actually aerospokes would not be good for touring for several reasons.

While they have no "spokes" they were not really intended for 5000 mile tours.
They will be very stiff and unyielding on rougher roads.
And most significantly they will have narrow rim beds inappropriate for larger volume touring tires.

Yes it's excessive! 36H Deep V or Dyiad rim since that is wider for larger tires.

Maybe, but a rider doing an unsupported tour, probably has close to 50lbs of extra "load", so a better question is, is 48 spokes excessive for a 270lb load? Even with a trailer, there is extra stress on the rear wheel, because of the torque needed to move the loaded trailer, especially up hill.

During the winter of 2005-06 I had a touring bike built to fit me - I am almost 6'5".

Because I was going through outback Australia with a YAK Ibex trailer and fully loaded panniers (I was totally self supporting) I got PW 48 hole hubs on e-bay and used Sun Rhyno-Lite rims. The wheels are 26" ones with the wide rims to support weight and work in sand and gravel...

During the trip between Cairns and Darwin along a lot of dirt tracks, I had absolutely NO problems with the wheels - even when the wheels went aaaalmost 90 degrees to direction of travel in "bull dust". The 2200 km trip took 6 weeks... I had too much stuff but I always had enough food and water and parts/tools...

Arvon Stacey (Tofield, Alberta) built that bike frame and wheels, along with the steel racks. I have the stainless-steel S&S BTC "connectors" to make the bike fit into a suitcase. The price was about $2200 US in total at that time. Schwalbe Marathon tires did a great job too...