Jarrett2

I hear repeatedly the at 32 hole is the way to go for rear wheels for Clydes. What about front wheels? Less weight going up there?

What's the lowest recommended spoke count for a front Clyde wheel? Is that a good way to improve the feel of the bike?

Talking about a 260+ lb rider on a road bike doing long group rides on questionable pavement.

dr_lha

I've ridden on a cheapo house brand front wheel with 20 spokes, no issues. The rear wheel had 24 spokes and basically exploded under my weight. It depends on the way you sit on the bike, but honestly, the front wheel is rarely the issue with Clydes (and by rarely I mean, I've never had any issues with the front wheel and don't know many who have).

EDIT: I should say I ranged from 290-270lbs on the wheel I mentioned above.

FBinNY 

There's no easy answer. But here are some considerations.

1- the rigidity or handling property of the wheel depends on the amount of steel, my way of saying the total number of spokes times their cross section area. Twice as many spokes with 1/2 the cross section area will produce the same strength and rigidity.
2- reducing the number of spokes increases the distance between the spokes at the rim, or as I call it, the bridge span. As with real bridges, longer spans call for stronger construction, or stiffer, heavier rims. The advent of deeper profiles has made lower counts more feasible, but often it's possible to build lighter equally strong wheels with more spokes and lighter, less rigid rims.

My preference is for more lighter spokes rather than fewer heavier spokes, but wither approach works if done right.

Drew Eckhardt 

It depends on how you feel about walking home after breaking a spoke or putting a sight bend in the rim and being unable to straighten the wheel enough with the remaining spokes.

Also depends on whether or not you want one spare rim which will server for front or rear, and how picky you are about color with the choices much more plentiful in 32 hole.

No. Apart from wider tires (due to the tires themselves, or rims which let the tires spread farther) perhaps paired with lower pressures you're not going to improve feel with wheel changes.

jsigone

28

fietsbob

260 pounds on a narrow tire Road Bike ? I Suggest 36 Rear, 32 front .. in 700c .. both rims and hubs with that drilling are commonplace.

the cassette wheel hub's Dish makes compromises to get in that ever increasing stack of 'speeds' ..

and 60+% of your weight is on the back wheel

IGH wide flanges , no Dish? A 32 is OK (Rohloff is made for that)..
smaller wheel the stronger it is .. but thats not the issue here..



28 hole? 349, Belt & Braces reliability in mind, my Brompton has really thick spokes Too.

magbike

I am a 260 pound Clyde, and if you look at my post history you will know that I have spent a lot of time frustrated with rear wheel spokes breaking or coming loose, but I have never had a front wheel break and they have always been 20 spokes.

I ended up taking up a 32 spoke rear wheel that was custom built and pretensioned.

I honestly would not waste significant resources on a front wheel. That said, I did get a front wheel, because it literally added $10 to the price of a set vs just buying a rear wheel...on a total price of almost 250$

no issues since then :-)

cyccommute 

For a front wheel, it hardly matters since front wheels seldom have problems. That said, low spoke count wheels aren't really much lighter...and then can be much heavier... than a more normal spoke count wheel because the rims have to take more stress over fewer spokes. I believe that I've mentioned in some of your other threads that I have recently built a set of wheels that are both lighter (by 2 lbs) and stronger than low spoke count wheels I was previously using. Dropping 2 lbs off wheels is a huge weight savings. It's not cheap but I feel it was worth the money.

Jarrett2

What were they?

jsigone

total wheel weights are a combo of all the parts you use. You can compromise weight in other areas, rims, hubs, spokes, cassette, tires, tubes or tubeless

spoke weight is very low in the big picture, but are the 2x4s that hold up the house.

Having a 16-1700 wheelset over a 15xx gram set can be made up with a higher grade cassette or tires.

Most OEM road wheels unless uber high end bikes start with a 19-2300gram wheelset, you will not drop 2lbs(905grams) alone on that unless you move to Zipp 303/404 tubuars.

at the end of the day, you just want the wheels to work and be ready for the next month/yr of riding w/o an issue.


IMO best way to improve feel of the bike is the tires #1 , air pressure #2 (see #1 ), and cockpits parts (stem, bars, seatpost, saddle, pedals, shoes)

If you want to drop weight off the bikes, tires, wheelset, cassette, cranks, pedals, cockpit parts, brakes would be my order. I usually comply to cockpits parts first over everything. Playing both hands, the only thing stock on your bike will be the frame and fork

dr_lha

I'm interested to know how you did this also. My cheapo low spoke wheelset that came with my bike weighs about 1900 grams total. You have to go pretty damn expensive to get sub 1000 gram wheels!

cyccommute 

32 hole White Industries T-11 hubs with titanium free hub, Velocity A-23 rims and Pillar PSR TB2018 spokes. The spoke are the key to strength and the titanium freehub makes a real difference on weight. These aren't my touring wheels but I would have no problem using a similar hub/rim/spoke combination in a 36 spoke wheel for loaded touring.

dr_lha

I reckon a rear wheel based on those specs would roll in around 900 grams (sans skewers and rim tape), is that right?

cyccommute 

I'm not sure. I didn't weigh the wheel alone but only weighed the bike before and after installing the new wheels and the difference was 2 lbs.

GravelMN

People get too hung up on spoke count. Strength depends far more on the components and quality of build. A 28-spoke wheel of high quality components built by an expert wheelbuilder can be superior to a 36-spoke wheel with mediocre components built by someone of lesser skill. That said, if components and build quality are equal a higher spoke count should produce a stronger wheel.

I've seen Clydes riding 28-spoke wheels without problems, but personally I like 32 or 36-spokes on wheels that I build myself.

downtube42

36 front and rear for my randonneuring bike, because I might be a long way from assistance. Riding at night, on unfamiliar roads, various surfaces, all weather... strong wheels are a must to me.

Put strong wheels on your bike and forget about them, that's my $0.02.

Jarrett2

Thanks

Jarrett2

Good info, thanks.

dr_lha

Out of interest, has anyone on this board ever had an issue with their front wheel that wasn't caused by something extreme (pot hole etc)? I really don't think front wheel spoke count is much of an issue, even for clydes. It's all about the rear.

cyccommute 

Long ago, I broke a front spoke on a Libertas tandem which was a 12 or 13 gauge spoke but that's the only front one I've ever broken that I can recall.

dr_lha

I must have broken a hundred rear spokes, never broke a front one!

10 Wheels

My First broken one was in the front on a 24 spoke wheel.

Wilfred Laurier

I got my road bike in 1992 or '93. It came with Araya rims and 105 hubs, 36 spokes/wheel. The rear wheel was tacoed within two months, and the rim replaced with a mavic. THe mavic lasted about a year and a half before some spokes broke. Those were replaced and the rim was ridden for another two years or so, and by then the number of dents and dings had added up and I replaced the rear rim with a Colnago branded Ambrosio. That lasted for about three or four more years, including use as a courier in Toronto one winter. I have since respaced the hub and rebuilt the wheel with an Alex rim, then last year noticed the frame was beginning to crack. I swapped those wheels to my touring bike for several thousand kms of abusive cross-terrain riding, until the failure of the touring frame. I have another touring frame waiting to be brought into service next year.

I still have the original Araya rim in the front. It is a 36 hole, so doesn't really answer your question about low spoke counts, but my story could be an indication of how little stress is put on front wheels.

nymtber

32h 3x. Deep-V will last a long time if properly HANDBUILT.

The "feel" of my bike improved with the deep-v wheelset. MUCH stiffer wheels, and the bike came alive. I currently weigh 182, havn't been on the bike since about 195 or less due to the awesome weather here in NY state (I don't like riding when I'm cold - I ride for fun, and its not fun if I'm cold!)

Just my $0.02