Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,212
Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.
Mentioned: 48 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3462 Post(s)
I built up my first touring bike in 2004, at that time a 40 spoke count hub was quite rare compared to 36. Decades before that the spokes were not as good as the spokes commonly available in the past couple decades.
There are 40 and 48 spoke hubs available for tandem usage, but they are rare and more costly. Also, tandems usually use a wider dropout spacing than the 135mm spacing common on most touring frames.
Your Ultegra rear hub likely is 130mm spaced, not 135mm. Do you have a frame in mind for your new wheels?
Front wheel of 32 might work fine or it might not. I built up a touring bike a year ago with 32 spokes on the front (36 in rear) but that bike is likely to just be used for lighter weight touring.