spschneer

I was thinking of upgrading wheels and was looking on Harris Cyclery's web site ... Found a couple of wheels of interest on this page and had a question

They have these "specials" WE512 and WE516 that look pretty nice, 36 spokes and low-end Shimano hubs for $120 / wheelset. However, when you click to add them to the shopping cart, the description page includes the following warning:
How come??? Because of the rims? Generic warning for heavier riders? or ???

I thought the biggest issue is the spoke count, and these are 36...I'm 215-220 and I currently ride 28's and that's why I was looking to upgrade...I've been getting a little paranoid while reading some of the threads here

Thanks

Steve

lutz

Well, this rims are certainly very cheap. Judging from the illustrations they are built very sturdy however.
I would very much assume the shop is overly careful.

I am very impressed so far with my, still relativley new, wheels built with Weinmann DPX rims. With some luck you can find wheels with these, too. They would be certainly up to snuff - they are used in tandems with higher spoke counts.

masi61

I went to the link and saw the same warning. Weird. Both those sets of wheels look like they would be fine for a Clyde. I guess I can understand why they wouldn't stand beside them and warrant them for loaded touring. I looks like a legal liability thing, where they aren't going to warrant the wheels for any rider over 215 pounds. It could be that at the low price they're selling them at, the spokes aren't fully tensioned, stress relieved and re-trued. I can't imagine that they wouldn't hold up for you, but be prepared to pay the LBS for at least one trip back for the customary tension/stress relieve/re-true that any handbuilt wheelset either needs right away (or could benefit from anyway even if nothing appears out of line.
One observation: These are 135 space HYBRID wheels. Are you running a 135 mm hybrid frame? If its a standard road frame, you'll need to see if you can make theses wheels fit. If you haven't bought the wheels yet and your frame is 130 spaced, there are tons and tons of prebuilt wheels out there on ebay or bicycle mail order houses across the country.

I've seen Clyde wheel threads where there is an almost universal consensus that Ultegra 6500/6600 hubs with Mavic Open Pro rims (in 36 hole to be safe) laced 3 cross to DT Swiss butted stainless spokes are known to be very reliable. You could buy some new for under 200$ pre-built, or even find some used ones on ebay that would work good for even less. Just a thought.

I would be curious to know what your frame spacing is though.

I_Bike

PM Sheldon Brown and ask him - https://www.bikeforums.net/member.php...oster&t=274768
I'm sure he'd be glad to help!

Sheldon Brown

It's nothing to do with the rims, it's about the spokes. These wheels use straight gauge spokes, which tend to result in a slightly less reliable wheel than butted spokes do. We have had a few customers who have had issues with these wheels, so we added the disclaimer.

The "215 lbs" is not a hard limit; rider weight is only one of the issues in wheel durability. Some ligher riders are very hard on wheels; some heavier riders (like myself) are able to ride quite lightweight wheels without problems.

We believe these wheels are about as good as you can get for the price.

Sheldon "Not An Exact Science" Brown

wjcronin2002

Go to Peter White in New Hampshire. I'm 6'6" 290 and used to pop spokes like it was my job. I was ready to quit the sport. Two years ago I had Peter build me a wheel and haven't had a problem since. He guarantees the wheel for life. I've got about 3k miles on it and it's as tru as the day I got it.