Recommendation for strongest rear wheel

[hubgearfreak]

Rear wheels by John Fowler & Co are fairly strong.....

mere trifles when compared to rustons, and to think a yellow belly recommending fowlers

[Raph]

Rustons? Yes, that's definitely what I'm after

I definitely would not use a 130mm OLN road hub for this type of application.

Neither would I ... the existing 130 hub was a temporary measure when I first got the frame (which is for 135), that was 15 years ago - time I got it sorted!

What I wonder about dishing is whether exact symmetry is massively or only slightly better than simply avoiding extremes of dishing. Not all stresses will affect both sides equally anyway so maybe exact symmetry is irrelevant... ?

I might just go for a 40h 135mm hub with a Sputnik as recommended. That's three improvements on what I'm using now.

[531colin]

Oddly enough just seen an Email from a customer who did 5000 kilometers in Africa on a set of sputnik/deore 36 spoke wheels with no problems.

If the "wrong" wheel has lasted 15 years, is it possible you are worrying unduly about the new one?

Tensions on a 135mm 9speed wheel are 120Kg and 80Kg, partially compensated by thicker spokes driveside. As I said above, 36 spokes all at the same tension sounds better to me than 20 tight and 20 living the life of Riley, but if a standard wheel will do 5000K, in Africa, its probably good enough.

[pete75]

Rear wheels by John Fowler & Co are fairly strong.....

mere trifles when compared to rustons, and to think a yellow belly recommending fowlers

Well Fowlers were bought by Marshalls of Gainsborough so.......

Tis odd though all those traction engine makers in Lincoln right in the centre of the countries leading agricultural county yet it was Fowlers from Leeds who were the biggest makers of ploughing sets.

[hubgearfreak]

yet it was Fowlers from Leeds who were the biggest makers of ploughing sets.

yes, odd. i've driven this one, it's a devil to steer

[irc]

I have to build an ultimate nuke-proof rear wheel for a bike that carries big loads, I often pile it up with kids' school stuff, everyone's locks, piles of stuff to take to the dump etc...

Another voice in the choir here for Spa Cycles 36 spoke Sputniks. I broke a few spokes on the original equipment wheels on my last tourer - a Dawes Galaxy. So when I built my next bike from a frame/fork I wanted strong wheels.

My current bike has a Sputknik rear wheel. It did over 10'000 miles loaded touring before needing any trueing. Last week I tightened a few spokes to correct a spot where it had gone a few mm out side to side. My weight varys from 14-16 stone and most of those touring miles were with a 40 pound load including food and water.

So unless the bike wil be regularly carrying rider and load weights well in excess of 20 stone I think a 36 hole Sputnik will do the job. And at a reasonable price as well. Why spend more?

[Mick F]

Not wishing to put a damper on it, but ......... Rigida?
http://rigida.com

I believe they've packed their bags and gone. Any stock in the warehouses will eventually run out.

[irc]

Not wishing to put a damper on it, but ......... Rigida?
http://rigida.com

I believe they've packed their bags and gone. Any stock in the warehouses will eventually run out.

You had me worried for a minute. Looks like a takeover though with production continuing. I expect there may be issues with the website because of this.

http://www.bike-eu.com/news/belgian-hol ... -5453.html

[willem jongman]

Sputniks are now called Exal SP19
Willem

[BigG]

So, for the strongest wheel this side of silly money you need a NOS 7 speed XT hub with 36 holes. 7 speed cassettes are narrower, so with a real 7 speed hub you need less dish. By the way, 30 mm tyres are really too narrow for heavy loads.
Willem

Yes, a 7 speed 135mm freehub gives a sensible dish, You could drop off some sprockets and fill up on spacers if needed, to keep 9 speed sprocket spacing.
I haven't got anything posher than Alivio, though.

Why not remove just one sprocket (and its spacer) from a 9 speed cassette. It will then fit a 7 speed freehub without problems and of course still work with 9 speed levers. If it is the smallest sprocket you remove, this avoids breaking the cassette rivets but means that you will have to remove the top two sprockets and replace them with a single top sprocket with its integral spacer. I have very successfully done this with a 12/36 9 speed cassette reduced to a 14/36 8 speed one with a new 14 tooth top sprocket bought from eBay (mtb tools in the USA). Alternatively, you could just remove the largest sprocket.

[531colin]

Brilliant! I've never tried that.

[RJC]

I've swapped Shimano freehubs between hubs a couple of times. They seem to be generally compatible between hubs but the sealing ring
seems to be specific to the hub so you might need to swap this between freehubs. Morningstar used to make a J tool for removing
this seal ring but it isn't available any more. I made my own from a 4" nail which made the job much easier:

N.b. The nail was impossible to file/cut until I heated it up on a red hot electric ring to anneal it.

I also discovered 28mm o.d. pipe is the ideal size for pushing the seal ring into place. Unless you have
some lying around the cheapest source I found was a 28mm end feed reducer:
Wickes 28mm adapters
Cut this down so the seal ring is at the correct level when the bit of copper pipe pushing the seal ring is flush with the top of the freehub.

[Mick F]

Not wishing to put a damper on it, but ......... Rigida?
I believe they've packed their bags and gone. Any stock in the warehouses will eventually run out.

You had me worried for a minute. Looks like a takeover though with production continuing. I expect there may be issues with the website because of this.

Great news.
It looks as though my earlier comments on other threads are "old news".

It doesn't get away from the problems with Rigida rims in stock and supplied at the moment. Some rims seem to vary in quality and diameter. Until I hear that Rigida get their act together, I will not recommend them or even buy them.

Check out the many comments made by me and others about Rigida during this year.
Time will tell.

[andyh2]

You could consider a trials single speed cassette hub. I think they can usually take 5 or 6 sprockets out of a 8 or 9 speed cassette. eg http://www.hopegb.com/voir_rhpr36btr.html

Not a cheap option, but would build a non-dished wheel. Probably safe to assume the hub is plenty strong since it's designed for people to bounce up and down on and land from leaping tall buildings.

Plus, as it's a 6 bolt disc hub you could add a bolt on fixed sprocket to use as a get you home in the case of free hub and/or rear mech failure. Or you might even just fancy riding it fixed now and again, even if it's just to remind yourself of why you like freewheels and gears

[PW]

Careful with swapping freehubs. The old XT and the Deore were slightly different at the back, the Deore rubs on an XT shell unless you breathe on it with a file. There are also slight clearance problems with LX drive side cones on an old type XT freehub. The spacers need thinning fractionally. Left hand side is no bother.
These are all solvable with a bit of effort, just beware they aren't a dead fit.