Survey: Spoke count & durability. Do 28 spokes (or less) hold up?

BergMann

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Joined Jan 10, 2007

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47 Posts

Discussion starter · #21 · Apr 11, 2015

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Your assumptions speak volumes about your riding, but very little about your gear, much less mine. I don't know anyone who would count 1000mi as a cycling season on the road. Twice a week at 30mi = 3000+ a year. That's a fair assumption for a "year" for a casual cyclist.
Everyone I ride with on the road puts in well north of 5,000 miles in a season. We do long miles in the Sierra foothills on rough roads. Descending on fissured asphalt at 50mph is not kind to rims. In my collegiate & pro-am racing days I regularly put in 10k+ a year. Try & get through a season like that without killing a set of wheels, much less getting acquainted w/ a spoke wrench.
I've been riding bleeding-edge custom road & mtb wheels built by the best wheelbuilders in the industry for 30yrs now, & if you're pushing the envelope of performance & weight, there will be *regular* maintenance.
Building light & riding heavy, a year is a *long* time to go without truing on the road.
If you want to extend that interval, build heavier, or ride less.

 

BergMann

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Joined Jan 10, 2007

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47 Posts

Discussion starter · #22 · Apr 11, 2015

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@LeDuke - Sounds like you have at least achieved a zen of "don't worry be happy" w/ your gear. Good on ya.
I'm pretty fussy about keeping my stuff in tune, and as a former endurance racer, I come from a background of running lightweight, high-performance components that tend to need regular maintenance to perform their best.
Over the years I've grown tired of investing time that could be spent riding on bike maintenance, so my latest trail bike was built to be "everyday tough" - I wanted a spec that would survive the hits of Mr. Toads in Tahoe or HiLine in Sedona without a shrug.
Which leads to my impetus for starting this thread: my surprise at having killed an all-mountain wheel build that was almost as heavy as your Havocs (~1800g) in such short order.
It's good to hear that Easton's burlier MTB wheels hold up well. Easton acquired their wheelbuilding tech by buying Velomax, and I've had good luck with Velomax in years past.

 

Le Duke

· Formerly of Kent

Joined Mar 23, 2009

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14,627 Posts

#23 · Apr 11, 2015

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My biggest year on the bike, mostly on the road, was almost 17,000 mi, as a CAT1 racer, training and racing.

I did most of my training on a set of 20+ year old Wolber Profil 18s, on DA 7500 hubs, 32h/3x, with Vittoria and Bontrager tubulars supplied by my team. I weigh 143lbs, ride smooth and fast. Without tires, sub-1500g wheels.

My current MTB wheels, that I've had for 4 or 5 years now, are ENVE XC clinchers. Amazing, really. My current road wheels are cheap Chinese Carbon clinchers on no name disc hubs. Will probably be relacing those to XTR or the like soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

AndrwSwitch

· Fat-tired Roadie

Joined Nov 8, 2007

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18,476 Posts

#24 · Apr 11, 2015

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Saber rattling about road miles on this forum has a certain sense of irony to me.

My personal reaction to Easton Havocs doing well is "those must be some heavy-ass rims." The 24-spoke wheels I didn't like were Easton XC. Still kinda heavy, I think, but not enough to make up for their spoke count. As long as it takes a heavier rim to make a low spoke count work, I think that's moving in the wrong direction.

I do wonder about the effect of carbon composite rims on the picture, though. Sometimes, it's not practical to make something lighter anymore but it's still overbuilt for purpose. If that applies to CFRP rims, why not use fewer spokes.