HillMut

Personal info: I weigh ~137, I'm 5'7" & find myself on some rough roads sometimes.

I'm piecing together a set of wheels with white industry hub & velocity aerohead rims.
The mechanic at my bike shop thinks I should go 32 spokes front and back. I'm interested in saving weight wherever I can when buying something new. I see a lot of heavier people riding with much lower spoke counts 20/24 etc... Is there a serious duribility loss v. weight saving going with less than 32 spokes? These won't be fancy spokes, just normal round ~14guage spokes. 1 cross in front, 2-3 cross in the rear.
On the other hand, these spokes weigh maybe 3-6 grams each?? , maybe this was a stupid question

Grasschopper

Yea at your weight I don't think you need 32 spokes on a wheel. Iwould go double butted for sure on the spokes and probably do radial lacing on the front. What do you want from your new wheels?

merlinextraligh

you have to remember there's a difference between a wheelset built with deep dish rims, specially designed hubs, and a low spoke count, and just a conventional handbuilt wheel. I ride Zipp 404's, which as I recall are 20 in the frront and 24 in the back. They're plenty stiff, and havent broken a spoke or gone out of true in 2 seasons. No way, however that I'd ride a set of conventional wheels with less than 32 spokes.

At your size, you probably could go with 28. However, it depends on your use if you want to . For climbing it might be worth it. For crit racing, I think you might want to stay with 32 for stiffness.

And either way, use Double butted 14/15/14 spokes. Both stronger and lighter, than straight guage 14.

Mariner Fan

Isn't a low spoke count highly tensioned wheelset condusive to a harsh ride? Especially with a light rider?

mayukawa

At your weight, you should have no problem with "stupid" light wheels...so you shouldn't have any problem with a lower spoke-count wheelset. Obviously with fewer spokes, you have to put more tension on each one, which means more stress on the rim eyelets and the hub flanges. IOW's if you go with very low spoke count, you've to make sure the hub and particularly the rim can take it. If you go with more spokes, you can lower the tension on each spoke for a more compliant ride. Also would make fine tuning (truing) much easier. It really depends on what you want out of your wheels.

iansir

I'm about 5 lbs heavier and just had a wheelset built with Chris King hubs, DT R1.1 rims. After asking around a lot I settled on 28 2x in the front (radial lacing voids the warranty on most hubs), 28 2x in the back. Front and non drive side are 14/17g DT Revolution spokes, drive side are 14/15g DT spokes. So far they have been awesome (after 2 weeks). Plenty stiff enough and rock solid.

HillMut

Thanks for the responses everyone.
I'm looking for as many opinions that I can before I make a final decision.

fruitless

Properly built 28 x2 shouldn't be a problem with your specs, even with something like DT revolutions.

AnthonyG

I'm lighter than you at 128 lbs and I've ridden on both low spoke count Shimano r-550 wheels and 32 spoke 3 cross wheels and I much preffered the 32 -3 cross wheels front & rear. The Shimano wheels were harsh but I also had a lot of problems with chattering brakes which I suspect had something to do with low spoke count radial wheels although I'm not totaly sure on that.

If you wan't nice light wheels then ditch the use of plain 14 gauge spokes. There easier for the wheel builder to use and they're cheap but have no other redeaming features. My 32 - 3 cross wheels use plain 15 gauge spokes which perform quite well but butted spokes would be nicer. 28 spoke 2 cross with light weight butted spokes would make nice wheels.

Regards, Anthony