Strong but light touring wheel

TipsterStu

Does such an animal exist? I'm only going to be doing light touring with two panniers max

Looking for 700c

Cheers in advance

boblo

Spa are doing handbuilt Exal LX17/Tiagra's for ~£130. They'll take up to 32c if that's yer bag. Reasonably light (by touring standards) and very good quality. 130mm OLN tho, you dint say if you wanted 130 or 135.

amaferanga

Open Pros or Rigida Chrina on some decent Shimano hubs.

Chrina on 105 hubs for £165
or
Chrina on Tiagra hubs for £129

maddog 2

my touring/winter wheels are Mavic A319s on Ultegra, 32h front 36h rear.

Open Pros would be lighter but the A319s are tougher and wider.

frankblackcat

I just had a pair built by Paul Hewit, XT hubs, Rigida sputnik rims £185. Not had a chance to test them yet, but look good and was happy with the price.

Chip \'oyler

Whatever you go with make sure they've got a valve hole

alfablue

boblo wrote:

Spa are doing handbuilt Exal LX17/Tiagra's for ~£130. They'll take up to 32c if that's yer bag. Reasonably light (by touring standards) and very good quality. 130mm OLN tho, you dint say if you wanted 130 or 135.

This would be my choice, and they fill the gap between open pro/chrina rims and Sputniks, being 17mm wide and will take 30/32mm tyres that would be too wide for the open pro's, but without the weight penalty. Also would happily take 25mm tyres for when not on tour.

Open Pro - 435g, 19-28mm tyres
Rigida Sputnik - 745g, 28-62mm tyres
Exal LX17 - 575g, 25-54mm tyres

Spa would most likely make them up on mtb hubs if you needed 135mm

acorn_user

I have two pairs of Spa wheels, both built with Chrina rims. They have been great. We have used them for racing, commuting, long rides and even cyclocross. They are reasonably light and pretty strong. I broke one in a crash, and snapped some spokes with a derailleur, but that's not bad for 4 years of harsh use.

TipsterStu

Wow - I really couldn't see for looking and this has provided me with all the details I need

Acorn_User - you should get into reviewing kit for mag... your assessment says it all

TipsterStu

Chip \'oyler wrote:

Whatever you go with make sure they've got a valve hole

Is that a regular fault?

TipsterStu

boblo wrote:

Spa are doing handbuilt Exal LX17/Tiagra's for ~£130. They'll take up to 32c if that's yer bag. Reasonably light (by touring standards) and very good quality. 130mm OLN tho, you dint say if you wanted 130 or 135.

What's the 130mm OLN mean?

alfablue

the distance between the inner face of the dropouts; modern road bikes and road hubs are usually 130mm, mtb's 135mm. Steel frames can be "sprung" to fit either (or "cold set" to permanently adjust). Aluminium frames may be sprung (not so sure). Whatever you have just order a road hub or mtb hub as appropriate - so for example, Tiagra / road, 130mm, Deore, mtb, 135mm for example. Measure your frame at the dropouts, inner face.

Older and more specialist bikes (single speed? track bikes?) may have narrower OLN, such as 125mm.

OLN actually means "over lock nut" ; i.e. the distance to the outside of the hub bearing locknuts.

boblo

That's the lock nut to lock nut axle dimension i.e. the inside width of the rear dropouts. MTB's are 135mm, road usually 130mm unless antique :-) You do get bigger but usually tandems etc.

boblo

ab, yours was faster, mine was more concise :-)

alfablue

boblo wrote:

ab, yours was faster, mine was more concise :-)

Yes, I rambled on a bit

TipsterStu

For the life of me I could imagine where this 130mm was, but now I see .. cheers fellas ... seemed like a fair race