How durable are road bike wheels?
ben@31
Posts: 2,327
My road bike is fitted with campag wheels that have few spokes. I try keep the 700x23 tyres at 100 psi at front 105 psi at back. I'm weigh 65kg / 10 Stone.
While i was out on the bike today on a new route, the cycle path I was on turned from tarmac into a track with loose stones and gravel (like a canal tow path). I thought I'd keep going for 2 or 3 km.
While I got shaken to bits, I'm thinking could it have caused any damage to the wheels?
Any thoughts? Thanks.
While i was out on the bike today on a new route, the cycle path I was on turned from tarmac into a track with loose stones and gravel (like a canal tow path). I thought I'd keep going for 2 or 3 km.
While I got shaken to bits, I'm thinking could it have caused any damage to the wheels?
Any thoughts? Thanks.
"The Prince of Wales is now the King of France" - Calton Kirby
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ben@31 wrote:My road bike is fitted with campag wheels that have few spokes. I try keep the 700x23 tyres at 100 psi at front 105 psi at back. I'm weigh 65kg / 10 Stone.
While i was out on the bike today on a new route, the cycle path I was on turned from tarmac into a track with loose stones and gravel (like a canal tow path). I thought I'd keep going for 2 or 3 km.
While I got shaken to bits, I'm thinking could it have caused any damage to the wheels?
Any thoughts? Thanks.
Has it caused any damage though...0 -
Ever watched Paris-Roubaix?0
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ben@31 wrote:
While I got shaken to bits, I'm thinking could it have caused any damage to the wheels?
Any thoughts? Thanks.
Probably, not, at your weight!
Check spoke tension, though, and spin wheels to check for true...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6eOamGK2tY
does your wheel wobble like the one in the video at 0m.08s?
If so, it needs attention...If Wales was flattened out, it'd be bigger than England!
Planet X Ti Sportive for Sportives & tours
Orange Alpine 160 for Afan,Alps & dodging trees
Singlespeed Planet X Kaffenback for dodging potholes
An On-One Inbred for hard-tail shenanigans...0 -
Obviously with the state of the UK roads you're bound to hit a pot hole or two. I've hit one or two and my front wheel buckled pretty quickly and was rubbing the brake pad. Had to buy a spoke spanner and just sort it myself. I try to be careful but as most of my riding is now at night it's nigh on impossible.0
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Briggo wrote:
Has it caused any damage though...
Nothing obvious, but there's always that phycological thing where you start imagining things, like was that rattle or vibration there before ?Bobbinogs wrote:Ever watched Paris-Roubaix?
Yes, what a race. I've seen some good footage over the cobblestones. I'm sure one documentary said they use stronger kit on the bikes than they would do normally, for example one team used steel or aluminium bars and stem rather than carbon. I'm guessing the wheels on the teams are no expense spared and expendable too."The Prince of Wales is now the King of France" - Calton Kirby0 -
Bianchi Nirone 7 Alu Xenon - 2008
Rockhopper - 2007
Stumpjumper - 2009
Langster - 20110 -
"The Prince of Wales is now the King of France" - Calton Kirby0
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To be perfectly honest I more don't like riding on rough tracks than I worry about the wheels on my favourite bike (which have quite a few spokes admittedly), even on 1 1/4" (32mm) tyres. Though CX bikes often have 32mm tyres on, so I have no excuse.
If you're really heavy (which you are not!) and you ride on very bad roads, you may find that your wheels need truing more often than perhaps they otherwise would, but they aren't going to suddenly fall to bits mid-ride! Skinny young things riding around with no luggage on tarmac do not need to have that many spokes in their wheels. There are a few good reasons for having more spokes on a touring, audax or commuting bike; aside from the luggage if you do have a mishap you will probably get further the more spokes you have, simply because the fewer spokes you have the more tension each spoke is under...
I have read some bad reports about cheap, overly light factory wheels, but that doesn't really surprise me; a wheel is only as good as what it's made of.0 -
pjcs wrote:
holy cr$p, that's unreal, he must have cojones like melons...
It's just a hill. Get over it.0 -
Impressed, the guy must have his fear centre removed......0
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My mate and I were cycling last week out in the sticks in the dark and went down this lane that ended up turning in to dirt track, we ended up doing a bit of Cyclocross on our road bikes! Thought we'd carry on as it must turn back in to road again soon, must have been a mile over the potholes and sharp stone with our 110psi tyres before we hit tarmac again. :shock:
Bike seems ok though and it was a bit of an adventure lol. My poor Roubaix is now really muddy though so it will probably rot or melt if I don't clean it soon!0 -
65kg is 143lb or 10.2 stone - so that extra .2 stone will have trashed your wheels ;-)
On a serious note - I've got Fulcrum Racing Zeros with carbon hubs and ceramic bearings that are very low on the spoke count and I'm 66kg (64kg over the summer - best summer ever ;-)). I've ridden over some nasty roads on them and they're still as true as ever.0 -
Properly built wheels with decent components and healthy spoke count (allied to your weight) will be very durable.
Mass produced factory wheels with cheap components and low spoke counts are generally less durable (although at 65kg you will still get away with a lot).Yellow is the new Black.0 -
What is considered low or high spoke count?0
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18/20 front and 20/24 rear. Usually such low spoke counts are for deep section wheels where the rim is very hefty, spokes are much shorter so also stronger.
On the Paris-Roubaix topic, wheels there range form 32 spoke x3 classic box section tubulars to 16 spoke Zipp 303 carbon wheels.
At 65kg you can get away with a lot as someone mentioned before me. The occasional trail should not hurt your wheels.0
