I mis-understood your post, I did not realize 10 different spokes on one trip.

I store my spare spokes in the seatpost on my bikes, that way the right sized spokes are with each bike, I do not get confused about which spares go with which bike.

I have no idea what my bike weighed but I had a couple weeks of food on it at the time I took the photo below. I would not be surprised if it weighed 120 pounds, maybe a bit more. The frame was rated to carry 60kg, not counting the weight of the rider, so I was well within specification. Very heavy duty (and heavy) bike.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8627d29f8d.jpg

Speaking of spokes, two days before I took the photo above, not sure what happened but I heard a very odd noise and my bike shook a bit. I was on a very rough road with lots of cobbles. A short time later I could feel the rear rim rubbing on a brake pad with each revolution. It was a very long day, I wanted to make a campsite, so I kept going.

I looked at it the next day. I think the front wheel threw a rock into the rear wheel or something like that and I think the rock jammed between the frame and spoke to put the dent in the spoke in the photo below. The spoke was loose, which is why my brake was rubbing. I suspected that whatever impact caused the spoke to bend like that stripped the threads in teh nipple or the spoke. I had spare spokes, but I really did not want to pull the tire and rim tape off to replace it. Instead of just replacing the spoke, I first decided to see if the threads were stripped, and I found that I could tighten up the spoke to true up the wheel without replacing the spoke. So, did not need to replace it.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f4f5bbb5f1.jpg

When I got home, I did replace the spoke.

I am just guessing that a rock got into the rear wheel, but I really wish I knew with certainty what caused that.

Chicken meet egg. People don’t build with them so that they don’t get used as often. They don’t get used as often which means the price is higher (“supply and demand” is a bit simplistic). Higher price, fewer people use them. Round and round it goes.

As for not fitting in hubs, I’ve used them to build wheels with Shimano XT and XTR, a couple of different Phil Wood models, several White Industry models from several different eras, Paul FHub and RHub, GT Hadleys, Cannondale house brand, Ringle’ Super Bubba, and some Chinese hubs that were purple. I’ve probably used other hubs over the years but can’t recall exactly which ones. The above list is still a very wide range of hubs. The only ones that didn’t fit were the Ringle’. And that problem was easily fixed by drilling the holes just a little bit. I don’t know that I would do that with Ringle in general but the hub is my winter hub and only sees limited use.

Honestly, the way that hubs are made, triple butted spokes should have been made from the very beginning. They fit the hubs better.

Yep. I went with 36 hole 26 inch rims. Overkill? I don't care. I haven't had to replace a spoke since buying it in 2011.

There are no negatives to an overbuilt wheel. 4 extra spokes add about 25 g to a wheel. That less than an ounce. Those 4 extra spokes add significantly to the strength and durability of the wheel. Using triple butted spokes adds about 7g total to the wheel but increase strength and durability by roughly 50% over straight spokes.

I figured it sounded like a lot but bike plus empty panniers plus water gets me above 40 lbs. I watch suggestions about what to bring from countless youtube gear guides and I can’t see obvious places to cut meaningful weight. I’m even resigned to the loss of the ceremonial bottle of scotch

Blasphemy.

I usually use a Nalgene lexan bottle for alcohol, glass breaks.

***

How many in your group?

Tentatively where is your start and end point?

4 (but only two scotch drinkers, so that helps weight management!)
Vancouver start. If things work out, we hope to go to St.John’s Newfoundland, but we’re all closing in on 60 so we’ll see.

Were talking about such a small difference in stiffness here, that you can attribute it more to dampening road vibration and resonance rather than actually softening impacts.

There are so many different factors which determine how durable a rim is, that spoke count is just one small factor . You can build an absurdly strong rim with less than 32 spokes.

How comfortable the ride is has more to do with how well you fit on the frame and how you ride it.

My trip in summer 2019, I did not venture onto a ferry to check out Newfoundland. Thought about it but decided against it. Just in case you decide to check out the French islands near St Johns, bring your passports.

I flew in and out of Halifax. There was a shuttle van from the airport that went to the downtown train station. I had my S&S coupled bike, thus my bike was in normal airline size luggage. I can't comment on how easy it is to get a full size bike box to the airport if you fly out of Halifax.

In Halifax, there was a very good bike shop, Cyclesmith. Very helpful. If you leave from there, if you contact them in advance they might be able to have some empty bike boxes for you when you leave.
https://www.cyclesmith.ca/

Some of my trips, I carry a spare tire, some I do not. If I was doing a trip with the distance you are planning, I would bring a spare. Usually, if I bring a spare it is not intended to replace one of my tires, instead it is a very lightweight tire that is intended to be good enough to get me to the nearest bike shop. But a trip of that distance, I might be tempted to carry a replacement tire instead of an emergency one.

You are going to have a great time.

That seems ridiculous to me. I doubt there's any noticeable difference at all.

The only relatively minor disadvantage of 36-spoke wheels is a modest weight penalty, which isn't really a concern on tour. Considering the heavy load your wheels will be carrying, I'd go with 36-spokes if it's an option.

Not the worst idea, I buy new tires for tours and the clement, now donnelly xplor I like is really sturdy and has never been a problem. But I could see if going past 800-1000 miles the lighter weight folding version would only add a lb and not be that bad an idea just in case. Good bailout should it be necessary. Could just strap it to the underside of the seat pack.

Add Rohloff to your list of "dont fit".
Might have mentioned it previously but the Alpines were top of my list after reading your recommendations back around 2011/2012 but alas they weren't suitable, so I opted for CX-Rays which have worked a treat.
Haven't broken a single spoke on this build although I do get the tension checked bi-annually.

I'm trying to understand when you would want to remove the cassette if you can just pop off the entire cassette body with a minor modification and an M6 bolt?

That seems like a pretty janky solution that as far as I can tell only works with that particular hub. Also with cartridge bearing hubs the issue is often not getting the cassette and freehub body out but rather getting them back in. In my Hope Pro 3 I can just pull the freehub body and cassette off. The actual problem comes with putting the freehub body back in. With hope hubs you need to seat the freehub seal. Can be done by bodging it with a screwdriver (not recommended, seals and metal tools aren't a good match), but usually is much easier with a special seating tool. So if you end up in a situation where you pull both the cassette and freehub body out might have some trouble getting them back in.

In Shimano hubs the freehub screws in to the hub and freehub removal is an absolute chore so not worth it.

Personally I use the NBT2
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/ma...2-tool-review/
Works as a cassette lockring and as a chainwhip. Very handy.

If you try to tell me to get rid of an extremely reliable and durable hub that has quarter inch steel ball bearings and a steel axle, don't bother trying to convince me that your hub is somehow better for touring.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fa904694c4.jpg

My Rohloff certainly is OK with 32 x 2.0 spokes with locking nipples. 120 lb bike + 175 me.
My SA XL-FDD has 36 x 2.3/ 2.0. 27,000 miles and counting for a LONG time.