16Victor

My brother in law is 6' 5" and 280 lb. He's currently riding a 2015 Jamis Citizen 2 (hybrid) and is repeatedly breaking rear spokes. He rides casually with my sister on trails, not hard, no hills. My job is to find or build him a new wheel.

Current wheel is "Weinmann ZAC 19 or Alex ID19 double wall alloy rims with GSW sidewall, 32H, alloy hubs with QR and 14g stainless steel spokes" (what is GSW?) 135mm OLD, 700C. It has a 7 speed freewheel and indexed shifting so the 7 speed stays. (Would a 7-speed freehub work? Shifters are Shimano Ez-Fire Plus, ST-EF510)

Not having engaged in heavy duty wheels before since I'm nowhere near his weight I'm a bit lost.

I figure my choices are:

1. relace the current wheel with butted spokes, hoping the narrower section takes the strain and eliminates spoke breakage at the head. Cheap and quick solution, but my confidence lacks.

2. buy a wheel ready-to-go, but for a $450 bike, a suitably priced wheel may be the same crap he now has.

3. buy a used tandem wheel or wheelset. Most seem to be 145mm OLD - can they be narrowed via spacers?

4. build him a 40 or 48 spoke custom wheel myself. I'd buy good grade stuff and it'll be done right, but price comes into play again, and it's more time and hassle. Also the sources of components seems thin.

Any guidance most appreciated!

CliffordK

One thing that I would say is that if you have $450 bicycle that doesn't work, then spending $100 or $200 to make it work may actually be a good investment. Certainly it would make cycling more fun. One could, of course, just learn to replace spokes on the fly when they break, but that is still a hassle, especially if the cassette or freewheel has to come off every time. Go with disc brakes so a little wobble doesn't stop you?

7 speed freehubs/cassettes and 7 speed freewheels should be interchangeable, or you could upgrade.

If I was you, I'd ignore building a 32 spoke wheel, and jump straight to 36h, 40h, or 48h. The advantage of 36h is that parts are more readily available. But, still, I'd go for the most redundancy possible.

There are 2.0/2.3 butted spokes. It looks like often single butted, to use standard nipples.

I've thought about taking the plunge to make quality heavy duty wheels. Perhaps I'll revisit that, and light a fire under the project. It would be at least a month out or so before I could start cranking them out.

tyrion

I think this is overkill. Vuelta Corsa HD wheels are pretty strong, 36 spoke, budget wheels. I think I paid $150 for a pair. An off-the-shelf touring wheel would also be strong enough.

sdmc530

The HD wheels are good. I have them on my road bike with no issues. I am 290 and they laugh at my weight. Got them on nashbar for 130$ shipped. Worth it!!!

tyrion

I just remembered the rear one that I have has a 130mm wide hub. The bike in question might need 135mm.

FBinNY 

Here's what I'd build.

Start with a stout, fairly deep section rim with a width appropriate to the widest tire that will fit the frame.

Build it with 2.3/2.0 single butted spokes on the right, and 2.0/1.8/2.0 spokes on the left. (2.0/1.7/2.0 is equally OK for the left)

Then use a wide tire, inflated according to his weight.

CliffordK

There was a question above about the width of the dropouts.

7 speed, 135mm, and the dishing can be quite minimal, so I'd probably go with symmetrical spokes.

Of course an 8/9/10 hub would also have a lot more flexibility for a future build.

Leisesturm

The tandem we have been riding for more than a year (Trek T900) has a standard rear wheel: nothing special rim, 36 spokes, 135mm OLD, etc. Really nothing fancy in other words. The rims are as straight as the day we bought it. The BSO (bicycle shaped object) tandem we rode for seven years before that had an even lower quality rear wheel. Both held a 345lb. team up just fine. Ironically the 'fancy' tandem wheel with the Alex rims, 40 spokes and 145mm OLD on our club rides tandem broke spokes all the time until we got so disgusted we had them professionally rebuilt by hand. I see 400lb women on Walmart BSO bikes now and then and I don't think they spend much time wondering about where the rear wheel came from. I am 'only' 200lb. and I am riding a fairly high quality wheelset, but I get out of the saddle, or at least unweight the saddle, over any and all pavement irregularities. I never go off curbs and I credit this kind of caution with the relative lack of rear wheel drama in my cycling life. FWIW.

CliffordK

I wonder if that may be part of the issue that some people have and others don't.

Ride with CARE. Slow down for, or avoid hard bumps, or as you mention, when you can't avoid them, stand up to distribute weight forward, and give a little spring to one's rear end.

I.E. Ride a MTB or Hybrid like it is a $10K road bike.

Shadowx

Thanks been looking for a better budget wheel to hold my weight, already popped 2 spokes on my rear. popped a 3rd today.

16Victor

Thanks for the info and advice. I am going to build a wheel since I can't find something off the shelf that will give me confidence. I have a 36h Surly hub coming and will most likely use a Weinmann ZAC19 rim with 13/14ga spokes. I like the butted spoke idea to reduce strain and thus breakages at the head. Will follow up with results.

pdlamb

Whatever way you go, remember that the components are only 30-40% of the solution. The other 60-70% of the problem with a heavy rider is going to be proper tension and stress-relief of the spokes. Machine-built new wheel, or hand-built yourself, make sure the spokes are adequately tensioned. That could mean using a tensiometer (something around 100 kgf drive-side), or checking spoke tension by ear (G#, if I remember right) if you're musical.

16Victor

Good advice. Sounds like a reason to buy a new tool

snowman40

I'm around 280 at the moment. I ride what most in Road Cycling would call bumps...but I digress.

My Felt F75 has 24 spoke wheelset from an AR3 that the shop had laying around that someone upgraded from. No broken spokes in several hundred km.

Also, I'd spend money to upgrade components on a $450 bike. Especially on something like wheels, as those can make a huge difference.

Clyde1820

I've had a set of Velocity Dyad wheels that I'm extremely happy with. Including bike and gear (on a trunk bag), it's probably seen ~280lbs or so. Rougher city streets and occasional rutted hard-pack, no problem. Velocity Dyad 700c rims, Shimano Deore XT 9spd 36H (disc) hubs, DT Swiss spokes, quality/competent build. Picked up the set (F/R pair) for just over $200 shipped. So far, they've handled everything I've thrown at them, and have heard nary a squeak or peep from them, even through the occasional pothole. Good stuff.

If I were to re-do the build, to save weight I might well opt for 32H, butted spokes, and a wider (though lightweight) double-wall MTB-type rim. Though, the Velocity Dyad rims aren't bad.

As many suggest, the quality and competency of the build can make all the difference.

brawlo

Looks like everything seems to have been covered. 2 big points. Ride light and well built wheels wheels will trump overbuilt wheels every time.

I've been as much as 310lb on a 28sp wheelset and down to 240lb over the 12yrs or so I've been cycling. The only time I've broken a spoke is when I stupidly tried to econimise a wheel rebuild after a rim failure by reusing the 3yo spokes. The guy is not especially heavy and not in necessary need of massively overbuilt wheels. 32sp should be more than fine. Maybe the spoke tension in the original wheel was too low, allowing too much spoke flex and premature failure. Maybe he doesn't "ride light" although the suspension seatpost that google tells me the bike comes with should solve that.

Whether you rebuild the old wheel or get a new one, check that the spoke tension is at the high end of the recommended range for the rims.

Rotten

I am 6'2" and my weight hovers around 280 most of the time.

I have 3 wheelsets I ride regularly and I have never broken a spoke. First are 36h Velocity Blunt rims with Velocity disc hubs that I run on my Karate Monkey. Second set are 40h Sun Rhyno Lite rims laced to wheelmaster hubs, picked the set up from Velomine for right around $150 to use on my hybrid with rim brakes. The last set I got off a cheap big box throw away mtb are 48h no name rims laced to steel hubs, I'm actually using these on my commuter right now.

All three of the sets are great for me and like I said I've had no broken spokes. I trued all of them when I got them and other than minor adjustments they've held true under my abuse.

Each set has its purpose but I think my favorite would be the 40h Rhyno Lites from Velomine. They're laced to sealed cartridge bearing hubs to make maintenance simple.

SethAZ 

I'm no guru, but I did build myself a set of wheels that have proven to be very durable, even as I've ridden thousands of miles on them at weights between 275 and 304 lbs.

The front is a 32h Shimano hub laced to a Pacenti SL23 rim. Nice and wide, and has worked great as you'd expect of a front rim.

The rear is a Velocity A23 OC in a 32h drilling, which is the off-center rim. This allows the builder to shift the point where the spokes enter the rim over towards the non-drive side, which makes tensioning the non-drive side easier to get high enough that you won't unload the spoke tension while out riding. This unloading of the spoke tension on non-drive sides is a real killer.

I also believe firmly in double-butted spokes, and where practical using weaker spokes on the non-drive side so that they can stretch a little more and help them keep tension better under use.

While my 32h wheel with its off-center rim and double-butted spokes has worked great for me for thousands of miles, the new wheels I'm building for a bike that I ordered but haven't received yet will be 36h for even greater confidence.

Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but it seems that high quality road hubs are rarer than hen's teeth in drillings larger than 36h, and even then most of the popular hubs simply can't be found over 32h.

SethAZ 

Btw, the wheels I'm building up for my new bike will be based on the lightbicycle.com model RR46C02 rim. They will be 36h front and rear, laced to White Industries CLD hubs. I'd really like to use DT Swiss Aero Comp spokes for the front wheel, though I may not bother and just use normal double butted spokes to save some money. The benefit for a guy like me going "aero" spoke on a wheel with 36 spokes may be trivial compared to the cost. I could also use a Sapim equivalent spoke, like the new CX-Sprint, which looks to be more or less the same thing as the Aero Comps.

Reasons I think these wheels will be ideal for me on my new bike with hydraulic disc brakes:
1) Relatively deep section wheels (46mm) means spoke holes are closer to the hubs, which means especially with the wider spacing of the thru-axle axle design the spoke angle will be greater, for greater axial stability. This should make it easier to get a more equal spoke tension between the drive and non-drive sides of the rear, and the disc and non-disc sides of the front wheel. The more equal the spoke tension, the less likely it is that the looser side will unload the spokes during any impacts or rotation. Maintaining tension throughout use will improve longevity of the wheel, as well as keep it truer longer.

2) 36h will provide even better spread of the weight and forces around the rim as compared to my current "tough" build which is 32h front and rear, and has served me well for several thousand miles.

3) These rims are wiiiiiide at 28mm. Combined with wide tires (I have a pair of Compass "Stampede Pass" tires waiting for the new bike, which are 32mm wide) this will result in very stable wheel/tire combinations. The wide tires, at lower air pressure, will provide better suspension, will be more comfortable, less likely to flat, and in all ways absorb much more shock of impacts on bumps and unevenness in the road, rather than transmitting that shock into the rims, then the spokes, then the hubs, and up into the bike frame and my body. The more vibration and shock that can be absorbed by the tires and inner tubes, the better it will be for every other part of the bike.

I've already ordered the rims. I haven't ordered the hubs and spokes/nipples yet, but I'll get them soon enough. I think this combination will make a rock-solid wheelset that will serve me well even if I fail to make my weight goal and stay in the 260-280lb range.

fietsbob

36 hole IGH... due to symmetrical bracing its stronger than a dished wheel with a cassette , even though its also 36 spoke.


My 48 spoke rear wheel , built by Me, was on my touring bike, that carried my camping gear , etc. , in 4 panniers..

across many countries over my 10 years of various summer tours..





....

StephenH

My advice: Find a good wheelbuilder, get his/her advice on what to build, that's one of the things you pay for.
In my case- it was a Chukker rim with a 36-hole hub and whatever spokes my wheelbuilder suggested, and that was good for tens of thousands of miles. I used 32mm tires mainly. This was when I asked for a "bulletproof" wheel. There may be lighter options that would also work.
It's a "light/cheap/strong- pick any two" choice, and the Chukker falls in the cheap/strong camp.
Tandem wheels are strong, but use different hub widths, so don't mess with them unless you know for sure what you're doing.

john_steed_uk

The HD wheels that some have recommended have a weight limit. Your brother-in-law plus his bike weight may be over that limit. I had a 48-spoke wheel custom built for me. I was about 300lbs. BUT the wheel worked well and it rarely (about once per year) needed truing. You may not need a custom built wheel. Lots of Tandem stores might have them or can get one pre-built. This is what I would opt for given my own personal history as a heavy rider. (Luckily for me, I am now less than 200lbs and hope never to go back.)

Bonzo Banana

I'd personally eliminate the problem altogether by going with a 26" wheeled bike. Even cheap 26" wheels should be strong enough. Their ability to cope with drops and jumps means they are pretty bomb proof for heavy riders on the road. I rode a cheap rigid mountain bike at 26 stone to get back into cycling which is something like 400lbs and only had to true the front wheel once after hitting a pot hole but never lost a spoke. Why go for a weaker design and try and maximise its strength when you can just use a bike that will comfortably perform to that level. Some of the old chromoly steel rigid mountain bikes go for peanuts now and as strong as an ox with their 36 spoke wheels. Ok a few kg heavier than the latest bikes but a lot less hassle and something you can rely on.

I know its confusing sometimes because you look in the instruction manuals of many bikes and they state the same weight limit of maybe 136kg/300lbs for both hybrids with 700c or 26" wheels but the reality is 26" is much stronger as you would expect being the wheel size used for mountain bike's. That's not to say that there aren't 700c wheels stronger than 26" wheels but that would probably be a comparison of the very best quality 700c wheel components expertly built compared to low end 26" mass produced wheels. This is the crappy bike I rode at 400lbs approx. Not actually my bike but the same model. Wheels are nothing special, I changed the tyres to slicks but they still obviously gave much better protection to the wheels from the road surface, much deeper/wider profile than 700c tyres. Very comfortable bike.

Leebo

I went with a hand built wheel, shimano 105 hub, mavic a 719 touring rim, double butted spokes. Works well. A cassette hub would be the way to go, shimano xt or deore hub and a stout rim.

LaughingBasher

280 lb? any wheelset will do. When im 280lb i used roadie(28h) to work with no broken spoke.