Originally Posted by
Bilz
Hey,
I recently (November/December) did a week tour around the Atlas mountains in Morocco. I went on my gravel bike with a set of cheap WTB wheels I bought a while back (24 spokes). I had panniers on the back (Ortlieb) and they were flapping about on gravelly paths because the "hooks" kept coming lose off the rack. When I picked up speed, it was smashing the pannier rack. I think because of that, as well as the weight and the wheels, my rim cracked. I did eventually start strapping the backs to the rack with bungee cords, but it was probably too late by that point.
On my road tourer, I have 32 spoke hope 20five wheelset but I feel that for a gravel bike the rim is a bit too narrow (I think it's 20 mm internal width and the gravel tyres are 45 mm). So, with that blurb, what wheels do you use for touring/bikepacking? I want something bomb proof. Hope so far have treated me well, but I was thinking of trying something else at a similar price point.
Nothing wrong with cheap wheels. A lot wrong with 24 spoke wheels and rough road/off touring, Cheap wheels that someone has gone over beats expensive wheels that have been neglected. Without giving your weight and total load “bombproof” can be barely adequate or way overbuilt. My $.02 is for 45 mm tires get 22-25 mm internal width rims. I don’t read whether you have disc or rim brakes but I assume they’re disc. Whether you go for 32 or 36 spokes rear wheel kinda hinges on how much weight you have and the amount of dish. WTB 32 spoke rear wheel for ebikes w assymetric rim looks hella robust. Folks here will say you gotta have double butted spokes, I say you gotta have more spokes
Wrt the panniers and rack, you might change how you adjust the lower hook and I’d suggest adding another hook. If the panniers are loose the hook isn’t in the right position. Put the panniers on with a loose hook. Push the hook against whatever it’s hooked against and tighten as best you can on the rack then take it off and tighten further. If what it’s hooked to at the bottom is narrow and still rattles add tape or tubing. I doubt your rim failure was from a loose rack but simply wrong wheels for the task. Cost doesn’t make up for wrong application.