contango 

So I just put my nice new Durano tyres on the Tricross, gave the back wheel a quick spin once remounted to make sure it was true, and something looked wrong, quite badly wrong. So I checked to see if I had any broken spokes (I heard something ping on my recent 200k brevet but nothing was obviously wrong, so I figured it was just a bit of crud off the road), and I didn't. What I do have is what looks like a split in the metal, perpendicular to the line of the spokes and about 3/4 inside the rim wall from where the spoke enters the rim.

I figure that almost certainly means I need to be getting a new rear wheel and sooner rather than later. I had been considering a set of Mavic Ksyrium Elite S wheels but wasn't sure about spending that much money, or how well they'd support my 250lb frame. A friend of mine rides Mavic Aksiums and they look rather nice, but dropping from a 32-spoke wheel to a 20-spoke wheel concerns me a little, especially if bladed straight-pull spokes aren't all that easy to come by (and I'd hazard a guess they aren't the kind of thing any bike shop would keep in stock).

The vast majority of the riding I do is on the road but I do occasionally take the bike on gravel paths. It's not like I'm riding on hardcore mountain biking trails but obviously a gravel path is nowhere near as smooth as a road.

Budget-wise, Mavic Ksyrium Elite S is pretty much top-end of what I'm interested in spending, and ideally I'd rather keep it to more like Mavic Cosmic money or less. That said I'd rather spend a little bit more and get something that will last than fiddling around with the false economics of something cheap and nasty that will break in no time flat.

Thoughts etc appreciated, in the meantime I'll dust off the trusty MTB...

gyozadude

Ouch. Sounds like metal fatigue originating from a spoke hole. It does happen to rims with fewer spokes which are then under more stress. Some of the lightweight Ksyriums have reports of failures, and not all are at the rim, but some at the freehub.

I know that Nashbar has a sale on the Vuelta Corsa HD (Heavy Duty) wheelset. 36hole. But it includes front and rear. It's more than you want, but at $150 for both, that's not a bad. High ratings by clydes who buy that wheelset.

contango 

I guess it's fatigue in the metal, never thought a 32-spoke wheel would do this but I did hit a pothole quite hard and fast on a descent on Saturday...

I'll check out the Vueltas. I live in the UK so won't be shopping at Nashbar but maybe my local internet box shifter will have a good price.

gyozadude

Ah sorry about that. I didn't think to see where you're posting from. If you haven't taken apart the wheel and know the spoke that's pulled through and can purchase an equivalent rim locally with the same ERD (effective rim diameter), then you could rebuild the wheel and replace, perhaps the group of 4 spokes closest to where the rim tear is growing. This of course implies you would rebuild you're own wheel.

Axiom

I just picked up a Cannondale Synapse with Mavic Aksiums. After four, hard rides they seem to hold up my 270lbs without a problem. According to some of the reviews on line they are a very sturdy wheel. Go for it.

contango 

I'd like to know more about wheel building but at present have precisely zero experience, so would rather just buy a wheel and be done with it. Learning to build and true a wheel would keep me off the bike for too long

contango 

A friend rides Aksiums, he's lighter than me but they don't seem to have caused him any problems. They're very reasonably priced as well at £108 for a rear wheel. Don't know how it will look having an Aksium rear wheel and a stock Alex ACE-19 on the front but I can always get the front wheel later if it looks awful.

sstorkel

Wheel building is surprisingly easy once you own the tools...

Drew Eckhardt 

Exactly.

Jobst Brandt tested his book _The Bicycle Wheel_ by having each of his grade school sons build a pair of wheels with no additional help. It worked.

It's an evening project (even for the first wheel) sort of thing, or two when you have less patience and opt to lace the first evening and tension + true the second.

Given a couple of nice beers I find it enjoyable.

bigfred 

Make sure you're happy with the Duranos and don't want to revert to your Marathon Plus's before you go spending on any sort of performance wheels. There's little sense in buying reasonably light wheels if you're going to then mount 1 kilo tyres on them.

contango 

Good point, I'm just not sure that riding my rear wheel as it stands is such a good idea. Maybe the LBS will lend me a wheel to use, unless their prices are silly I'll be buying either a wheel or a bunch of tools from them.

bigfred 

You could purchase any affordable 32h rim and replace the existing one. Bonus if you can get one with an ERD to match the original and reuse the spokes.

skilsaw

32 spoke wheels are made for Clydes. 20 spoke wheels and radial lacing is for weanies. Get real Clyde wheels, or have your existing 32 spoke wheel re-built with a new rim.

contango 

Rebuilding the wheel with a new rim is probably not worth it, I can buy a new wheel of a comparable quality for about the same money as a new rim and the labour to do it.

At the moment I'm looking at something like:

Mavic Open Pro 32h rim
Shimano 105 32h hub
DT Swiss Champion spokes (2.0mm)

all of which should cost something slightly over £100. Then it's just a matter of letting the LBS build the wheel, or dropping another £250 or so to buy a truing stand and dishing tool to do it myself.

sstorkel

I'd think twice about buying an Open Pro rim. Lots of reports of cracking in recent years...

contango 

Ah, that's annoying. It's hard to find anything that has consistent reviews - just about everything seems to have some people who think it's great and some who have terrible experiences with it.

I rode a pair of Ksyrium Elites for about 30 miles on a bike the LBS lent me for a couple of days and they seemed to cope well but they are pushing the top end of what I really want to spend, and I've read a few reviews that even at that price they should be considered all but disposable. I'm really wanting the kind of wheel that is going to be as close to indestructible as it's realistically sensible to get without going for a solid steel disc or spending truly insane amounts of money (I hear Zipp wheels are light, aero and very durable, but they don't come cheap).

bigfred 

Ksyriums or Zipp 101's with a Durano mounted on them is a bit of an odd combo.

I like your idea of a 105 hub. DT Champion or Competition spokes would also work. It sounds as though the majority of your riding is commuting and that you favour reliability over performance, since you're not racing anyone but yourself. With that in mind, I'd forget about the OpenPro. Instead, look at DT Swiss 585's, several of the Velocity rims (Deep V, Synergy, Dyad), Hed Belgium C2. All of those would build up into an extremely durable clyde worthy rear wheel. All of these are mid to upper brands, so maybe not as cheap as could be had if you went with lesser brands.

I've currently got 36h Deep V and a 32h DT 585 rears. At 115kg rider weight (approx. 253lbs) they really aren't holding me back. I'm neither a sprinter nor a climber, so the quick spin up and lighter weight of other wheels really aren't a concern. What's improtant to me is that the bike is ready to ride when ever I am. In that regard the aforementioned excell.

contango 

That's close enough, I don't commute as such for the most part - my riding is mostly leisure riding. In terms of the practicalities I favour reliability over performance up to a point (as in I want to get decent performance but not at the price of getting yet another puncture on the broken glass in the cycle lanes) and the closest thing I do to racing is using other cyclists ahead of me as a benchmark. Part of what I've been looking to change recently (hence testing Durano Plus as a possible replacement to Marathon Plus tyres) is to try and shift the balance away from bombproof reliability even if it means major loss of performance and towards more performance accepting a modest loss of reliability. Although I'm only racing myself I like to see an improvement in my performance (both speed and climbing ability) and if I can get my speed up it means longer distance rides are completed in less time.

Sounds like you're pretty much the same weight I am (currently ~250lb, wanting to get back to the ~230 I was before Christmas and all the horrible weather and ideally down to ~210). Since I'm fundamentally someone who rides for fun I, like you, want the bike to be there ready to ride if it's a sunny day and I fancy taking in a few miles.

Are Velocity rims sold under another name elsewhere? I'm not seeing them on chainreactioncycles.com at all, I'll see if I can find them on other sites.

Thanks for your detailed replies (to this and my questions about fast bikes), it's exactly the kind of information I'm looking for.

sstorkel

Keep in mind that the Synergy and Dyad are wide, touring-oriented rims. I know that putting skinny tires on wide rims is all the rage among racers these days, since it makes the wheel+tire combo more aerodynamic. But... I don't have a team car following me so I like the security of having a bit more rubber between the wheel rim and the road. That said, I'm using the Velocity Synergy OC (with 700x32 or 700x35 tires) on my touring bike and they've been good to me. I'm a big fan of the Off-Center drilling, since it helps minimize the difference in tension between drive and non-drive spokes.