Can you recommend a good set of touring wheels please?
 

Here are my requirements:

1. 700C x 55mm tires
2. 135mm quick release disc rear hub, 100mm QR disc front hub.
3. Lots of spokes (ideally 36 or more in the rear).
4. possibly a dynamo hub
5. 11 speed-compliant Shimano free hub (am willing to use 11-speed mountain cassette)
6. Good, reliable, serviceable hubs

Currently I have a wheel-set I borrowed from another bike (HED Belgium + rims and white industries hubs).

2. Rear hub, I am quite happy with Shimano M756A rear hub with 36 spokes. You would have to check if it is 11 speed or not, that I do not know. I like the quarter inch steel ball bearing rear hubs that have a steel axle.

4. My experience with the SP PV8 dynohub is quite good, I have only used the rim brake version, available for disc with a different model number. You said a requirement is servicable, the SP is not easily serviceable so you would have to decide how important that criteria is.

Generally I suggest to people that if they might want a dynohub later, get it when they get their next wheelset instead of waiting. The cost now would be the dynohub cost minus the non-dyno version hub that you would not be buying. But to upgrade later, you are looking at dynohub cost, spokes and nipples, possibly new rim and possibly a wheel build fee. Bottom line, an upgrade later costs a lot more than getting in the first wheelset.

I can't suggest any rims, the only rims that I have used and like in the width that you would want are no longer produced.

What about something like this?

https://www.velocityusa.com/product/...-disc-standard

As a "casual" bike tourist at best, it's probably not my place to make this suggestion, but I think you might get more useful replies if you provide more information about the type of touring you want to do.

What I call "tours" are overnight bike rides of 50 miles or so that use well-paved public roads and end in a Holiday Inn with a free breakfast buffet. What someone else calls touring might be slogging along a rutty dirt path in a third-world country for three weeks at a time, always 500 miles from the nearest bike shop.

As you know from being around these forums for a long time, there are so many different tires and so many different opinions out there. Do you know exactly (or roughly) where you'll be touring and what the road conditions will be? How much gear you plan to carry? What type of ride (fast/comfortable) you are hoping to have?

I don't keep up on rims, but I would add from experience that riding on wider tires, like you plan to do, seems to make life easier on your wheel set, when using appropriate pressures.
I mention this just to say that a good touring rim with sufficient spokes for your weight and load weight will have an easier life overall due to the 55mm tires.
On my 50mm tires, I run them anywhere from 30 to about 50-55psi max, depending on bike weight and road conditions, but I weigh 140 tops.

That is about the pressure I use for my 50mm tires. A bit less for my 57mm tires. Quite a bit more for my 37 or 40mm.

The narrowest tire that I tour on is 37mm, I think I had those up to 85 psi when heavily loaded in the rear. But the widest tire I can fit on my 700c touring bike is 37mm, only use the wider tires on my 26 inch bikes.

Front, in general use about two thirds to three fourths as much pressure in front as I use in back. On really rough surfaces, might use even lower pressure in the front to reduce vibration on my handlebars.

For the riding I want to do, I've already invested in the tires: Rene Herse Antelope Hill 55mm Endurance. I've been riding on these and they work great on pristine pavement, typically crappy roads, and rough single-track, as well as sand. I think they can handle pretty much anything except peanut butter mud.

https://www.renehersecycles.com/wp-c...q_sq010620.jpg

So starting with the tire choice, I would like wheels with rims that can comfortably support 2.2" (55mm) wide tires. The HEDs do this ok, but I would prefer to return to using these wheels on a different bike.

I still want to do a cross-country tour before I croak, but more immediately, I have the tires, and they are mounted on HED Belgium+ rims at the moment, which are great rims. The spoke count is "only" 28/32, so might prefer to up that, and as mentioned, I would like a dynamo hub on the front. Ideally, I would like to get rims as good as the HED Belgium+ (which are arguably one of the best).

BTW, I use those suggested tire pressures on my 38mm Barlow Pass tires. The Antelope Hill tires are like riding on basketballs with that high inflation.

I'm almost 200#, and the touring bike, even unloaded, is pushing 30#.

I was actually thinking of the rear hub (my Chris King one requires a special tool). But I have seen a field-serviceable dyno hub advertised in BikeQuarterly or someplace. I doubt I would ever tour somewhere that this would become a priority.

I am sure there is a rear dynohub out there somewhere, but I have no clue on it.

On those Velocity wheels, they look like good wheels. I have some Velocity Dyad rims, the Dyad rim is narrower than you want, I am quite happy with the Dyad but I have narrower tires on it.

But those Velocity wheels have cartridge bearings. When you say you want serviceable, do you mean you doing the work or a bike shop that has the tools to change cartridge bearings? I prefer loose ball bearings that I can add grease to myself, thus the hub I suggested in my previous post. I have never used a Cliffhanger rim but I have not heard anything bad about it either.

I think it is safe to run fewer spokes on the front than rear, my light touring bike has 32 front and 36 rear, I built it up that way. But I agree that 28 F and 32 R sounds skimpy.

Velocity Cliffhanger. On the heavy side, but wide+36 hole+rim brakes (I'm assuming you need rim brakes?) doesn't leave you many choices.

DOH! And I just re-read your post and saw that you were asking about WHEELS, not TIRES! My bad. I thought this was another thread that was going to turn into a laundry list of every tire anybody has ever ridden on. I should have known something was wrong with my observation, as I know you are a veteran of the forums and would never ask such an open-ended question. Sorry.

PS: Also, I am stealing that term, "Peanut Butter Mud."

They have a disc version (which I would need, and linked to above). My one worry is they say 8-10 speed for their hub. My 11-speed Shimano 11-34 cassette has a spacer you can take out, so maybe it would work.

In general, are these good wheels? The price seems almost too good to be true.

Well, I am the king of open-ended/borderline troll questions...

I have in mind that really gooey hippy peanut butter.

Those Cliffhanger wheels look fine to me, but I was just mentioning the rims. Prowheelbuilder.com can build them up with whatever other components you want.

Another rim option for a more classic look is Velo Orange Voyager rims.

I have Mavic A319 36 spoke rims on Deore hubs. QR, rim brakes on my 520.

Mavic A319 are kind of narrow for 55mm tires.

I can never recall the outer or inner widths of the rims I have on my troll, but while I've had 2.5 inch mtb tires on them and 2 inch Supremes, 50mm, the Supremes measure to only 45mm on my rims"--- so it's worth going with the properly width rim to not change the shape and width of your 55mm tires, or at least be aware of this happening.

Several years ago I finally got around to creating a short text file on my hard drive where I can jot down my inner rim widths. Then, if I am curious I can look it up.

Or, if buying Velocity rims, use the chart on the bottom of this page.
https://www.velocityusa.com/tech/rims/

I think the Velocity chart looks pretty good. But you have to be careful, some rim manufacturers have outlandish claims for how their rim can use almost any tire ever made.

I have a Velocity USA rear wheel built up with Chukker rim and ATB disc hub. I run 11 speed road 11-34 cassette without issue. Velocity makes a nice wheel.

I would probably do a similar set as to what you currently have but maybe upgrade to a wider rim and a SON hub at the front. My choice in your situation would be Velocity Cliffhanger laced with Sapim Strong spokes and brass Secure-Lock nipples to White Industries XMR rear hubs.

Worth considering: https://www.renehersecycles.com/myth...eed-wide-rims/

I used to have A319s (~19mm internal) with 50mm touring tires... worked well.

I read that article, and I find most of what Jan Heine writes to be valuable. Nevertheless, if I were getting a wheel specifically for 55mm tires, I'd definitely want a rim wider than 19mm.

Agree. Except I did not read an article. Should always order rims to have an internal width for the tire range you anticipate using.

I once ordered some rims based on a bike manufacturers recommendation, and I will never do that again, it was a big mistake. Did not check the specifications, ordered the rims, they arrived and had an internal width of 19mm. I complained to the bike manufacturer that recommended that rim for my 57mm tires. I cited Sheldon Brown data that said 19mm internal width would be good for about 28 to 44mm wide. They they said I was wrong and Sheldon was obviously wrong too because the rim manufacturer said that rim would work great with any tire from 28 up to 62mm wide. I rolled the dice and used the rims, I did not want to pay a huge shipping fee to return them to Europe. Sometimes when I am in rough terrain and want to run soft tires, I have to keep the air pressure up higher than I should so that the tires retain their shape on such a narrow rim.

Live and learn.

Bummer, your right. mavic recomneds a max tire width of 50mm.