Originally Posted by
jambon
Hi there , just looking for opinions on whether or not these wheels will be up to the task of bike packing with say , mat and sleeping bag on handle bar , frame bag with some food and clothing and a bag on seastpost too with some bits. I found the tech docs for these wheels but they don't state a max weight.
They are a 2007 Mavic crosstrail Disc as pictured below , 26 incher wheel , 24 thin bladed spokes , , my bike is the black hardtail with the gravity dropper.
I think these are a light XC mountain bike wheel designed for racing etc so maybe loading a bike up with them on it would mean broken spokes out in the wild ?
I'm on a budget so would like to use these if I there is a chance they can handle the odd two day trip once or twice a year .
Any opinions most welcome,
J
As you say those are made for racing so they aren't made for the kind of strength you need for carrying a load. That said, if the wheels were regular J-bend spokes, I would say that they are unequivocally wrong. But the spokes are straight pull which makes them slightly less prone to breakage due to the lack of that J-bend. The J-bend on a spoke makes for a stress riser which makes them vulnerable to kind of breakage we are all familiar with. I would think a straight spoke has less of a problem because the spoke doesn't have that stress riser.
But, after saying that, you
are loading up the bike with extra weight. The wheels should be able to take a wide range of load but if you (your weight) are on the higher end of the scale, you could be exceeding the limits of the wheel. Keep the load lighter and see what happens.
Alternatively, just get a set of 32 hole J-bend wheels. If you have a local co-op around, you should be able to pick up a set for cheap. Tune them up before you use them so that you don't have problems with them.