Heavy Rider wheelsets

I'm investigating a custom frame for my larger self, and thought while
I'm at it, why not look at a wheelset that will be better suited to my
weighty backside.

I'm 6'4", weigh 112kg, and currently running on a set of ALX-280's.
The have a 20spoke front and 24 spoke back setup, and came with the
GTR Series 2 (2006) that I bought. I've only done around 800km on
them, and so far no trouble, but I'm thinking that they are probably a
bit lightweight for me. Rather than spend heaps of time fixing spokes
and truing wheels, why not get something STURDY.

Any suggestions? And can I just pick the parts (rim, spokes, hubs) and
get my LBS to build them? Note, I am not a weight weenie. Why bother
about 500grams when I can drop 40 times that from my guts!

Brendo

On Apr 17, 1:34 pm, Brendo wrote:
I'm investigating a custom frame for my larger self, and thought while
I'm at it, why not look at a wheelset that will be better suited to my
weighty backside.

I'm 6'4", weigh 112kg, and currently running on a set of ALX-280's.
The have a 20spoke front and 24 spoke back setup, and came with the
GTR Series 2 (2006) that I bought. I've only done around 800km on
them, and so far no trouble, but I'm thinking that they are probably a
bit lightweight for me. Rather than spend heaps of time fixing spokes
and truing wheels, why not get something STURDY.

Any suggestions? And can I just pick the parts (rim, spokes, hubs) and
get my LBS to build them? Note, I am not a weight weenie. Why bother
about 500grams when I can drop 40 times that from my guts!

I've had great success with Shimano 105 hubs, DT swiss 14 guage spokes
and Mavic open pro rims and I'm heavy. If you're in a hurry, a friend
who's around 110kg rides around on Easton 'Circuit 2' wheels and has
put around 15,000 into them with no dramas. These are off the shelf,
and RRP is somewhere around $900 from memory.

Bleve Wrote:
On Apr 17, 1:34 pm, Brendo wrote:
I'm investigating a custom frame for my larger self, and thought
while
I'm at it, why not look at a wheelset that will be better suited to
my
weighty backside.

I'm 6'4", weigh 112kg, and currently running on a set of ALX-280's.
The have a 20spoke front and 24 spoke back setup, and came with the
GTR Series 2 (2006) that I bought. I've only done around 800km on
them, and so far no trouble, but I'm thinking that they are probably
a
bit lightweight for me. Rather than spend heaps of time fixing spokes
and truing wheels, why not get something STURDY.

Any suggestions? And can I just pick the parts (rim, spokes, hubs)
and
get my LBS to build them? Note, I am not a weight weenie. Why bother
about 500grams when I can drop 40 times that from my guts!

I've had great success with Shimano 105 hubs, DT swiss 14 guage spokes
and Mavic open pro rims and I'm heavy. If you're in a hurry, a friend
who's around 110kg rides around on Easton 'Circuit 2' wheels and has
put around 15,000 into them with no dramas. These are off the shelf,
and RRP is somewhere around $900 from memory.There are some good bomb proof wheels out there stock as well as built
up to suit.

Racing is one thing where it is often a personal thing or hopefully a
sponsor's offering) but every day training and long rides are where
rock solid reliability when away from support are top of mind.

I went for two variations, firstly stock with some training wheels for
R1, I went Campag Vento G3 ( the Black 05 Model), and less than $400 at
the time, they now have done close to 12,000 on them without a blemish,
or a moments concern, still true and rock solid.

The other set, for built up training wheels for the R2 Roadie, I paid
$550 total, for these I sourced some FIR 32 hole Zeniths mated to
Campag Record hubs with DT spokes and again approx 10,000klms so far
and I expect these to outlive me and that bike.

I guess something that also helps and isnt much talked about is how
each rider handles the bumps and absorbs the rough ruts, getting the
butt off the seat rather than bottom out with the bum on seat and full
impact through the wheel... this is often destructive to a lot of stock
wheels and causes many a spoke failure and/or a bent rim.

Other observation is that many of the stock wheels with smaller lighter
bikes are in themselves very lightly built and although they may look
pretty swish with aero spokes and flash wheel profiles, submit to
failure on the first rut or hard jolt.

Reckon you are on the right track tho...get strong wheels and the
foundation is set for safer riding and less hassles when away from
support.


--
rooman

I've had great success with Shimano 105 hubs, DT swiss 14 guage spokes
and Mavic open pro rims and I'm heavy. If you're in a hurry, a friend
who's around 110kg rides around on Easton 'Circuit 2' wheels and has
put around 15,000 into them with no dramas. These are off the shelf,
and RRP is somewhere around $900 from memory.

I had anticipated paying much less than $900, probably around half
that.

I'm not looking for top of the line lightweight racing wheels, but
honest low maintenance ones. I don't race (or at least haven't yet)
and just want to be able to ride 50-80km on a weekend and nothave to
worry about things breaking. I realise it is impossible for 'NOTHING'
to go wrong, but I'd like to lower the possibility as much as I can,
within the price.

Brendo

Brendo wrote:
I've had great success with Shimano 105 hubs, DT swiss 14 guage spokes
and Mavic open pro rims and I'm heavy. If you're in a hurry, a friend
who's around 110kg rides around on Easton 'Circuit 2' wheels and has
put around 15,000 into them with no dramas. These are off the shelf,
and RRP is somewhere around $900 from memory.

I had anticipated paying much less than $900, probably around half
that.

I'm not looking for top of the line lightweight racing wheels, but
honest low maintenance ones. I don't race (or at least haven't yet)
and just want to be able to ride 50-80km on a weekend and nothave to
worry about things breaking. I realise it is impossible for 'NOTHING'
to go wrong, but I'd like to lower the possibility as much as I can,
within the price.

Brendo





I'll add my experience to the other posts. I too am a heavy
rider (was over 100kg, now less) and was popping spokes on
rear wheels with monotonous regularity. Then I got a set of
Campagnolo Sciroccos. They've been fantastic, nudging 10,000kms
on those (about four rear tires). They're lighter and stiffer
than my non-factory wheels, the hubs still run smooth with
no adjustment. Wheels are still true. There is some surface
rust on cones and spacers. These aren't my racing wheels but
you could race on them - they're not that heavy.

Sciroccos sit above Ventos in the Campag line up. I have the
sciroccos, zondas and eurus - all great wheels although I notice
the zondas feel a bit more flexy than the other two.

For solid, reliable performance, I've been very happy with the
sciroccos and would buy them again although the new model has a
different specs to mine.

Cheers,
DeF.

--
e-mail: d.farrow@your finger.murdoch.edu.au
To reply, you'll have to remove your finger.

rooman Wrote:


I went for two variations, firstly stock with some training wheels for
R1, I went Campag Vento G3 ( the Black 05 Model), and less than $400 at
the time, they now have done close to 12,000 on them without a blemish,
or a moments concern, still true and rock solid.

Just to add my experience to the spectrum.

I have been between 87-90kgs so on the lower levels of the big rider
scale.

I had a set of 04 Vento's and the freewheel hub died with 5,000 k and
the whole rim sh@t itself after 7000k.

Mavic open pro on american classic hub: hub sh@t itself after 4000k.
Rim was rock solid.

That said i have never found a rear wheel that hasnt eventually died a
violent death between my rear stays...

Personally i would shoot for an open pro on shimano or campy hubs. Or
maybe a box section on either of those hubs. Probably cost more like
600 bucks though for a set built up. Geez, if you were in Perth you
could have my old Vento front wheel and just get a rear one built up.

Not sure if there are bomb proof wheelsets for 400 bucks???


--
byron27

rooman wrote:
Bleve Wrote:
On Apr 17, 1:34 pm, Brendo wrote:
I'm investigating a custom frame for my larger self, and thought
while
I'm at it, why not look at a wheelset that will be better suited to
my
weighty backside.


I am way heavier than 112KG (but less so than b4) and I have been riding
a Basic hybrid style bike, a Shogun Metro AT of about 7 years vintage, I
left the front wheel standard. But to get the benefit of the cassette
style hub as opposed to a freewheel one I had the wheel rebuilt with DT
alpine swiss spokes (36). I don't know whether they did a good job
tensioning up the wheel because I have broken 4 spokes in about 4000k.
Of course I don't discount they broke because I'm a fat man.

One advantage of a lot of spokes is that the loss of one has not made
the bike unrideable. ie the wheel didn't buckle enough to rub on
anything except a brakepad a bit.

I kept the same cheapo rim.

I can say that none of the spokes broke at a time of severe stress like
a pothole or climbing a hill. They just snapped when riding along on a
smooth flat surface. I think spokes break as a result of fatigue
resulting from improper tensioning of the wheel, because I know real
featherweights who break spokes too. Just less often then me, sigh.
I fixed the spoke within 5 -10kms so as to not distress the remaining
ones needlessly.

So I wouldn't go nuts trying to build a flash wheel just get a good
wheelbuilder to do it properly.

Wilfred

Do a search for 'heavy rider wheels' or somesuch on
rec.bicycles.tech . This has been discussed a lot from time to time
and there is plenty of advice there.

donga

"Brendo" wrote in message
ps.com...
I've had great success with Shimano 105 hubs, DT swiss 14 guage spokes
and Mavic open pro rims and I'm heavy. If you're in a hurry, a friend
who's around 110kg rides around on Easton 'Circuit 2' wheels and has
put around 15,000 into them with no dramas. These are off the shelf,
and RRP is somewhere around $900 from memory.

I had anticipated paying much less than $900, probably around half
that.

I'm not looking for top of the line lightweight racing wheels, but
honest low maintenance ones. I don't race (or at least haven't yet)
and just want to be able to ride 50-80km on a weekend and nothave to
worry about things breaking. I realise it is impossible for 'NOTHING'
to go wrong, but I'd like to lower the possibility as much as I can,
within the price.


Rims that are fairly deep are generally pretty strong.......for a strong
wheel that won't break the bank you might want to look at getting a set of
Velocity Rims (maybe the Deep V) with 32 holes and then get them laced up
with a decent set of 14g straight gauge spokes (can't go wrong with DT) to a
set of say Ultegra or Centaur hubs (depending on where your preferences
lay). The most important part is to get the wheels laced up by a reputable
wheelbuilder......I'm sure if you tell us where you are located that you
will be able to get a few recommendations.

Also might want to check these out if you are looking for pre-built wheels
for $450

http://www.bikepro.com.au/Product/11...y/453/Velocity

Gags

*disclaimer* - I am not associated with bikepro in any way

DeepV rims 32h with 14/15/14 spokes and Ultegra our Dura ace hubs should
be bombproof.

We use DeepV's on both our 700c and 26" tandems and have had no
problems. When touring our rolling weight is a bit over 200kg


Cheers

Geoff


--
geoffs