Heavy Duty Wheels

[Brucey]

modern rims are often different to older designs, in particular the radial stiffness of the rim can be a lot higher. So much so in fact, that where an older wheel might support a vertical load by slackening of the bottom spokes only, in a modern wheel the rim might be so stiff the spokes at the top of the wheel may get tighter too.
So by and large, you can get away with slightly fewer spokes if you want, but you will still be bound by the law of diminishing returns. If you go belt n' braces with a stiff rim AND lots of spokes the wheel may be super strong but if spokes do start to break it will still go out of true, just not quite as much.

[Shuggie]

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m10b0s178p4 ... Rims-Black

£350 for Kinlin XR26-RTS rims with your choice of spoke count, black spokes and Bitex hubs. I think Bitex hubs are superior to the Novatec hubs reportedly used in Hunt wheels, and with Spa you are getting high quality branded components (Kinlin, Sapim and Bitex) built by their own wheelbuilders with a very good reputation. They are probably at least as good as the Hunt wheels, despite the normal price of the Hunt wheels being much higher.

Got those exact ones from Spa and also Hunt 4 Season, much prefer the former which were cheaper, and the Hunt freehubs are made of cottage cheese IMHO/IME

Hugh

Edited due to loads of emojis appearing from nowhere, must have been due to the critique of Hunt freehubs

Admin: edited to remove vast number of unwanted "emoji" codes.

[slowster]

Edited due to loads of emojis appearing from nowhere

I have seen this happen before recently, but it disappeared when I refreshed the page. I see the usual arrow in the quote which appears after "slowster wrote:" has been replaced with a URL which also contains the garbage text. I have locked the post to preserve it for analysis and sent a PM to admin to ask him to take a look at it.

[drossall]

Hi,
I need advise on buying some new wheels. I am around 95kg myself and I regularly carry a lot of stuff in my bags, up to 20kg. My current back wheel is a bit wobbly! I need some ideas of heavy duty wheels to buy. I am running Shimano 12 speed, I need thru axle with centre lock discs.
Cheers,
Dingleberry

I don't think you're unduly heavy. I'm not far off your weight, and I have a tourer on which I carry full camping kit from time to time. Its wheels were built to order by a specialist, and have never given any issue. I have also previously had spoke breakages on my racing bike, which had older "factory" wheels, and resolved that by building myself better ones.

So you need quality wheels, designed for robustness rather than lightness. Arguments here about precise spoke counts are not that useful, I'm inclined to agree, but a reliable supplier of quality cycle equipment will be better than a cheap shop. If you mention your approximate location, people may make suggestions of good shops.

If you're bothered, wheels have traditionally been built by choosing hubs, spokes and rims as separate items, and assembling them. This is true even for mass-produced wheels on bikes sold in volume. By contrast, "factory" wheels are designed as single units, with those components specifically made for assembly into those particular wheels. Many medium- and high-end bikes now come with factory wheels, which tend to have lower spoke counts. But, again, what you need is wheels of decent quality, whether traditional or factory.

[Cyclothesist]

A lot of good advice up thread. FWIW I'd recommend Spa cycles handbuilt too. Talk to them about your riding style and the bike's loaded weight, you'll get good advice and a great wheelset.

[Freeweel]

Got those exact ones from Spa and also Hunt 4 Season, much prefer the former which were cheaper, and the Hunt freehubs are made of cottage cheese IMHO/IME

Hugh

From genuine curiosity: are the hunt 4 season the same as hunt 4 season superdura??? Or a less strong variant? Interested to know, esp if you've found them weaker.

[Shuggie]

Only used the 4 Season Gravel disc ones, 2 wheelsets and had to replace the freehubs on both as the cassettes seemed to have loosened off and started to dig into the splines. Never had a problem with Shimano, Novatech, DT Swiss, Mavic or Bitex.

Think the main difference between the 4 Season and the Superdura wheelsets is that the latter is created for heavier riders with 32 rather than 28 spokes and narrower rims with narrower tyres recommended.

Just had a look at their current offerings and spares. They seem to have produced huge varieties of different wheelsets since they first started, an excellent marketing company ….. I’ll go elsewhere when I am looking for another wheelset.

Hugh

[531colin]

...............Older wheels, where 15-17mm rim width was the standard and even touring bikes rarely came with wider than 32c tyres, then yes, the "tradition" was to go for 36H instead of the usual 32H.

Traditional spoke count was 32 front and 40 rear, until bike manufacture became infected by the "need" to bring down the unit cost of components.