Interesting!

I put a pair of Mavic XC 717 wheels from Velomine on my daughter's LHT. The seem like a good wheel. I'm not sure you can still get the non-disc brake wheels. So far she has only used them for a relatively short tour, but we rode on all types of road surfaces.


Long Haul Trucker with 26" Mavic XC 717 wheels from Velomine.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...1a76ae8291.jpg

Those wheels held up to all kinds of use:)
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...364d7d9da3.jpg

+1 for Velocity brand.

Non-disc rims and wheels aren't going away anytime soon. There are too many bike still out there that use them.

I am no weight weenie, but I have noticed significant differences when running heavier tires and rims on my bikes. I also keep detailed statistics on all of my bikes and rides, with consistently slower times when I have installed heavier tires (and rims) on my bikes.

Don't feel that you have to justify you desire for lighter wheels, but remember that there are usually trade-offs when going lighter. However, there is no reason to put heavy, iron-clad wheels and tires on your bike if you aren't planning to carry heavy loads.

As others mentioned, Velomine has excellent prices on wheels. I cannot attest to their quality, however, because I've never bought from them. I recently ordered a new rear wheel for my touring bike and almost bought a wheel from Velomine but I needed 135 mm spacing and it would have been a custom order. I ended up buying a Handspun wheel through my local bike shop because they would match the prices I found on the internet. I probably would have ordered through Velomine if I had been buying an entire wheelset and was focused more on light weight.

My initial thought was why bother putting lighter wheels on a "robust" bike like a LHT.

Agree, I was talking about the availability at Velomine's sale price.

Looks like they are available but sold out MAVIC XC 717 SSC SILVER SHIMANO XT HUBS 26" V BRAKE MTB WHEELSET

Seems like a very good choice for the LHT.

I have two sets of wheels for my 700c LHT. A pair of heavy touring wheels with A719 rims and 37mm wide tires, other wheels have a cheap rim (I do not recall which) and some narrow supple high pressure 28mm tires. Both wheels use the same 11/32 cassette. The lighter weight wheels and tires feel really fast compared to the heavier wheels when the bike is unladen, but when I get home from a ride the lighter weight wheels only trim maybe 3 percent off of my total time. In this case, perception of increased speed is much bigger than actual measurement.

+1 for the Aeroheats with the caveat of watch your tire pressures.
The wider the tire (bigger volume) the less pressure you need.
Chucking 50+ psi into 2 inch tires can be asking for trouble (IMHO - and its just an opinion)
I love my Dyads which is the 700c extrusion (version) of the Aeroheat.

I went with the Dyads and Sapim CX-rays in an attempt to slightly mitigate the extra weight of my rear IGH and front dynohub.
They've now done a couple of thousand clicks and given no trouble.
The only thing I'd go back and change if I was a time traveller would be my spoke nipples.
I've read that alloy nipples, which I've got, often seize after time, so wish I'd had the knowledge to go for brass.

I went with 36 spokes and my Surly Ogre has disk brakes.

26" road wheels are common on recumbents; choices are out there. I asked my LBS to build some strong 26" wheels for my randonneuring 'bent, and I'm very pleased with the results. Hubs are Deore, rims I don't recall... they were NOS with machined sidewalls. I think if a shop didn't have a wheel builder in house, I'd probably be finding another shop.

Peter White will build wheels to order; I've not ordered from him but he has a reputation for quality.

I assume the LHT has road spacing; that's something you want to get right.

Tire pressure would depend on the tire. I regularly pump mountain bike tires (2.1" to 2.3") to 60 or 70psi for road riding without issues.

And which tire to use would depend on the application. For road riding, there is no need nor advantage to carrying around the extra weight of a 2" tire. Even for smooth dirt or rail trail, there is little advantage to a 2" tire. If you really need a 2" tire for the flotation, you should probably consider a different bike for the trip.

I read a few reports of Dyad extrusion rims splitting and the common denominator (correlation not necessarily cause) seemed to be tire pressure of 50+psi and hi volume tires (2 inch +).



I concur

26 Inch Wheelsets Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike

I have purchased 2 wheel sets from them and be happy

Performance Bike or Universal Cycles (can't remember which it is) will hand-build your wheelset and ship it to you. I called them, and spoke with them for 1/2 an hour before we settled together on the best pair of wheels for my purposes. I ended up getting Mavic 719 rims, 32 front 36 rear, XT front hub and Ultegra rear hub, brass nipples and good spokes. Would I have found any of these options without that phone call? Likely not...


So, call them!

VERY interesting. I'll keep this in mind when I'm ready to buy new wheels for my 55mm Big Apples. I had planned to go with Dyad's or their 26" version due to very good results with my 700c Dyad wheels.

Don't let that put you off.
At the time, Velocity was situated in Australia, with it now having moved to the US.
There was at the time, enough reports to make me think there might have been a bad (Australian) batch, although importantly, Velocity quickly came to the party with replacements.
Their service was reported to be so good in this respect, it sealed the deal for my purchase decision.
I liked the Dyads so much, having had Aeroheats previously, I imported them here to Aus via Jenson.
I like the Big Apples, owning some 2.35 versions but to big and ponderous for touring on (IMHO) and I find 30psi more than ample for my 94kg.
I use the Big Apples for local riding, but for any distance road work a pair of Supremes gets put on and for mixed surface touring my preference is for some Mondials.

Yeah, I got stuck in that bad batch thing twice with aeroheads, but Velocity shipped out replacements same-day. The current replacement has about 50,000 miles with no signs of woe (the defective ones failed within 5000 miles). They seem like a reputable company that puts out good products that they stand behind. I'm okay with occasional failures of products, as long as I don't have to deal with a failed customer service too.

I'm glad you found what you needed. Of course hand-built wheels are available in any configuration you can dream up. My point was that there are limited off-the-shelf options for 26“ touring wheels for rim brakes in the US. In fact, all of the shops I visited advised me to go custom because they couldn't get anything like what I wanted pre-made. I was looking for wheels for an old 90's mountain bike turned commuter, so I didn't want to spring for custom wheels. I ended up getting a set of XT/XM719 wheels from a German retailer for about 200 bucks.


Curious how you arrived at the XT front /ultegra rear. Why not matching ultegra?

No, you misunderstand me. I chose all of the wheel components and they hand-built them. YOu can choose your 26" rims, your hubs, and your spokes and they will put them together! It only cost like $50.

But yes, if you're saying off-the-shelf is limited, you're right. But, with the power of the internet, the shelf is a lot bigger. Getting custom wheels made is not too much trouble, even if there are no wheelbuilders nearby.

At the time, I had a Raleigh touring bike and I wrecked the front fork. I replaced it with a Surly fork. So, I had spacing for an XT hub in the front, but not in the back- that had to be Ultegra. At that time, the bike was disc in the front and cantilever in the back. Really great bike.

Raleigh ended up replacing that frame for me with one that had 135mm spacing, so now I have two XT hubs.

I've been reading a bike touring journal (A Father and Daughter Tour Around the World) and after 3,285 miles (5,287 km), their Mavic rims were shot and they had wheels built for them using Rigida 36-hole rims with XT hubs and DT Swiss double-butted spokes.

I get it that you can order custom wheels in whatever configuration you want from dozens of places on the internet. I was just sharing my experience that it was a gigantic waste of time talking to my local bike shop guys about touring wheels. I'm glad others have had better experiences.

Interesting about the disc front/caliper back configuration. Sounds like a neat setup.

note the different labor strength Organized in unions , so they get Paid holidays of 4 weeks , and so have more time to travel .

Are you stuck on 26" wheels? My main road/dirt ride is shod with Pacenti 650b rims and XT rear hub. Pretty light, especially when coupled with 650 x 42 Grand Bois Hetre tires. So plush and light. I know people with LHT's have successfully used 650b wheels, as long as your brakes allow for the adjustment.

If not, I'd probably go Velocity A23's to XT hubs. My wife has a Disc Trucker and currently rides on Soma Xpress 26 x 1.75 tires. They're less supple and weigh more than the Grand Bois tires, but not bad. Compass makes these tires, but I have no personal experience:

http://www.compasscycle.com/tires_comp_26_175.html

Don't skimp on the tires. They make a huge difference. If I were choosing between the wheel sizes, I would go 650b for the tire choice alone.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6...e749d213_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7...bc1574de_h.jpg

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