Originally Posted by
sstorkel
I have Synergy OCs front and rear on my touring bike. I've been very happy with them so far! Love the way they keep the spoke tension more even between the drive and non-drive (or brake and non-brake) sides of the wheel.
Just to clarify for the unaware, the OC means Off-Centre, and applies only to the rear wheel. It is designed to even up the spoke length and therefore create a more even tension on the left and right.
I did tour with lightweight rims, specifically the Aeroheads, with the rear an OC and with 36H front and rear. I suffered spoke pull-through and extensive cracking around the spoke holes on the rear wheel. This was around seven years ago. Both were factory-built wheels. Replacement on the first was a warranty job. I ditched the second as I was living in another State by then.
To be fair, the second set of rims did get a bit of a beating, including gravel roads, some quite heavy loads, and so on. I did fit them originally for randonneuring, and the first pair weren't treated particularly badly.
The tyre width limit on them was about 28C, in my experience. Any wider, and the pressure needed to be up near the maximum for the tyres, and under that, they were very swimmy, to the point of almost rolling off the rim.
I replaced the wheelset with Velocity Dyads on Velocity hubs (in fact, another pair of factory wheels). They're OK in my experience, although I didn't tour extensively on them.
I opted for Mavic A719s for our new bikes, based on our experience with them on the tandem. I can't give a definitive answer, but I think the A719s I have built on XT hubs are a little lighter than the Dyads, but I could be proven wrong with a scale if I could be bothered going to the trouble of removing tyres and stuff. I like that they are eyeletted compared with the Dyads.
The essential thing, in my opinion, is that whatever wheel the OP decides to go with, get it well built. He will have to decide the tyre width he desires, and what trade-off he wants to make in comfort if he chooses to go with a lightweight, narrow rim with narrow, higher-pressure tyre.
One little point, too, about fitting rims that are narrower than what is already on the bike -- look seriously as how the brakes are readjusted.