Originally Posted by
tntarthur
Long story. This is the short version.
52 years old. 225 pounds. 250 sometimes with my backpack/cargo. I live in NC and it's fairly hilly, so LOTS of load on the back wheel. I bike 1000-2000 miles per year, easy.
The problem is the acual bike. I have looked far and wide, and still clueless. I can tell you that I'd not wish my Specialized 700cc Crossroads on my worst enemy. Even after changing out back wheel with one with more spokes.
I am ready (and eager) to go back to a 26"... good luck in past with Giant Sedona. Just wore out the drivetrain, hence the trade up to a 700. Money is not that big a deal, I am worried about a big box/walmart option -- I would gladly pay up for something that is ultra reliable and just works.
Can't begin to say how many times I have been out on the trail, and day is cut short due to back wheel rubbing on the brakes. I've trued up til I'm blue. I need a bike that works. Most of my riding is greenways and some offroad gravel. No mountain biking. No road biking.
Thanks so much ya'll for your help.
Fire away with questions.
Tim in Cary NC
It's not the bike, it's the wheel. I've had the exact same problem, I weigh about the same as you. I've even switched from a 32 to a 36-spoke wheel and had a good mechanic replace all spokes with DT and it still happened.
My fix is to do the wheel build and truing my self. I was never a wheel builder, but had to learn. My fix is to get the spokes as tight as possible, but the problem then is sometimes the nipples (which are NOT cheap aluminum) start deforming under the stress, but it keeps me from popping spokes and the wheel going out of true. Another problem is that I usually have the wheel a little out of dish, but doesn't seem to effect the operation.
Another interesting thing is that I have a '94 Trek 730 that I recently had to bring out of retirement since I had a catastrophic failure in my Raleigh C500 (not a wheel issue) and I've been riding that and I don't ever remember truing that wheel, nor have I had to true it since I started riding it again, which I've been riding now for 2,000 miles, but before that it had 10,000 miles on it, so it makes me wonder about the quality of materials used today.