How long will my wheels last before I break them?

Trickyupnorth

This past week I've been commuting on my Trek 1.7 for a change, instead of my hybrid which has big tyres.

I've noticed just about every little bump and pothole, some of which seemed to be massive. My questions are, what damage are they doing to my wheels, will my wheels become disfigured because of the battering they take, or will they take quite a lot of abuse?

The wheels are 'Bontrager SSR' if that matters.

Thanks

Richie

fizz

You'd be surprised at the pounding wheels will take before they sustain any damage. Its hard to put a time on how long the last it depends on the roads you regularly ride, how heavy you are etc etc.

Nick6891

your wheel will stay round unless you break your spokes, the more stick you give them the more the spokes are likely to break

trickeyja

Sounds from the title like you're planning to break them :-)

Well all I can add is that over the last 6 weeks I have taken my Allez Elite over 900 miles of road including a fair amount of rough terrain on country roads and have only had to pump my tyres up once... I haven't had any trouble with the wheels themselves either.

JF

you'll probably break your wheels in an accident or ruin the bearings before the potholes do any damage to them. That is waht usually happen to mine. I got cheap alexrims r450 and still put 4000 km on them before an accident.

JWSurrey

Banging through potholes may make them go out of true slightly, however mine take a lot of abuse and although the rear wheel (a Campag. one) went out of true by a couple of mm, what finally did for them was the rims wearing out / thin due to the extra grit/grinding they get in the wet winter months.
i.e. As mentioned above - modern factory wheels are pretty robust.
IMHO, they are more prone to going out of true due to the high tension and low spoke count.
(I now use handbuilts with 32 spokes).

Trickyupnorth

Thanks for the replies. Set my mind at rest anyway.

It's just that when I'm on my hybrid, which has big fat 38mm Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres on it, you notice the potholes etc but not to a great extent.

Then when I'm on my road bike I tend to notice the absolutely awful state of the roads a lot more, cos I feel every little bump and knock. Just got me thinking that they would smash with all the abuse they were taking :evil:

Cheers

Richie

ColinJ

I did manage to break some spokes on an old Claud Butler that I bought second-hand but the wheels were pretty awful to start with.

On my other road bikes over the past 20 years, I've done well over 50,000 miles and have not had any problems with the actual wheels. Tyres, are a different matter... :shock: .

Most of those miles have been done on 23c tyres. Perhaps 5% on 25c. I have weighed between 11 stone and over 16 stone in that time so I'm not light, BUT... I 'ride light' i.e. I watch out for potholes and debris and go round them or bunnyhop over them. It's extremely rare that I actually hit them. Number one suggestion - watch where you are going .

Number 2 suggestion - if you are going over something really rough such as a cattle grid, raise yourself out of the saddle and bend your knees and elbows. Your arms and legs will act as shock absorbers and allow your bike to move about beneath you.

Number 3 suggestion - choose the right tyre pressures, neither too high, nor too low. Too high and you and your bike will get battered on rough roads. The people who suggest 120 psi must be riding around on ultra-smooth roads. I wouldn't last 10 minutes on the grotty road surfaces here in West Yorkshire. I use about 95-100 psi rear, and 85-90 psi front (you can get away with about 10 psi less front because more of your weight is on the back tyre). If you go too low, you will think that you have punctured because the bike will feel sluggish, and you will probably end getting more punctures, and possibly damaged rims.

ride_whenever

If you're worried get them re-trued and tensioned by a good bike shop. My cpx22 on tiagra hubs were going a bit wobbly, turns out the tensions were fairly uneven. Got them redone and they're bombproof. No wobbles even hopping down kerbs etc.

However I've now dented the rim falling in the river, so new wheels for me...

Paulzoom

I'm considering the Boardman Urban comp bike which has the following wheels
DDM-1 disc specific, double wall, 32H rims

Are these the sort of rims you are discussing here there look like racing bike wheels to me. I will mostly be on t road but will inevitably do xsome off road - tow path etc stuff. will these be OK?

Thanks - Paul

musttriharder

I remember trying to bunny hop a 1 meter wide pothole which I only saw at the last minute whilst bombing down hill in a group, the back wheel didn't quite clear the pothole, the inner tube blew but the wheel and carbon frame didn't suffer any apparent damage. I think wheels are a lot stronger than we give them credit for.

BUICK

I hit a pothole on my way home in the dark a month or so ago. Only saw the hole at the last minute - managed to hoist the front wheel but clipped the back wheel. It was knocked way out of true although no spokes were broken, the rim itself was visually bent. For the record this was on a 'cross bike wearing some pretty wide rubber.

scherrit

I've build wheels that have been raced over cobbles and stayed straight..... the start of a happy relationship with wheels is getting the right prescription from a good advisor- so that's mates, forums, LBS or wheel builder.

If you go for handbuilt and they have been well prescribed and well built, you should have years of faithfull service. Ditto the right machine built for the application.

Two possible longer term issues with the Bontys...... will you be able to get a replacement rim (is this one of the paired spoke rims?) and when the freehub pops, will you be able to get a new one?