Originally Posted by
staehpj1
Do people actually think about stuff like their wheels failing when they are riding? Or is it more a matter of worrying about it when at home thinking about their bikes?
It’s not an either/or choice. I think about stuff like this at home so that I don’t have to think about it out on the road. I have had failures that have impacted my tour and I have changed my practices because of it.
I'd suggest that just maybe it would be better to accept that there will always be some chance of failure and once you are at some reasonable level of risk just enjoy the ride. Other parts can fail. You can be injured, You can get sick. You can be called home for some unforeseen emergency. Hopefully you don't obsess over any of that. Like the risk of wheel failure all those risks are fairly low. Some of those are harder to deal with and more likely to be tour ending.
And it is best to plan ahead for eventualities that you
can address. I would say that wheel failure on a tour isn’t all that low an eventuality. Spoke failure is high on the list of very common bike problems, even when not on tour. Perhaps only flat tires are higher. If you take steps while at home to address the problem by, for example, building stronger wheels and/or building with hubs that require minimal or no tools to remove the cluster. Those are things in the control of the rider so it’s one less thing to have to worry about…especially when you are miles from no where.