Good references to learn about wheels?
 

Looking into upgrading my wheels and before I start asking yet another "what wheels should I get?", I thought I would learn more about wheels.

Is there a good online reference that explains all the different factors about wheels? Material, clincher vs. tubular, spoke count vs weight of the rider, diameters, etc...

Or perhaps is there a good book on the subject matter? There are no big bookstores where I live (the small ones do not have many books outside the popular genres), so I have not been able to browse any.

You might get lucky and Psimet will weigh in...it also depends on what you want to know? Rideability? Repair? Building? Also suggest searching Amazon books...there have been a zillion written over the years.

Park Tool's Blue Book of Bike Repair is good if fixing is your interest.

Building Bicycle Wheels by Robert Wright...personally i do 't recommend learing from a book. See if you can find someone to teach you.

You could check out Sheldon Brown's site. Not sure exactly what's there about wheels, but it has a ton of good bike information.

Sheldon Brown's Wheel Stuff. If you've ever loosened all the spoke nipples on a wheel, then tightened them back to get to a true wheel, you can do a wheel build. The part that precedes that is basically like putting a Lego set together. If you're not sure if you can do it, and have an old wheel, try it. For a first wheel build you will need a good spoke wrench, a truing stand, plus I recommend a spoke tension meter.

The Art of Wheelbuilding by Gerd Schraner is a good reference. I think you can find a pdf copy online.

He has some stuff, especially about building: http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

The November blog has some pertinent articles: http://www.novemberbicycles.com/blog/

And while dated model wise and incomplete, there is some technical test data here that tells a good story: http://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-15441821.html

http://wheelfanatyk.blogspot.com/

has some good stuff

I basically want to read up on wheels so that I know what type to buy.

For example, I know that spoke count is a factor of the weight of the biker. One reference would have a spoke count calculation. Also, if I am a hobbyist, riding mostly hills and no racing, do diameters come into play? Little issues such as these.

Are you talking spoke diameters? Because outside of bikes for very small people anything outside of 700c (622 rim diameter) is pretty rare.

If you post some more info, like your budget, weight, road conditions, current wheels, bike, interest in bling, etc, you will get a bunch of suggestions while this thread degenerates into a flame fest but if you are a careful reader you should find some useful info in it.

The problem with defining wheels is that it's a multiple variable thing. The market changes so quickly that you can't really define the market, like you can with cars for example (i.e. books/sites that review cars using some kind of standard).

Of course there's the compatibility thing - Shimano/SRAM vs Campy hub. Tubular vs clincher (tubulars are lighter, don't pinch flat easily, easier to control when you flat, but much less convenient for general use)

Then there are the components of the wheel. The main things:
- rim. An older "regular" aluminum rim can't support much weight. If you sit on an unbuilt rim it'll bend. Newer rims (very tall aluminum, structural carbon) will support quite a bit of weight before failing. You can sit on an unbuilt rim. Taller rims tend to be more aero. Wider aero rims tend to be more aero than narrow aero rims. This is where you need to do research and decide what's best for you.

- spoke count. If you have a very strong rim you only need enough spoke to hold the hub in place. On a 16 spoke carbon wheel I broke a spoke up front in a race. I finished the race, complete with a few 45-50 mph descents, and even contested the field sprint (and placed), all on 15 spokes. The rim was strong enough to support me.
On the other hand if you have an old fashioned rim you'll need more spokes, 28 or 32 is usually minimum. I've raced and sprinted on a 27 spoke wheel (28 spoke when I started) and trained for a while on a 31 spoke wheel (originally 32 spoke). In fact my mountain bike has 31 spokes in the rear wheel and I never bothered to fix it. If those 28/32 spoke wheels had only 16 spokes the wheel wouldn't have been rideable due to rim weakness leading to wheels too out of true to ride or simply bent rims.

- spokes. You almost always deal with stainless spokes in quality wheels. Galvanized spokes show up in low end bikes. Within stainless there are various grades. Cheap stuff (usually no logo stamped on the head of the spoke) doesn't have consistent feel, at least to me. The better stuff is available in thinner/lighter diameters with thinner/aero sections. Generally speaking a normal spoke with a J-hook should be 2.0mm or 14g at the hook and it can be much lighter immediately for the majority of the spoke.

After proper fit your wheels represent the biggest upgrade in performance you can make. You can get better measuring devices (power meters etc), you can get a much lighter frame or whatever, but if you have a reasonable bike/frame then wheels will make an immediate improvement to the bike.

Wheels usually transfer from one bike to another so some people (like me) will spend a majority of their bike budget on wheels. I paid less for my frame than one of my four race wheels. I have wheels that are still usable from 20 years ago, and they're still cutting edge aero

With the assumption that the bikes fit, I'd much rather prefer a 105 bike with my quiver of race wheels than a Dura Ace bike with some generic 32 spoke training wheels.

A lot of good sites. I especially like Wheel Fanatyk's site. It would be great if it was more of a reference site and less of a blog.

That is precisely what I am looking to avoid for now. I want to learn about wheel variables before defining the context.

Many of the questions I used as examples I already know the answers for (like tubular vs clincher), just wanted to define what type of site I was looking for. I can always look up the answers for the questions I have, the trick is knowing what questions to ask. Perhaps there is a key wheel feature that I do not know about. Looking for a one-stop shopping for information.

I will rephrase my question and ask again in a bit. I have been undecided whether or not I need wheels, and after the ride I did today, I think I do!

You're on the wrong forum.

I've considered trying to break down and rebuild my old wheels lately. Not really trying to master wheel-building but it would be a fun project. Lots of good info here, thanks.

OP - do you race or are you a casual rider?

That'll drive what kind of wheel to consider. That said, there are so many good builders out there these days (Soul, Boyd, Psimet etc....). There's no need to over think it trying to go custom when you can get a prebuilt with similar specs and price.