Road Bike Wheel Vs Hybrid Wheel

gb155

Right so I have this 100% in my head and dont waste my (potential) monies (its all the 1p's and 2p's from cousin benson)

I have a Scott Sub Classic with 700c Wheels, I also want a road bike, Am I right in assuming they use (pretty much) the same type of 700c wheels (I know no 2 are the same) The ones on the Scott are double butted, deep rims, Means nowt, I assume that adds strenght ?

I have rode around 200-300 miles on the Scott already and the rear wheel is a LITTLE out of true (nothing worse than my Giant after 1000 miles) so when looking for a road bike, I look for double but, deep rims ? ....or is there something im missing ?

biondino

Double butted means the spoke is two different widths down its length, depe nding on where the stresses occur. It's a more efficient design. Deep rims look flash and have marginal aero benefits when ridden quickly, but as far as I know they don't make a wheel stronger? Stiffer maybe?

I think what you do is simply ask the retailer to recommend to a pair of very strong wheels, probably 36-spoke, with bombproof hubs and rims. You could always check with us what they recommend.

gb155

biondino wrote:

Double butted means the spoke is two different widths down its length, depe nding on where the stresses occur. It's a more efficient design. Deep rims look flash and have marginal aero benefits when ridden quickly, but as far as I know they don't make a wheel stronger? Stiffer maybe?

I think what you do is simply ask the retailer to recommend to a pair of very strong wheels, probably 36-spoke, with bombproof hubs and rims. You could always check with us what they recommend.

Cheers Bio

Hummmmm, I asked the guy in Evans, "Me Fat. This bike strong" ? when buying the Scott, The answer "Hummmmmmm strong bikes !" I took the risk with it being an American "pitched" bike, Without wanting to say "all americans are fat" but you know where im coming from.
Guess my main worry is a lot of shops just say "yes" to get the sale.

desweller

Hollow section rims will be slightly stronger than conventional section rims, but the difference will not be large. However, the majority of a wheel's strength comes from the spokes, so more = better in this area.

The reason for this (simply put) is that the required tensile load to maintain a wheel's shape is fixed (as the weight of yourself and the bike is fixed), so if you spread the load amongst more spokes, the stress on each spoke can be reduced and more redundancy can be built into the wheel.

As a general rule I would have thought that the wheels supplied on most new road bikes were not built with ultimate strength in mind, as lots of spokes are not sexy. Wheels intended for heavy touring, on the other hand, tend to be built with strength in mind as they will have to contend with a heavily loaded bike. And it's hard to look sexy with panniers and a tent on the back of your bike.

Sheldon Brown has quite a bit to say on spokes.

http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html#spokes

Des

gabriel959

Gaz, I would just get some handbuilts from Hewitts - they will be expensive but they will be tough as nails.