revcp 

I know everyone is always looking for touring wheelsets and are durable and inexpensive. I'm building a bike for a friend who is 6'10", so I've been researching the most durable wheels to put him on. I assumed I would be looking at an expensive wheelset, but stumbled across this: SPA CYCLES Handbuilt Heavy Duty Wheelset :: £150.00 :: Parts & Accessories :: Wheels - Handbuilt Wheelsets (700c) :: Spa Cycles, Harrogate - The touring cyclists specialist..

Hand built, 700c Black or silver 36h/40h Rigida Sputnik Rims, O-Lite hubs and Sapin spokes. They build the same in 26". Not light, but if you could teach a rhinoceros to ride a bike, these are the wheels you would put it on. I haven't heard back from them on shipping cost, but the set is only about $185 USD.

bradtx

revcp, I'm not familiar with the hubs or rims. Have you looked at the individual components? The price is attractive enough to gamble a little. Are the hubs high flange?

Brad

J.Higgins 

I believe the Sputniks only come in a 19mm inner width, which will seriously limit the tire choices that you will be putting on it. If you will be doing all-pavement tours, then you are gtg, but I like a go-anywhere tire personally. Still, for long rides on bumpy-butt back roads roads here in New England, they might be just the ticket. The price is right for sure.

mstateglfr 

Yeah, Spa Cycles has 10 or so handbuilt wheel options for good prices. They use more mainstream options too for some of the builds- H+Son rims, Ultegra/105/Tiagra/Deore hubs, etc.
The wheels are handbuilt and use double butted spokes.

One thing to note that will get a few here in a tizzy if they stumble across the site or this thread is that the wheels are built with plain gauge spokes on the driveside section of the rear wheel for strength. This is Spa Cycle's claim, not mine.

thumpism 

Mountain bike wheels on $20 Campy hubs with spoke holes drilled oversize, fat Torrington spokes, Araya 7X alloy rims with holes drilled to accept the larger spoke nipples. Built in the early '80s and still in use. Never trued since the original build, never out of true.

2_Campy front.jpg

3_Campy rear.jpg

bikemig 

Velomine has some pretty stout wheels at a decent price: sun rhyno lite rims, 40 hole wheelset for $130

Sun Rhyno Lite 40 spoke 29er Mountain Bike Commuter Wheelset [74247] - $139.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike

These are 36 hole but come with shimano hubs:

Sun Rhyno Lite Silver Wheelset 29 Shimano 6 Bolt or V Brake 36 [740265] - $139.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike

or these with velocity chukker rims,

Velocity Chukker 29er Wheels Shimano Deore 36h M590 non-disc [66885] - $179.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike

tspoon

A 26" rim size is theoretically stronger than 700c, all other things being equal, so that may be one place to start, although a 6'10" person may struggle to get a frame suitable. I am 165 lb and got 75000k out of a 700c Mavic A719 before it failed, when I replaced it with an A319. My current touring bike uses a Rose house brand Xtreme Air 3 rim, 26", 36h, single eyelet with a deep rim profile, 680g weight, standard 14g stainless spokes. The pair have around 15000k so far, some of it quite rough washboard dirt roads. No problems at all so far, and I'm reasonably certain they'll go the distance.
On another tangent, I've only ever used straight gauge spokes, and never had one break, with the exception of the machine built wheels that came on my 2004 mongoose hybrid bike, which broke numerous spokes. I had two wheels built, a front dyno Mavic T-520, then a rear Mavic A-719, since that time all my wheels I have built up myself. It's a little bit tricky the first time, but not the black magic that some feel it to be.

fietsbob

I built up a set of wheels with a 40 spoke front and a 48 spoke rear, and used Sun Rhyno (not the 'Rhyno Light') rims .

Inexpensive and bombproof are on opposite ends of the spectrum..

Pragmatic is A Shimano Freehub in the middle of the range, and a rugged rim common 36 spoke , 3 cross .

If you damage the rim You just buy another wheel in what ever Mom And Pop Bike shop you get to..

Being in a town with a thriving cycle touring scene , passing thru,

It's the people with Exotic parts that are usually getting the fancy hubs cut out and mailed Home..

rather than waiting for things to be special ordered and shipped in.

But there is plebnty of Rooms most weekends and lots of restaurants. microbrewery-cafes, and Bars To kill time in,
if you chose to wait and hang out.

Spoonrobot 

Citation please, is this from the Sheldon article that links to the chart from Georg Boeger? I'd recommend translating the page in Chrome and reading it: Reifen und Felgen für Fahrräder

The chart is both misleading and woefully outdated as it is based on a standard from 1981. Clincher rims and tires have improved significantly since the late 1970s. However, even going by the chart a 19mm rim would work with tires 28-44/47mm which is a fairly wide range and would work for all paved touring and most gravel/dirt/non-singletrack touring as well.

I raced most of a mountain bike season on 55mm tires mounted on 19mm inner width rims, when the season ended I started doing gravel day tours with the same. Haven't had any issues. I would expect 19mm inner width rims would be fine for tires from 23-55mm+.

mev

Yup, I've been on both sides of that equation. Cycling across Canada in 1997 on 36-spoke wheels, I broke three rims. One near Laird River lodge in Alaska Highway, one near Kenora, Ontario and one near Corner Brook, Newfoundland. The first one took a bit to have a wheel shipped up on the bus - but the other two were fixed within a day.

However, after that trip I ended up switching to higher spoke counts in attempt to decrease the failure rate. It has the drawback you mention that harder to fix or replace parts - with hope of fewer failures. Also nothing says you can't replace the more exotic parts with a more basic wheel. For example when my 48-spoke wheel broke near Napier, New Zealand, I replaced the entire wheel with a 36-spoke wheel (sent up from Wellington) and mailed home my hub.

saddlesores

on the company website, alex dh19 622*18 will accept 23-45 mm tires.
wtb dual duty 622*19 on one seller website listed 28-62 mm tires.*

*62? seems a little off.
here's the wtb manual, looks like they recommend up to 50mm for 19mm rims.

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0SO8...ZkkeY7At_WGmg-

J.Higgins 

My bad. I was just going by that crazy chart.

revcp 

Shipping for the wheels is 120£, so $330USD all in. I've ordered a wheelset for my friend. To be clear he's not a tourer, just a 56 year old guy who for the first time in his life wants something that fits him. He doesn't want to shell out thousands for a hand built frame, and I want to make sure his bike will be durable. Because of his size, 26" is out of the question. 41mm tires will be the limit, as that's what the frame will accept, so the Sputniks will be fine. I studied up a bit on the hubs and they appear to be good quality.

robow

For the money, I'd probably look very seriously at what Bikemig offered above, but then I'm a fan of name brand parts that are easier to find here in the US when you need to work on something.

mstateglfr 

Rigida is an extremely established company and name brand. The rims are now called Ryde, I believe. Rigida owned Weinmann(still might?) in the late 90s.

Olite hubs are part of KT, which is Taiwan's largest hub manufacturer.

Sapin spokes are extremely well known.



I agree that these brand names arent as readily available as Shimano branded hubs, DT spokes, or Alex rims here stateside, but they are all well established brands.
Really though, if a Sapim spoke breaks, take it to a shop and get a DT spoke instead. With wheels, there isnt much to work on that isnt actually component changes. Spoke breaks?...instert a new one even if its a different brand. Rim got dented?...get a new rim. The odds of a random shop having the same rim as whatever is on your other wheel is really small.

I have some wheels from velomine which is what bikemig linked and I love the wheels. I couldnt have built them on my own for less than I paid. Amazing deal and they have been perfect so far(only 400ish miles on em).
But I also wouldnt hesitate to use Rigida rims or Sapim spokes or Olite hubs as the only reason I dont is they arent as readily available by me and that isnt for lack of quality.

robow

That's exactly how I feel. The hub is really the only component that might be serviced without replacement and good luck finding parts for an Olite hub at a local bike shop. Again, you can just replace the hub but you will often need to replace all 36 or 40 spokes as well since they're not likely to be of the same length but then again, you might get lucky (Not so with my luck). This is the same reason I never run Campy components any more, just too difficult to find at times. I agree with fietsbob, if this has any chance of being used for touring in the future, run with commonly found parts, just makes life easier.

79pmooney

Quote:
Originally Posted by NoControl
I believe the Sputniks only come in a 19mm inner width, which will seriously limit the tire choices that you will be putting on it.


It's only in recent years that I have been hearing how bad it is to ride wide tires on narrow rims. I like it. I currently have 32c Paselas on Mavic Open Pros and 35c Paselas on Mavic Open Sports. I am sure I have put 32c Paselas on Velocity Aeros. (The Aeros are 15 mm inner width, Mavic Open Sports 20.5 outer width and the Pros same or narrower.)

I've been keeping all my rim widths between Mavic Open Sport and the Velocity Aeros. I can swap wheels with little messing of brakes. And never realize I have a problem until I get home and go online.

Edit: (And I love the fat, bouncy, grippy ride. Even if it is all wrong.)

Ben

fietsbob

So How did 120£, in shipping alone, compare with the Build labor locally, and Perhaps

Getting your LBS to get wheels built in Near By QBP warehouse and shipped domestically to your friendly neighborhood bike shop?

with that $330U$D ?

mstateglfr 

Dang. UniversalCycles has a custom build program where you pick what you want online. Anything I would want would be $50 less than that. Thats a hefty ship charge.
Just sayin.

Im sure the end result will be some really great wheels though.