Wheel advice

[Bodhbh]

I've posted before regarding wheel problems on other sections of the forum, but as it seems always to happen when my bike is loaded perhaps it's worth asking here.

I've had 3 rear wheels go since I started cycling at Easter. The wheel on my Airnimal folder went first (ie noticed wheel severly untrue and all spokes had worked loose). I had probably 10-15kg in rear panniers loaded up.

Now, the rear wheel of my touring MTB has gone twice, with 4-5 spokes pinging out on first. It was fixed and trued at the LBS, took it on tour again, now I'm back took it for a ride and a couple have gone again. This is with the fully camping gear, I'm no light traveller so probably carrying around 20kg, most of that at the back. I do like to go off-road, but certainly try not to hammer about in the rough while it's loaded.

Any ideas? Wheels been this 'high-maintainance' is common on tour? I'm not sure if I've just been unlucky with badly built wheels, something with my riding, the lock thru back wheel is damaging spokes, it's multiple things like it getting a bash on the plane or what.

Tempted to buy a rear wheel made up to be bombproof, but not sure if that's just throwing money at the problem. The back wheel is 32 spokes, would a 36 spoke wheel be any stronger?

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

My limited experience is that going offroad on a loaded tourer is going to bugger up my rear wheel. In germany I hit cobblestones,potholes, tree roots etc...as well as the kerbsides on the town cycle paths...that really buggered up my wheel. In France I took a heavier load and even carried spare spokes as I was convinced I would need them...I stayed on the roads and had zero probs with my bike at all.
Another thing I always do is stand up over any bumps I see early enough, taking my body weight off the rear wheel onto the pedals for the impact.

 

[Bodhbh]

Another thing I always do is stand up over any bumps I see early enough, taking my body weight off the rear wheel onto the pedals for the impact.

Yes, I have limited adult riding experiance, but the teenage years wasted fannying about on a BMX seem to have paid off in that regard. I can bunnyhop and whatnot to take the strain off the wheels when hitting bumps and potholes!

 

[simoncc]

Always go for decent quality handbuilt rear wheels for any bike that has to carry a load. Also, make sure that panniers are equally loaded on each side, and try to sit down and pedal in quite a low gear when going uphill rather than getting up out of the saddle.

 

[domtyler]

I do a lot of hauling big weights around on my bike, I can often be found with a two year old in the child seat and fully loaded panniers on the front, combined weight of probably thirty or more kilos.

After experiencing problems with the old wheels, I had my new ones made up to order by Spa Cycles with XT hubs and Alesi Chrina rims with double butted spokes and reinforced eyelets. They are immensely strong and can carry me and my loads with ease, well worth spending a few quid extra on in my opinion.

 

[Bodhbh]

Found this when googling about, although not exactly been touring the Andes myself:

http://www.downtheroad.org/Equipment/Wheels/Bicycle_Touring_Wheels_Spokes_Rims.htm

Thanks, I think I'll have a word with one the wheelbuilders and see what they recommend. So far wheel has gone towards the end or just after long rides, sooner or later i'll let me down somewhere inconvienent at this rate. Still learning fixing stuff on the bike and don't fancy getting caught out.

 

[samid]

From your description it definitely sounds like badly built wheels. Of course, good quality rims and spokes are important, as well as more spokes (36 rather than 32) for a touring bike, but the build quality is by far - IMHO - the most important factor. E.g. "loose spokes" (as you mention in your first post) are a sure sign that the wheel was not properly built. In other words, find a good wheel builder and have him build your wheels. Of course, it may be better to find somebody local, but failing that you can go mail-order, e.g. Peter White has an impeccable reputation AFAIK, so you could check him out: http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/index.html.

 

[vernon]

In the first year or so of cyle touring, I had problems with spokes losing their tension and some of them snapping. I was a regular visitor at my LBVS getting the odd spoke replaced and the wheel retrued until I bit the bullet and had a wheel built from scratch.

My current rear wheels are Deore hubbed, Sapim Strong single butted spokes on the drive side and double butted on the non drive side with Mavic 719 rims.

The wheels stay true and I've never had a spok break. I have however had a wheel fail through a couple of spokes pulling through the rim but their again I do give my rear wheel a hard time with the surplus lard that i carry.

 

[Bodhbh]

New wheel incoming from spacycles, 36 spoke, deore xt hubs and sputnik rims, with the sapim strong spokes on the drive side. Built up today and should arrive Wednesday. Will see how it goes.

 

[friedel]

For what it's worth, we started out with very good hand built wheels and we've had precisely 1 broken spoke in some 30,000km and that spoke was damaged by a knock to the wheel so probably wouldn't have gone without that extra hit.

Obviously our wheels have been rebuilt since the start of our ride as we had to replace our rims. In Iran they were mostly rebuilt not so well but the effect for us was that they then fell out of true. In Bangkok we could get them properly rebuilt and now they're fine. We have 36 spoke wheels.

We aren't travelling lightly either. I am sure we have at least 20kg each.