Knowing the relative frailty of the externally geared rear wheel, compared with the front wheel, due to its dishing, combined with the normally rearward-biased weight distribution, I have acquired and custom-built rear wheels, or complete wheelsets for my commuting and utility bikes, that trade-off svelteness for ruggedness.

First off, a tandem, 48-spoke rear wheel, for my FrankenVega.







Next, a modern Weinmann 40-spoke rim built on a vintage Maillard hub for my 1989 Peugeot Versailles:





The Versailles sports a visually similar, albeit svelter, custom built 36-spoke front wheel:



Latest wheelset build was for my 1985 Ross Gran Touring commuter, based on period correct, 36-spoke stainless steel Van Schothorst Saphir stainless steel rims, and Shimano hubs:







BTW, the Van Schothorst stainless rims are still available new, including narrower widths than the Saphir. Google and you shall find.

Anyone else have rugged wheels to share?

Decades ago I found a pair of Campy high flange NR hubs advertised in a local ad paper (remember those pre-CL?) for $20 and grabbed them. Only problem was that someone had drilled the spoke holes oversize, and had also tried drilling some new holes between the existing spokes holes but abandoned that idea halfway through one front flange. They sat around for a couple of years until the MTB craze hit and we were building our own. I bought fat spokes, drilled out the Araya 7X rims for the big spoke nipples and built up these 36 hole bombproof wheels. They now reside on my Cimarron.

[MENTION=184345]old's'cool[/MENTION] for some reason, I don't see your pics with either IE, Chrome or edge.
[MENTION=399166]thumpism[/MENTION] - great reason not to get rid of apparently useless items!

I have Eclipse panniers like the ones on your Ross, but not the lowrider rack. I have other Eclipse racks but should have bought the lowrider when they were available.

There have been some new 40-spoke wheels here on CL for ages for something like $120.
I think the seller eventually took them down.

I had some 32-hole NOS 6500 hubs laced with straight-gauge spokes to DTSwiss R585 rims, $300 invested.
Guaranteed by the builder for 300 lbs and lifetime truing. Right at 2000g.
Offered them to a lot of big people, from 230 lbs up to 285 lbs. Couldn't give them away.
No matter the size, they wanted the petite low-spoke "fast" wheels.
I'm using them on an Ironman and the smoothness is outstanding.

At least 2 of the guys have been through several sets of wheels.
One of them is now running Ultegra with Mavic Open Pro's, custom, $550, 1967grams.

Duh!

A couple of pics from your album:








I can relate; maybe more wheel than I need, but certainly good wheels:

Same here. Seems to be a dead-end:

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Way back in the 70s, at my first bike shop job, I picked up a mismatched set of Campagnolo Tipo hubs (36 hole front, 40 hole rear) and built them for my loaded touring bike. They were only the second set of wheels I ever built. I still have them on my loaded touring bike (the frame changed from a Trek 700 to a Trek 720, though).

I've got 3 sets of Super Champion/Wolber Modele 58s.

The set that's on my Trek 720 is some 40 spoke Phil hubs with the Super Champion rims

The set that's on my Trek 620 is a set of 36 spoke Avocet sealed hubs with Super Champion rims (with the apparently somewhat rare knurled sidewalls).

The set that's on my Voyageur SP are the stock 36- front /40- rear Suntour sealed hubs with Wolber Modele 58s.

Although I think they're much less burly, my Trek 400 has a set of 36 hole Matrix Safari rims with a Maillard 700 front and a Maillard 600 sealed rear hub set.

Thanks everyone, for the participation and sharing your rugged wheels, and thanks Robbie for hosting some of the pics. It seems the problem is that OneDrive took away the option to make a folder public, which is what I normally do when I want to host photos. So I need to find a new service that has this option.

<edit>
I made an account and reposted the pics on imgsafe.org and updated my introductory post. If this is working for all'y'all, then I am DONE with OneDrive.

The stock wheels on my miyata 1000 are pretty rugged; nice wide ukai rims and the rear is 40 spokes laced to a sealed sansin hub, the front is a 36 spoke laced to a deore hub. Never had a problem over a few thousand km and however long they were ridden before I got the bike.