HMF

Hey y'all, I usually spend most of my time in the Road forum but I've always wanted to do a tour. I recently bought a pair of sweet low-spoke-count wheels from Psimet (wheelbuilder in the Road forum) and they're pretty awesome. That got me wondering though, where do tourers go for their wheels? I assume they should be really strong rims (I'm unfamiliar with the different cross-sections and which is best) with high spoke count, but I was blown away by what a difference lightweight wheels make, and so I'd like to keep it light as well. Maybe I'm asking for too much, but do you have any suggestions?

I weight 142lbs and would probably tour totally unsupported.

cyccommute 

Rims really aren't where the strength of the wheel lies. The spokes do all the heavy lifting but the rims get all the credit.

I build my own wheels. I do that partly because it makes me a hit with the ladies, partly because it's the sign of a truly great mechanic, partly because I like to do it but mostly I build my own wheels because it's the only way to get what I want in a wheel at a reasonable price. 'Reasonable price' is subjective, however. My last set of wheels...White Industry hubs, Alpine III spokes and Velocity rims...cost me $500+. I could do it cheaper but I had a specific look in mind. It's not a touring bike but a little bike porn never hurts

Carbonfiberboy 

Build my own. A zillion options and everyone has a different opinion. You want nice, CK hubs, DT double butted spokes, Open Pro Ceramic rims. 28c max tire on those rims. Last you a very long time. Rims like those will tour fine at your weight, especially if you go light. 32H, 3 cross. At your weight, you could tour fine on boutique wheels for that matter. Just keep it under 30 lbs.

safariofthemind

You are pretty light so that helps. Assuming a bike weight of 30 lbs with racks plus 50 lbs of equipment and supplies, your package load is about 230. Any well built wheel can take that. Consider however that on descents your rims take a real beating from the extended braking on canti/v-brake type brakes. You want nice strength rather than light weight. It's always going to be a tradeoff between durability and weight.

safariofthemind

A little off topic, but that's a beautiful frame and rear rack combination.

fietsbob

I build them,
It is a big advantage to have the wheelbuilder under your hat, on a bike tour should you need to replace a spoke on the road.

For Touring a wheel with a 700c 32 to 38 wide tire is about the norm, and have a proven history.

low spoke count wheels go Way out, when 1 spoke lets go, with more spokes the % of the rim that they control is smaller.

a 32 front and a 36 spoke rear is a good combination for a durable touring wheelset with a light gear load..

Lots of hub and rim combos to pick from in that spec. Shimano Ultegra hubs will get the job done, if you have Shimano for the Brifters and such.

Mavic makes a quality touring rim , but Sun CR 18 will get the job done for half the money.

sstorkel

I built my own touring wheels, too. Though I also have a set of Psimet wheels on my road bike and wouldn't hesitate to let him build a set of touring wheels. In my case, I wanted a very specific set of features that weren't available from most wheel builders. I also had time and budget constraints, so when I found the hubs and rims I needed available for 50% off MSRP, attempting to build my own wheels seemed like a natural idea. Having built a set, I'm now much more confident in my ability to diagnose and repair any problems that might show up...

surfjimc

I usually build my own wheels. If I were going to buy a set of bullet proof touring wheels though, I would get them from Peter White Cycles. Two other places you might look for touring specific wheels are Velo Orange and Harris Cyclery.

Sixty Fiver

I build my own and have been building wheels for other folks for quite a number of years... working with a builder who makes custom hubs as well as custom frames means I am building more and more tandem wheels of late.

Garthr

I pay Joe Young www.youngwheels.com to build them, because he can do a better job than I can. 11 years on the first set, as true and round as the day I bought them. The second set I got this summer. Mavic A719 rims, 36 DT DB spokes and Phil Wood FW hubs. I'm 170 lbs. I like wider rims, 24mm so I can use up to 50mm tires. Even 29ers.

First decide on the size of tires, then choose the rims from there.

Loaded Touring and "lightweight wheels" generally don't go together.

cyclist2000

I build my own. I get the wheels that I want and only have one person to blame if it is a bad build.

HMF

Ok cool, so it looks like I should build my own. I've never done that before but I've always wanted to. So all I would need are rims, nipples, spokes, hubs, and tools.

As far as hubs go, are there options somewhere between Ultegra/Deore XT and Phil Wood? CK and Phil Wood are pretty bling, maybe a little too bling. Not trying to be cheap, but I also don't need a Ferrari.

sstorkel

You may want to use some sort of spoke prep. And you'll need rim tape at some point.

If you don't already have the tools and don't plan to build a lot of wheels, you'd probably save yourself quite a bit of money by going back to Psimet. By the time you buy a truing stand, tension meter, dish stick, and spoke wrench you'll have quite a bit of money in tools. Experienced wheel builders will tell you that you don't need all these tools. As an inexperienced wheel builder, I'll tell you that they make your life a lot easier and may lead to a more reliable wheel.

You may also find that you have to spend a long time shopping for parts before you can find prices that are comparable to what a professional wheel builder will pay. When I've priced road wheels, for example, I find that the components alone usually cost me more than a complete wheelset from Bicycle Wheel Warehouse.

Unless you're planning to ride around the planet, my guess is you don't need anything better than Ultegra/XT...

gorshkov

I don't know the bike shops in Austin, but it seems like a city that would have at least one bike shop that employs a good wheelbuilder. Before I started building my own wheels, I generally got wheels from an LBS in Seattle.

If there is a bike co-op or something like that in your area, you might become a member; that is what I do; it saves me a lot of money on tools, and it put me in contact with other DIY-type mechanics who can give useful advice.

Garthr

Any monkey can build a set of wheels. It takes a skilled monkey to build them to "stand". Meaning they stay true and round from the moment you're finished. Yes, this is a high goal, one that I didn't know existed until I got a set that did just that.

I know, lots of folks build their own wheels, so don't take offense anyone. How good they are only matters to that individual. Some people like messing with them , some do not. There's room for professional builders ,and DIY'ers.

Wheelbuilding may or may not be for you dmalvarado, the only way is to try for yourself.

Velocity makes some 135mm hubs, Peter White sells them for $170 a pair. But for that price you may as well the $250 White Industry ones. Cartridge bearings are so much easier to live with than cup/cones. They can last indefinitely too.

HMF

Yea we do have a coop here that I could go to for the truing stand and tensionometer. I'm not sure if they have the dish stick or not though, but most likely. They even have a whole ton of spokes of all different lengths, but not sure about the butting or the material. I bought linseed oil a while ago for one spoke that I had to replace, so I have a ton of that too. I think I just might be able to do this, and save a ton of money.

Carbonfiberboy 

You have to have a tension meter, but the Park meter is inexpensive. You already have a spoke wrench. You don't need a stand or dishing tool, because you can do all that on the bike by flipping the wheel 180° and using your brake pads as a gauge. After all, you'll be truing those wheels out on the road somewhere, and that's how you'll do it there. It takes a few minutes longer without the fancy stuff, but that's it. Big deal for a pro who's building wheels for a competitive price, no big deal for you.

It's true you can buy wheels built for the cost of the components, sometimes less. But those aren't handbuilt wheels. OTOH, you could buy the wheels and a tension meter. Get them home, de-tension them and redo. The worst part of building wheels is getting the spokes woven and nipples on. The tensioning is quite fun. Though with the OTOH plan, you'd be relying on the builder to have used some sort of spoke prep, you hope. . . I use marine anti-seize, works well for me.

fietsbob

yea a machine built wheel of conventional lacing can be de tensioned , and hand re tensioned again to suit.
and even take the nipples off one at a time to put some anti seize on the threads of the spoke is not that much more effort.

assume a machine built wheel will be assembled dry.

Sixty Fiver

I have had to work on a lot of wheels built by monkeys and have almost no faith in any off the shelf wheel unless it is a very high end one and guaranteed to have been hand tuned.

I have taught a lot of people how to build their own wheels and in doing this they really appreciate what goes into making a good wheel.

I guarantee my wheel builds forever... and short of peple wearing out their rims have only had one wheel returned... because it got run over by a truck.

I couldn't do anything with that one...

Barrettscv 

Next month Psimet will be building a 32 spoke Velocity A23/Shimano hub wheelset for me. The wheelset will go on my cyclocross bike, I'm 210 lbs. The rim is 23 mm wide and will work well as an aero road rim with 23x700 tires or as a touring rim with wider tires. See https://www.velocityusa.com/default.asp?contentID=746

Considering your weight, you should have no problem with almost any well-made 32 spoke wheelset. I would talk with Psimet, the price was a bargain for a hand-built wheelset.

sstorkel

Says who?

Bicycle Wheel Warehouse hand-builds their wheels. They buy in bulk, so their prices for built wheels are almost always lower than what it would cost me to buy components. I've purchased a set of wheels from them and been very impressed with the quality of the wheels I received.

My Psimet PowerTap wheelset was also hand-built. I bought the entire wheelset for about $100 more than what I would have paid for the hub itself! Even waiting around and shopping on eBay, I'd have been hard-pressed to match that price for the components...

gerv 

For those of us who don't have the skills to build a wheel, I would think there are some very reasonable sources like sstorkel's.

As well, it might be a great way to get into wheel building. I started by learning to true and tension factory-built wheels. I have a pair of straight-gauge spoked, factory built, plain Jane wheels that have been in use for 5 years...

But I have nursed them along too.

Having said all that, I'm not sure that my particular wheel building skills are superior to many factory build wheels. But I do build them and am able to nurse them along too.

Perhaps that's part of the learning curve...

AsanaCycles

I like it... its purdy!

cyccommute 

It one of the few bikes of mine that actually has a name. His name is Phil...Phil Silvers. Actually it's Phil III since he's the third one of these I've had. Phil I was stolen and Phil II was broken.

NoReg

I think the thing about this thread is that it is just bringing out all the wheelbuilders. There are plenty of people who tour and don't build their own wheels. You need good wheels. The way I would go about it (I build my own also), is either go to a big name like Peter White, or find a local shop that builds durable wheels. From my experience, the best places are places that build for couriers, utilities, or tourists. Racers or MTB oriented shops have different orientations. Though the basics are the same, just so long as they don't bring the wrong perspectives to wheel component selections. Speaking of which:

There is little advantage to shaving a few spokes. First, it doesn't save overall weight if you have to pack on weight in the rims. But it also doesn't have the same value as a primary criterion. Weight always maters, it just doesn't come first on the list in touring. Basic facts are if at the end of the day you had to pedal an extra few minutes it doesn't mater, particularly if you are some hotshot racer. But if you reach the end of the day with a repair in hand, that's different. It also pays to buy stuff that is easy to fix, and doesn't require carrying more weight in tools than you might have to. Though wheels are pretty basic as far as that is concerned.

Phils are still the best, but sturdy shimano works, and White Ind hubs are really pretty, and economical compared to Phills where cassette hubs are concerned.