hankbrandenburg

(Cross-post from clydesdale forum)

I put a new 2008 Specialized Sirrus Pro into service last year as a commuter bike. I ride to 36 mi RT work 3-4 days a week and really enjoy it. The commute is almost all on paved roads - a couple of miles of paved MUP and about 1/4 mile of gravel shoulder. I am 6'4" and weight about 250 lbs.

After about 1000 miles I took the bike into the LBS for a general tune up. Although I hadn't noticed it myself they spotted and showed me where the metal on the back rim was actually cracking around near the spoke holes. The great news is that Specialized immediately replaced the wheels with some upgraded ones that are stronger. I now have about 2200 miles on the bike. I'm using Specialized Armadillo 700 x 28 tires (they are awesome).

Yesterday I had one of the spokes on the rear wheel break, and the wheel went a bit out of true - bad enough that I had to loosen the rear brake cable to stop it from dragging. I dropped the bike off at the LBS on the way home and as always they will repair and adjust the bike.

My question - does anyone have specific wheel recommendations for a heavily loaded high use commuter bike? I have really come to enjoy the commute and its personal benefits and am willing to spend a little to upgrade to a stronger wheel if it will improve reliability and dependability.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you have.

markhr

https://www.bikeforums.net/clydesdales-athenas-200-lb-91-kg/394487-looking-bombproof-tire-wheel-combo.html

Map tester

I have these front and rear: Alpine DT III spokes and Rhyno Lite rims. A good quality Shimano hub will complete the build. I weigh about the same as you and use these on my daily commuter. Recommended.

climbhoser

Dunno how much you load your bike down, but I weigh 200, run about 30 lbs. of gear in the winter for what was 30 mi RT and is now 36 mi RT and I use both Ultegra/Open Pros and 105/MA3s with absolutely no problems. They are true as the day they were built!

If you can fit bigger tires that will undoubtedly help. I believe in 32s.

bigfo

I'm 6'0" 260 and run Salsa Delgado rims on a LX hub on my Xtracycle. When I go to the store I have my weight plus about 6 bags of groceries worth and do have a worry in the world! I am also running Schwalbe marathon XR's 700x35

ActionJeans

Pretty much what climbhoser said. I run Open Pro/Ultegra as well, and while I don't weigh anywhere near 250, I've heard from other clyde's that that's a tough setup. Get 36 hole rims, and get the wheels built rather than online. I bought my setup from pricepoint.com, cause it was cheap, and the build quality was really poor. Once the wheels had been tightened though, I have had ZERO problems. This coming from a guy who rides down stairs, and bunny hops curbs on a regular basis with a full rack on the rear.

Oh, and yeah, I run 32's front and rear. The Specialized Nimbus tires are both very slow, and very hard riding, so I can't recommend those for commuting. I use the Michelin Transcity front and a Bontrager Racelite rear. No specific reason, just my Transcity rear wore out. The Racelite has a very good ride, and can be pumped to very high psi for a 32, fast for a 32, flat resistance is ok too. The Transcity's only real highlight is that it works very, very well in the rain. Medium flat resitance, and rolls pretty fast for a treaded 32.

hankbrandenburg

First: thanks to all for your responses - the information is much appreciated.

I stopped by the LBS yesterday evening to pick up the bike. I talked with the store manager who commutes 50 mi RT on a fixie and he is running the deep V wheels front and back. He has over 7,000 miles on them and has never even had to true them up! His wheels are a vivid lime green in color; I'm hoping they are available in more traditional and conservative color.

It turns out my back wheel had quite a few loose spokes on it besides the broken one. They serviced the wheel and I rode in today without any problems. At this point I'm going to stick with the wheels I have until another problem occurs, at which time I will likely pursue the deep V solution.

ItsJustMe

My Giant Cypress came with crap wheels; I broke more than a dozen spokes in the first 2000 miles. When I rebuilt, I went with a cheap double-walled rim, but used DT butted spokes. If your spoke breaks happen at the elbow, it's probably due to cyclic stress during pedalling. That was my problem. Butted spokes help with that because it gives a bit of spring somewhere besides at the elbow, which is otherwise the weakest spot.

That wheel currently has 11000 miles on it with no problems. It's a relief not to hear *PING* scruff-scruff-scruff-scruff every 2 weeks.

aley

I'm about the same size and weight as the OP, and the only spoke I've broken in the last few thousand miles has been on a used wheelset (bought on eBay) that was previously used for cyclocross.

I've been running an Ultegra hub with a Mavic Open Pro CD rim and unknown spokes (one of the $120 machine-built wheels from Performance) on the rear for the past year, and it's held up well for several thousand miles although it's a bit out of true now - I'll probably drop it off at the LBS this weekend. The front is a hand-built MA33 on a Campy Chorus hub with butted spokes, and it's been bombproof.

Prior to the current wheelset I had the previously-mentioned cyclocross wheelset (Ultegra hubs with WTB rims), which went a couple thousand miles before breaking the spoke. I would have just replaced the spoke, except that there was enough wear on the brake track that I opted to replace the wheel instead - at some point I'll rebuild it with a semi-aero Mavic rim and butted spokes and swap that wheelset back onto the commuter.