BoSoxYacht

I plan on building a set of wheels using some 20+24 hole hubs I already own, and I'm looking for some durable hoops that are readily available.

Most likely I'll go with Kinlin XR-270 hoops, but I'm open to other ideas. 23mm wide hoops are not an option due to clearance issues.

Any suggestions?

MajorMantra

Is this for your fixie? I can't think of many road frames that wouldn't clear a 23mm rim.

If you want tough there's always the ridiculously heavy Velocity Deep V.

rpenmanparker 

In alloy Kinlin is the best of the best. I have built at least five pair of them, and the rims were all as close to perfectly flat as I have ever seen. All built up completely trouble free. The 270s are a very special niche product that just does everything as well as possible. Not too deep, not too shallow, not too heavy, not too light, not too stiff, not too flexible. I can't say enough good things about them. No comparison with Velocity which has terrible quality control. And great prices at Bike Hub Store. IMO there is no other choice.

BoSoxYacht

No, it's for my primary road bike(2007 Pedal Force RS). When I run Stan's Alpha 340 + 23mm Michelin Pro4 tires, there's not much room at the chainstays.

BoSoxYacht

I've been using Kinlin 270 hoops for well over 70k miles, and they've been great. It's just time to replace them due to wear, and I don't want to overlook another option.

qqy

If durability is your main concern, why not get the XR300s?

BoSoxYacht

The XR-270 has worked well for my weight(165-170lbs), and the XR-300 would require all new spokes.

rpenmanparker 

Actually, spokes are the one thing you likely ought to replace along with the rim. They are the most likely part of the wheel to break. They fatigue. I wouldn't rebuild a pair of hubs with old spokes after so many miles. Truthfully, if I had a pair of wheels that old, that had served me that well, I would just retire them and keep them around for emergency spares. I think you deserve all new.

adrien

Go for something a little exotic -- Ambrosio FCS 28

rpenmanparker 

I'm not sure what the problem is with "not much room". If the tire doesn't actually touch, then it doesn't matter. As they say, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."

BoSoxYacht

I would agree with you if I had ever broken a spoke on these wheels, but highly tensioned spokes fatigue very little.

If I start having issues, I'll replace them.

Drew Eckhardt 

Spokes are one thing you don't want to replace.

Quality spokes built into wheels with sufficiently high tension that have been properly stress relieved last over 300,000 miles when not nicked by an over-shifted chain.

Given compatible ERDs the right move is to remove tension, tape the new rim next to the old, lubricate the sockets (I like to cut half the bristle length off an acid brush with anti-seize), and move spokes over one at a time taking the opportunity to re-lubricate the threads.

I still ride the first set of wheels I built 15-16 years ago with the second front rim, second or third rear, all original DT Competition 2.0/1.8 spokes in the rear drive side and DT 2.0/1.5 Revolutions elsewhere, and original alloy nipples apart from the several I made trapezoidal with an incompletely seated spoke wrench in a road side repair at night after bending a rim on an obstacle.

Quality spokes in a well built wheel are likely to outlive you and everything else in the wheel except perhaps the hub shells.

They fatigue although the cycles survived are a function of average stress and magnitude of the variation. When you take the entire elbow past its elastic limit through stress relieving the average stress is low and they go a very long time.

bikemig 

No. 1; I would not recycle spokes.

Edit: I have never recycled spokes but I just read Drew Eckhardt's post on this. I just figure they're relatively cheap and I prefer to replace them. But maybe he's right.

rpenmanparker 

Despite everything you say, there is no way to predict just how long spokes will last. You only know after the fact. You know they haven't broken yet, but you don't know exactly how perfectly the wheel was built (even if you did it yourself). You are just assuming. Given that and the opportunity to replace the old spokes with new (starting the clock all over again) with extremely minimal extra labor, to use old spokes is, IMO, a foolish economy. To my knowledge no professional builder would ever reuse spokes on a wheel rebuild.

You have to tension the spokes well again on this second build. What you did the first time doesn't count any more. So why not start with fresh spokes having their full fatigue life ahead of them instead of an unknown quantity? I can see you might enjoy congratulating yourself from time to time about how long your spokes have lasted (Please take no offense. I do that all the time.), but what is that really worth against the higher risk of a broken spoke?

BTW, notice the word "Durable" in the title of this thread.