32h wheels good enough for 'cross?
 

I'm building up a 'cross racer with spare parts, and I've got some 105 32h hubs that I'm going to use for my wheels. I'm looking at the Mavic CXP 33 for rims.

Will 'cross racing be too rough for 32 spoke wheels? I've read that racing will definitely take them out of true, but I'm more concerned that I might taco the wheel if the spoke count goes too low.

Should be plenty fine with 32 spokes! It's when you are using low spoke wheels of the 16-24 type of thing that you should be worried. My road wheels are 16spoke, I have ventured offroad with them but will not race cross with them.

I ride a stock Lemond Poprad with Bontranger Select Road wheels which have 24 rear 20 front spokes. While I have not raced I have ridden on quite a bit of single track around the valley and they have held up well, even stayed very true. So I think 32 should be fine. But I know little about wheels.

Al

Cool. Thanks, folks. I'm thinking of building the wheels myself, so, if I do, I'll let you know how they come out. nb, maybe we could ride sometime, do some mount/dismount practice before the Tucson series. If you're interested, I'll PM you when I have my racing bike setup. My Surly is fixie, and I don't think I want to test my skills that much!

cool, i could always use CX skills practice

I've allways used low profile Mavic open Pro, 32 spoke for cyclocross. No problem despite my 90 kg.

Don't use CXP33 in combination with an aluminum cyclocross bike. The whole combination is to rigid in my opinion.