Strongest 700c wheels?

pastryboy
pastryboy Posts: 1,385
edited October 2009 in Commuting chat
My CX bike came with joytech hubs and alex at400 rims - they are not up to my commute over bumpy canal path. Not too fussed about weight but has to be ultra-strong.


I've seen this:

Mavic A719 rim and Deore 760XT hub

http://www.bonthronebikes.co.uk/65-413269

and this:

Mavic A319 rim and Deore hub

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/MWhee ... 360035959/

Are there any other suggestions (without spending silly money) - is the more expensive of those two wheels going to give me much better performance?

Comments

  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    How about a 29" MTB rim? 29"=700c
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • downfader
    downfader Posts: 3,686
    £160 or there abouts gets you a set of Aksiums. Always liked those for the money, smooth hubs, strong rims. I mean, I smashed the hell out of mine and they were loyal.

    If you feel more spokes worthwhile you can invest in a set of Open Pro rims. My wheelset cost me £300 though (open pro with Hope3 hubs and 32x DTSwiss spokes per wheel), but they are awesome.
  • pastryboy
    pastryboy Posts: 1,385
    Sounds like a potentially costly experiment - I doubt any MTB rim would be suited to the 32c tyres I'm running.
  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    Handbuilt Open Pros 32h are a good bet. Alternatively, Mavic CXP22s or 33s.
    FCN 2-4.

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  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    You said ultra strong. http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html#width
    'Normal' MTB wheels come in 17mm, there should be a 29inch one in 17 or 19mm too.
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • vorsprung
    vorsprung Posts: 1,953
    http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s179p0
    Probably cheaper and stronger
    I use the next grade down, the Rigida Chrina Wheels, 32h at the front, 36h at the back
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  • vorsprung
    vorsprung Posts: 1,953
    pastryboy wrote:
    Sounds like a potentially costly experiment - I doubt any MTB rim would be suited to the 32c tyres I'm running.

    Open Pros aren't an MTB rim...I assume you mean a "non MTB" rim
    Open Pros are a light weight non aero rim
    Open Pros are only supposed to be for tyres up to 28mm but 32 would probably be ok

    They are pretty strong but I wouldn't use an expensive lightweight rim like this for commuting up a rutted towpath
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  • mudcovered
    mudcovered Posts: 725
    downfader wrote:
    £160 or there abouts gets you a set of Aksiums. Always liked those for the money, smooth hubs, strong rims. I mean, I smashed the hell out of mine and they were loyal.
    I've got those on my Jake. They have stood up to a couple of years of towpath abuse. I've had to true them once but that was over a year ago I guess I was just getting rid of the factory build inconsistencies.
    downfader wrote:
    If you feel more spokes worthwhile you can invest in a set of Open Pro rims. My wheelset cost me £300 though (open pro with Hope3 hubs and 32x DTSwiss spokes per wheel), but they are awesome.
    And that's what I was planning on replacing the Aksiums with. Its not the spoke count that draws me too them its the ability to replace the rim when it wears out. I'm nearly down to the end of the rim wear dip on the Aksiums. Did you get those wheels from your LBS or online?

    Mike
  • Jamey
    Jamey Posts: 2,152
    The strength of a wheel depends on how well it's built rather than the components. I'd invest in some hand-built 'standard' wheels, put together by someone who knows what they're doing.

    Or learn to do it yourself, that's what I did.
    My photography // My helmet cam videos // My bike
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    Strongest 700c wheels (that are pretty much easily available) =

    Ambrosio Nemesis rims + 36 spokes per wheel + groupset hub
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  • leoccp
    leoccp Posts: 45
    I've got Rigida DPX (32 hole) on tiagra from Parker. Seem pretty tough, I'm not particularly easy on bike parts (I've ridden my road bike on bridle paths a fair bit this year). Not that light though and might not be wide enough for 32s.
  • downfader
    downfader Posts: 3,686
    mudcovered wrote:
    downfader wrote:
    £160 or there abouts gets you a set of Aksiums. Always liked those for the money, smooth hubs, strong rims. I mean, I smashed the hell out of mine and they were loyal.
    I've got those on my Jake. They have stood up to a couple of years of towpath abuse. I've had to true them once but that was over a year ago I guess I was just getting rid of the factory build inconsistencies.
    downfader wrote:
    If you feel more spokes worthwhile you can invest in a set of Open Pro rims. My wheelset cost me £300 though (open pro with Hope3 hubs and 32x DTSwiss spokes per wheel), but they are awesome.
    And that's what I was planning on replacing the Aksiums with. Its not the spoke count that draws me too them its the ability to replace the rim when it wears out. I'm nearly down to the end of the rim wear dip on the Aksiums. Did you get those wheels from your LBS or online?

    Mike

    My aksiums never needed truing, just a little spoke retensioning and that was it tbh. The rims were absolutely straight as a die. 8)

    The new wheels were hand built in the Hope factory iirc. I bought them from GA Cycles here in Southampton and the guys even fitted them for me. The hope pro 3 makes a loverly racket when you freewheel, great for pedestrians and they rarely step out thesedays. Also I find on shared paths that they hear be coming before I get a chance to ring the bell and move out of the way. :D

    IIRC Mavic still distribute the aksium rim to some dealers (try Chain Reaction, should be about £20 a hoop if they still do them). You could always see if they can be replaced if the hubs are still ok. Might save you some money.
  • mudcovered
    mudcovered Posts: 725
    downfader wrote:
    My aksiums never needed truing, just a little spoke retensioning and that was it tbh. The rims were absolutely straight as a die. 8)

    IIRC Mavic still distribute the aksium rim to some dealers (try Chain Reaction, should be about £20 a hoop if they still do them). You could always see if they can be replaced if the hubs are still ok. Might save you some money.
    Well not immediately obvious on the Chain reaction website :(. Will see what my LBS has to say in a month or two when its worn completely.

    My Aksiums were straight when I got them. I never did any spoke tension tweaking before using them which allowed them to go out of true. After I trued them they have stayed that way and the spoke tension is about as even as its possible to be apart from a few oddities at the rim joint area. After I'd done the truing job I was a little surprised at how even things were especially given how much of a newbie I was to wheel truing at the time. :)

    I know about the hope freehub click as I've got the original Pro hubs on my MTB wheels. :) Sadly round here the shared path peds are so deaf/ignorant that they don't even hear that some of the time :x

    The bombproof reliability of the MTB hub is why I was considering a CX wheel built around the hope road hubs. The MTB hubs have been completely submerged in both mud and water and the front one has never even needed servicing and the back one has had a couple of the cartridge bearings replaced. That's after 8+ years of pretty regular use. Cheers for the info on the hope hubbed wheels.

    Mike
  • pastryboy
    pastryboy Posts: 1,385
    vorsprung wrote:
    http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s179p0
    Probably cheaper and stronger
    I use the next grade down, the Rigida Chrina Wheels, 32h at the front, 36h at the back


    Thanks - that looks worthy of further investigation. Cant' see any compellin evidence for expensive hubs so will probably go for something mid-range.

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