Wheel Advice for Big Rider

philkeeble
philkeeble Posts: 109
edited August 2016 in Road buying advice
My son-in-law is an athletic 90kg+ and 6'4"+ and is a powerfully built rider. He has a Trek Domane 4.3 and is repeatedly buckling the rear wheel; in fact the front has now started to go also. They've been trued up twice already, but the problem persists. He has form : he had the same problem with his last bike (Spesh Allez)! What advice would the forum have for a replacement set of wheels to get around this problem? He commutes regularly on the bike, so the problem does need resolution.
Cheers,
Phil, in Inverurie

Comments

  • summershoe
    summershoe Posts: 3
    As another big rider I'd say there's something missing from your story. I weigh 89 kg, am a track sprinter as well as active road racer and commuter. I've snapped chains, folded chainrings, and broken handlebars. I've been riding and racing since 1986 and have never buckled a rear wheel. I ride 25c or larger rear tires because pinch flats are a problem on the road. Back in the day a stock wheel would need to get trued and tightened up after the first few hundred miles but today I can expect to buy a pretty normal wheel and have it go a season before it even needs trueing. Is he commuting with heavy panniers, or on off-road surfaces? For what it's worth my most used wheels are Fulcrum Racing 7s, but I doubt they're any better than the stock Bontragers on his Trek, as I've ridden several pairs of those in the past as well.
  • lostboysaint
    lostboysaint Posts: 4,250
    I'm the same height and weight as your son and have handbuilts. Velocity A23 on Miche hubs and 32 DT Swiss Comp spokes. Weight is fine, stiffness is excellent and they've been absolutely trouble free. Also a very good deal at around £300
    Trail fun - Transition Bandit
    Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
    Allround - Cotic Solaris
  • wotnoshoeseh
    wotnoshoeseh Posts: 531
    lostboysaint wrote:
    I'm the same height and weight as your son and have handbuilts. Velocity A23 on Miche hubs and 32 DT Swiss Comp spokes. Weight is fine, stiffness is excellent and they've been absolutely trouble free. Also a very good deal at around £300

    Or use the H Plus SON Archetypes with the same Miche hubs. 32H R & 28H F, or to be conservative 32F & 36R.
    Also look at the handbuilt wheels threads. Ugo and Malcolm will be able to give advice...
  • popularname
    popularname Posts: 173
    FWIW I found the Bontrager wheels on my Domane (from 2 years ago) to be pretty crap. Even my LBS suggested a fairly immediate upgrade. I'm about the same size as your son in law(slightly taller, slightly heavier) and use Ksyrium Elites, V good, but I still do everything I can to avoid holes in the road... I've also used bontrager race lights in the past and they've been great too.
    __________________________________________
    >> Domane Four Series > Ridgeback Voyage
  • timothyw
    timothyw Posts: 2,482
    I'm considerably heavier and of the same height - for a cheap factory wheelset I've had reasonable success with Pro Lite Garda DS's - I did have one rear spoke go a little after a thousand miles but it seems rash to complain about it when my LBS were able to replace it for £7 and I've had a couple of hundred miles of trouble free riding since.

    I recently picked up one of these rear wheels from Rose:
    https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/roa ... aid:716432

    It's apparently machine built rather than handbuilt but excellent value for the components you get, I'd certainly recommend one for any heavy rider that has killed their rear wheel and needs a cheap replacement - I've done a couple of hundred miles on mine without any of the usual issues you might expect with cheap wheels (spokes unwinding/popping as they haven't been pretensioned etc) - it's a shame that the wheelset they offer also uses 36 spokes on the front as that is overkill for pretty much anyone not on a tandem.
  • voodooman
    voodooman Posts: 183
    +1 for the pro lite garda. I'm 6'5" and was 17 stone 2 years ago. Now down to 15 3/4 and in that time they've done 3 cross races and over 3000 commuting kms. Bizarrely the brake track doesn't appear to be worn at all! Though that could be due to cantis and their appalling braking. I've killed 3 chains, 1 cassette and 1 rear derailleur while the wheels have been fine. Only needed truing once, and now i've got a CAADX 105 (today!), the Ridley is going to be put through its paces in the wessex cx league - wearing the gardas.

    Just need to now kill the Maddux wheels on the newbie to justify getting the Revos. And some Hy-rd / juin tech jobbies.

Categories