doctor j

What do you consider to be the service life, in miles, of road wheels?

Assumptions:
1. Non-racing
2. Average pavement
3. Gravel travel only in a bind (<0.001%)
4. No curb-jumping
5. Bike stored indoors
6. Average maintenance
7. Fair weather (dry) rides

What's your estimate/experience?

Edit: Aluminum, Rim Brakes

prathmann

Around 100 kmiles.

FullGas

have a set of Mavic Open Pros with DA 7400 hubs that meet those criteria. they have at least 30K miles on them. have never even had them re-trued.

sure others can beat that with ease.

brianmcg123

Carbon or aluminum?

Kindaslow

I only have about 5,000 on my commuter wheels, but poor roads at times, lots of rain, outside during commute/work hours, and zero concern about taking it easy on them. They are still perfectly true and even tension with zero adjustment! Go Reynolds!

CliffordK

There are a lot of variables.

• Quality of hubs/cones.
• CF / Aluminum
• Rim brakes / Disc brakes.
• Summer / Winter Riding
• Dragging brakes on hills
• Tire Size
• DAMAGE

I've pitted cheap cones in 1000 miles.

I wore through 1 brake track, doing winter commuting over a large hill. But, I think the track was worn before I got the wheel, and I wasn't aware of the problems. I now inspect the brake tracks much closer.

Maybe once every 10,000 to 20,000 miles I've critically damaged a rim, and had to replace it. I believe some of the newer rims may in fact be stronger than the older rims, and thus more resilient to such abuse.

StanSeven

This.

Assuming you start with reasonably good wheels, the two things that wear them out are braking in wet conditions (wears down brake track) and bearings without proper grease (this doesn't cause the wheels to be trashed but just an overhaul of the hubs)

doctor j

Aluminum

ricohman

The cheap Mavic wheels on my Specialized Roubaix lasted 50,000km before they were ruined by a huge pothole.
I would think they would last forever!

Road Fan

Big question is, what do you consider the key failure mode? Is needing a new rim the same as needing a new wheel? Same for cartridge bearings.

OldsCOOL

The world may never know.

catgita

Broken nipples, spokes cut too short by wheel builder, 5000 miles, 2 sets in a row. Foot thru the spokes, no apparent dammage, wheel potato chipped on the ride home, 2000 miles. Minor bump by a car pulling out of lane, no apparent damage at the time, 10,000 miles. Broken spokes at the thread end after attempting to redish for a different bike, 8000 miles. Rediculously overbuilt tank of a wheel I hated, 3500 miles before donated. Skipping free hub ratchet, added dyno hub on front, 3000 miles. Change from 700c to 650b, salvaged hubs, 10,000 miles.

Average lifespan of wheels that failed, or otherwise died: 5812 miles. Not counting the bikes that never had wheel issues, which makes up probably another 150,000 miles.

big john

I'm hard on wheels. 6 rear wheel failures in 3.5 years on my current bike. Usually break the rear rim in 8-10,000 miles, going back almost 30 years. Used 36 hole MA40 rims and broke the rear around the same interval.
Broken countless spokes, a couple freehub bodies, some mtb rims, axles, not to mention 4 frames.

Retro Grouch 

I'm going to guess that there's 3 key variables:

Back before sealed mechanisms on cup and cone bearings became commonplace, we used to go through cones much more frequently. Today, unless you're talking about a super-cheap wheel, those parts can last for a very long time with only minimal maintenance. I don't know if 100,000 miles is the right number, but I wouldn't argue that number.

We have a number of posters who commute by bicycle in the Seattle area so they do a lot of rain riding. Some of them report wearing through brake tracks annually. I've worn the brake tracks concave while mountain biking because that requires a lot of brakeing in nasty conditions but I don't remember ever wearing out a road bike brake track.

That leaves trauma. I'm going to guess that, for the type of riding and care that you are talking about, random trauma events are likely to be the most significant factor in determining the lifespan of your bicycle wheels.

PaulH

I would say that the service life under those conditions is unlimited. Outside that envelope, things can go quickly. In my experience, one Washington, DC, area winter of daily commuting is the lifetime of a rim braked wheel. In your case, it's either eternal or until the first big pothole or accident.

John_V 

I replaced the OEM Shimano 501 wheels on my bike when I could no longer see the wear indicator. They had around 30,000 miles on them and could have gone a little further had I not used hard brake pads on them. As mentioned, there are several variables that contribute to how many miles a wheel will last and using hard or abrasive pads is one of them. I learned my lesson with using the less expensive pads.

MinnMan

It also depends on where you live - in the sun belt where you live, with mild winters and therefore few potholes, the situation is going to be different from where I live, with tough winters and rim-denting potholes everywhere.

In the event of hazards (potholes, curbs, etc), then factors such as spoke count and your weight matter a lot.

Bob Ross

I seem to kill rims after ~18-24k miles...but my hubs just won't die, so I keep getting wheels rebuilt. Most of my hubs are between 6 to 10 years old, with 50-80k miles on them, and no sign of slowing down.

79pmooney

I get barely two winters on my city wheels - brake wear, considerably linger on my good wheels (though they still see some rain - this is Portland. The spokes are good for two more rims. Hubs for several sets of spokes with bearing changes. I got a documented 17k miles out of a pair of MAVIC 330 gram tubulars until I collapsed the rear on a slightly misjudged pothole hop. No sidewall left.

The front Tipo hubs on my beaters just keep on rolling. Miles? Who knows? But it is a lot.

Ben

turkey9186

2002 Ksyrium SSCs with 70-80K on them. Replaced the bearings around 50K, and the front brake track is wearing.

canklecat

Other factors to consider:
Rider weight, including load for errands, etc., if applicable
Single or double wall rims
Spoke gauge
Tires (some will cushion impacts better)
Rigid or suspension fork (same as above)

Cougrrcj

My longest-lasting wheelset lasted somewhere north of 35,000 miles. Hand-built by me in 1977. Top-quality components helped. Phil Wood hubs, stainless butted spokes, brass nipples, quality narrow clincher rims. They lasted until a pothole took out the rear (my fault- I wasn't paying attention to where I was going-looking around/sightseeing). I could have rebuilt them, but I was on a solo tour hundreds of miles from home and down to less than $30 bucks on me (these were the days before ATMs!). I traded my well-used wheelset with destroyed rear wheel for a new set of cheap replacement wheels to get me home. I would have just bought a rim and a dozen spokes and re-laced the rear, but the 'out in the middle of nowhere country' LBS didn't have any in stock... Yeah, I got screwed...

OldsCOOL

If you ride sensibly....dont use your roadie on BMX tracks...and take care of them, they will treat you right. Spokes may ping and break now and then but overall they last a very long time. As for modern wheelsets I have my 3rd season going on a set of Vuelta Corsa Lites that remain true and running swiftly with 20 spokes front and 24 rear.

Moe Zhoost

I have a set of Atom/Wolber wheels that are probably close to 50 years old and at least 30,000 miles on them. I don't ride them much these days, but they are going back on my 74 Raleigh Competition restoration project. The hubs run so smooth that I hate to rebuild them. I have ~ 20,000 miles on my commuter wheels and have not done much except replace one of the cartridge bearings in the front dyno hub. Sun SR-18s, 36 spokes, SA dyno/drum front, SA 5sp IGH/drum in back. Gone through a few sets of tires though.

DiabloScott

This happened at about 12,000 miles. Not abused, but I do a lot of long descents -this doesn't appear to be caused by braking though.