Originally Posted by
donheff
I need to buy a new wheel set for a Specialized Tricross Comp. I have never bought wheels before so I am at a bit of a loss as to what will fit. The existing wheels are Roval Classique Paves - the front has a 20 hole hub and the rear has a 24 hole hub. The rims are described as Roval Pave alloy, double wall but I don't have any details about the rim height and width. My tires are 700c x 32mm.
In any event I was looking at Performance Bike's sale and sawsome Mavics on sale that seem good but will they fit the tires? The
Kysirium Elites sound nice (on sale for $399). The specs show the rim heights as 22 front 25 rear and widths as 19 front, 20 rear. Does this mean they are too narrow for 32mm cyclocross tires? They also have a
Kysirium Equipe wheelset on sale for $250 but that identifies the rim height as 24 but width as 13mm - that sounds even more dramatically narrow. These also have less spokes than my current wheels - 18 front, 20 rear.
Any suggestions on how I should evaluate wheel sets? Do I need wider rims? More spokes to strengthen the wheels or are newer wheels just as strong with fewer?
Lets me ask not-so-dumb question # 18,446,744,073,709,551,617 what is wrong with the current wheels?
There are two schools of though with wheels one school is only concerned with performance, if a wheel has 4 fewer spokes and means your .01% faster, that's a good thing, the price you pay is that the wheel is less reliable, in that if you should break a spoke, the wheel has fewer spokes to take the load, which can lead to rim failure. The other school is only concerned with reliability, the more spokes the better, because if you should break a spoke, the wheel has a bunch of other spokes that will carry the load, and your less likely to end up having to walk your bike the 30 miles to the nearest town. The price you pay this way is that the wheel is likely to be heavier, so you may end up slower. As for rim widths, you need to refer to St Sheldon the patron saint of bicycle mechanics. Have a look at
this page on tire sizing, go to the bottom of the page, then go up to a red and green chart, this will tell you that for a 32mm tire you need a rim between 15 and 19mm wide.