Will a 24 spoke 700c road wheel be able to withstand a pannier for touring?
 

Hi,
I have currently got a 700c 24 spoke rear wheel and I was wondering would the wheel be able to withstand touring with a pannier, I imagine the weight of panniers, rack and contents would be under 20kg but will it be able to hold this safely or should I get a 32 spoke wheel?
Thanks

No, from experiance, I used a RS10 which is similar to this, and kept breaking spokes, this was using it on a daily comute 30km with 10-15 kg in painers. You would be far better getting a 32 / 36 spoke hand built wheel.

A good place to ask advice on wheels for touring would be on the Touring forum

Best bet is a 36 spoke wheel.

you didn't say how much you weigh so that plays a bit of a role. if you weigh 50kg and add 20kg, you'd be okay but even so nobody would advise it.

Hang the race wheels on a peg at home, and buy a 36 rear 32 front.

It might, but no one will recommend it. Get a 36 spoke rear wheel.

I use a 40-spoke rear wheel on my loaded touring bike.

My preference, has been (not to one up JDT) 48 spoke rear, and 40 spoke front..
spare spokes already in the wheel, so even when 1 broke,
there were still 23 left on that side of the wheel.

and the 10 minute wheel truing put it back straight,
and I rode for a couple days till it was convenient..
to take the spare spoke out and replace the broken one..

Still using the wheels off my Specialized expedition, a 36/40 set.
freewheel hub.. but went with a Phil Wood hub for the 48 spoke.
axle strength is superior.

but that is a big jump from a 24 spoke race wheel set,
more modest the 32/36..

though adapting a Shimano tandem hub,
which is offered in 40 and 48 spoke drilling
and has the free-hub driver for STI lovers.

It's not so much YOUR weight because that's a live weight that can shift up onto the pedals. It's the dead weight of the load in the panniers mounted on the rack that has no effective sort of spring to it so the pannier load hits the wheel like a dead blow hammer with ever bump.

Sure it will. It will withstand all the way to the point of failure.... typically at the median point between towns.

Or you could not be a baby and bunny hop over every bump :P

Sounds a lot like my experience with a 32 spoke wheel (built by some one else). I opened the brake release, finished my ride, removed the broken spoke, trued it, and rode it for a few days.

The other thing on a tour is that you are traveling over roads you're not familiar with. Instead of subconsciously remembering where the bumps are on your normal commuting or training local rides and avoiding or mitigating most of them, you end up whacking the wheel against the potholes more. This is especially when you're tired and hurting after a long day in the saddle and the traffic is heavy which limits your evasive action as you come into the town you're staying in that night. The roads in towns tend to have more rotten pavement than out in the country because, unlike us, cars and trucks go more slowly in towns so their tolerance for battered pavement is higher. Get a 36-hole rear wheel, even a 40 if you are a big rider or carrying full camping gear. 36-hole always worked for me but I liked 40 when we did unsupported non-camping touring on the tandem.

Touring on WH-R500's lol.

Those wheels break spokes on non loaded normal road bikes. There's a reason why they are spec'ed oem on pricepoint bikes. They suck.

A novice here. I have a 700c 24 spoke rear wheel, too. All I am interested is hauling groceries in my topeka trunk bag which has expandable sides. Am I saFe to do this? I don't want to wreck my wheels! Because of my ignorance I've already had to replace the front and rear tires.

24 spoke rear wheel for hauling goceries? Probably not. Again, it all depends on the build. If you have to ask it probably isn't handbuilt or it's a low quality OEM wheel.

No it isn't handbuilt. It came with the Giant bike. I do use the trunk bag to transport library books but they aren't too heavy. I'm not really looking to haul big heavy groceries. Maybe some bread, bananas, salad mix, etc. The side bags don't hold all that much.

Well, just from simple physics alone, assuming the hubs and rims are similar, a wheel with fewer spokes will not be as strong and will not last as long as one with more. The question is how much less. Sure, there are 36-spoke wheels that have lasted decades. But will the 24-spoke wheel last 67% as long? Or 50%? Or 25%? All those may be the correct answer. It would suck to find out in the middle of nowhere on a tour. Bring spare spokes, and know how to replace them on that wheel and true on the side of the road before embarking on this journey.

My touring wheels are 36 spoke... I am pretty light and my wheels are 20 and 26 inch and not 700c so there is some added strength there. The 36 spoke 20 inch wheels could support twice my weight and are stronger than a 48 spoke 700c road wheel.

My thought on a minimum spoke count for a light rider on 700c wheels with a typical touring load is 36 spokes and heavier riders would be better off with 40 or 48 spoke wheels, especially if they are going to see some unpaved roads. If you are touring with a credit card and are a lightweight a good 32 spoke wheel would work.

But a 24 spoke wheel with loaded panniers is a recipe for wheel failure as their load capacity will probably be exceeded.

I have serviced 40 and 48 spoke wheels that have been ridden with a broken spoke for many hundreds of miles and have never gone out of true enough for their rider's to notice.

Was talking with one of our new mechanics about the old 40 spoke wheels on old Raleighs and he did not believe me when I said you could probably break half a dozen spokes and still be able to ride the bicycle.

Not more than a few minutes later an older fellow came in with an old Raleigh that he had been riding for years and the rear wheel had 5 broken spokes and was still reasonably true and was able to make repairs... he had wired the broken spokes to their mates and said he had been riding the bike like this for some time.

Reduced spoke count wheels are great for racers but a bit of scam for average riders who are led to think that a wheel with less spokes is going to be be better and they find out that their low spoke wheels just don't stand up to the abuse of day to day riding on less than stellar road.

I like 32 and 36 spoke wheels for almost every type of riding I do... my road wheels are 32 spoke and I could ride these anywhere.

Hi kajero,

I have been using Shimano RS20 wheels (24 spoke count rear) to commute back and forth to work, round trip 25km, for the past 3 years. The bike is a mid-80s Raleigh steel frame road bike that I rebuilt (well, I hung modern parts off of it).

To date this has been trouble free. I carry at least 1 pannier on the back with my lunch, change of clothes, oftentimes a textbook (doing some university courses), and a thermos full of coffee. Weight is about 15-20 pounds with rack, pannier and items.

During Bike Week here, when I travel over to Halifax for demonstrations I have 2 panniers filled with binders, handouts, brochures, mini lights as giveaways and other items. Quite a bit of weight. In addition to this, 2-3 times per summer I have those panniers filled for one reason or another.

Although I would never use these wheels (RS20) for touring, carrying a single rear pannier on a rear rack with a light(er) load, as you described, should be fine. However, you will be inceasing your chances of a spoke breaking. If it does, then these wheels will most likely be so out of true that you will have to at least release the cable on your rear brake.

Just my experience, YMMV.

Digger

WOW! I just looked at my 5 year old Schwin bike which is in the shed and I haven't ridden for 3 years. It has 36 spokes on the wheels. The bike is really heavy (I think it's steel) and has fat wheels, but I could use it for transporting heavy things. The bike is so heavy I can't lift it up to get it on the bike rack on the car. The weight probably isn't an issue though because I would be leaving from my house. I'd still rather use my Giant because it is so much lighter and easier to ride. The Schwinn is so heavy it takes a lot of energy to ride, but I probably could use the exercise.

If the tires are 700C, you may be able to swap the wheels from the Schwinn to the Giant and switch to thinner tires than what is currently on the Schwinn. Maybe drop to 28 or 32mm.