Originally Posted by
rosefarts
I ride pretty hard and frequently blur the line between gravel and mountain bike.
I don't catch much air and I weigh 140. My hunch is that they'll work.
My road wheels with even fewer spokes have never been a problem. My 32 hole gravel wheels with thousands of miles of abuse appear to be new when on the truing stand.
In my case, low spoke count wears faster and eventually they will break (off pavement riding). And when a 24 spoke wheel loses a spoke, it puts a nice big warp in the wheel requiring some good frame clearance to keep the wheel spinning and get home. If your frame clearance is tight – you’ll be walking. With 32-36 spokes its sometimes hard to tell there is a spoke missing.
Its not so much a matter of the wheel being true - its the lifespan of the spokes for a wheel that is ridden hard. But changing spokes isn't hard - long as you can ride home with a warped wheel...