Hi, all. I seek counsel. I weigh about 250 lbs. I often carry 10-15 lbs on a rear rack. I ride a Trek hybrid, sitting bolt-upright. (By the way, this Trek is about as Riv'd up as any Trek could be. Actual Riv relevance: Later this year I'll also be riding a Hillborne and any counsel I receive will apply to it for sure; maybe/maybe-not for the Trek. Also, the riding I do is very much non-clubby, non-race-y, and non-trivial in distance; this seems to match up with Riv philosophy and thus seems appropriate for this group.) I use 700x35 tires on 32- or 36-spoke wheels at about 60 psi. I ride 70-100 miles/week 12 months a year (I bet that'll rise when I get the Hillborne), over half on limestone trail. I'm actually pretty easy on the bike in general, avoiding obstacles/rough path where practical, lifting the wheel and slowing down when I don't avoid the hazard.
My problem is that I haven't gotten more than 1000 miles on any rear wheel without complete failure (cracked hub, bent axle) or the need for repair (hub overhaul, multiple spoke breakage, rim *way* out-of- true-or-round). The wheels I've used include some cheapies and some good ones. Some were better to use than others. But all were okay to use (until they failed :( ). More wheel details later. My preliminary question is: should I simply expect to have these problems every thousand (or two) miles? That is, will I likely have problems like these at that rate no matter *what* wheel I have? If so, then my plan will likely be to go for a value proposition instead of a reliability one. That is, I'll settle with a cheap wheel, always having a backup, knowing that I'll have to replace/repair/adjust more often than I'd like. That'd be okay, I guess... though it seems wrong in some profound way; after all, I've literally never *had* to replace any of my non-Pasela tires. I've put at least 3000 miles on my most recent set and still *could* use the originals the Trek came with. (I went through 4 Paselas in short order, with all of them failing in the same way with a sidewall eruption. Too bad. I liked the gum sidewall look.) However, if these wheel problems are avoidable (yes, yes... I know... losing 80-90 pounds would go a long way; let's assume that's not happening short-term), what kind of wheel will avoid them? Wheels I've used thus far include: --- Shimano RM60 (Alivio-ish?) hub / 32 2|1.8|2mm spokes / cheapish Alex rim - lasted about 1000 miles before breaking spokes, eventually on 3 rides in a row --- 105 hub / 36 2mm spokes / Sun CR18 rim - lasted maybe a little over 1000 miles before 4 holes-worth of drive-side hub snapped off of the hub body --- Deore hub / 32 2mm spokes / Sun CR18 rim - lasted maybe 400 miles before breaking spokes on 3 or 4 rides in a row (had 2 of these on the the theory that the first one was not "prepped" properly... 2nd one was no different with "prep") - eventually I bent an axle on one of these, the other one (having been re-laced and re-trued and overhauled) is now my snow/ice wheel and will see little mileage --- XT hub / 36 2|1.7|2mm spokes / Velocity Synergy OC rim - lasted around 1000 miles before periodic ka-tink ka-tink noise appeared in the hub; am currently looking into whether this is a fatal problem or simply a maintenance issue Now, if the current XT-hubbed wheel's problems turn out to be readily solvable (adjustment of bearings, regreasing, something like that) then I'm happy to stay with this kind of wheel. The spokes seem to maintain tension reasonably well and the rim has only minor touch-up every few hundred miles to keep it very true and round. I like the fact that the drive-side spokes are not *that* much more tight than the non-drive side because of the asymmetry. However, if it turns out that it *is* a fatal or unacceptably-severe problem (and surely one can appreciate my pessimism on this matter), I wonder: What sort of wheel do I need? I don't want to needlessly ride a wheel with 48 spokes and a 3 pound hub (exaggerating, perhaps... but still... you get the point). But I will ride a 48-spoke-3-pound-hub-wheel if that's the only way to avoid these problems. Nor do I want to pay $500+ if a $200 wheel will give me a reasonable level of reliability with reasonable ride quality. Let's assume for argument's sake that I would be willing to go for the $500+ wheel if it would be expected to simply work (and work well, of course) for 1000s of miles with only normal maintenance-type service. Help? Thoughts? Musings? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
