Originally Posted by
mikeonthemadone
Howdy from Idaho.
I toured around 3000 miles on my 920 this past year, both on and off road, (mostly on, but lots of gravel roads.) I wouldn't dream of anything else for myself for the next several years. It handles very nicely and hydro disc are the only way I will go from now on. Having been working in a shop for the past ten years, I ignored the typical old school mindset and decided against any of the Salsa line. (We sell Trek and Salsa.)
I did the PCH in three sections the previous year all on a GASP!! carbon cross bike and had a blast. Just ride. Its easy to overthink this. If you have a massive load and are typically hard on stuff, then its a good idea to really research the details.
MIkey
Not to overthink this but what's the advantage of 28 hole rims? There's an areodynamic advantage to fewer spokes if going fast but most people going offroad touring probably aren't time trialing. What's the downside of overbuilding the wheel a bit with say 32 spokes? Overbuilding parts that might fail doesn't strike me as being an old school mindset so much as a pretty sound design principle.
To be clear, I'm not arguing with your experience with the bike which is clearly excellent but you also said it was the best thing out there for offroad touring. What's the advantage of 28 spokes say over 32? Are you going fast enough where this is a plus for you? Why is it a disadvantage to overbuild a wheel for that kind of an application say with 32 spokes?