Big Strong Wheels for Big Strong Riders

This is a response from BigMac to my question about wheels for big guys. As usual he hits the nail on the head. This is frpm the Serotta Forum.

William

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Big Boy Wheels:

William:

I am not your size and probably considerably older and less skilled. I am however a very muscular 6'2" 230lbs. My first suggestion would be to avoid Mavic K's, with all due respect to the gentleman who suggested them. K's are simply not designed for anyone our size, they will self-destruct in under 1000 miles. The cracking eyelets have been a long standing issue with many alloy rims using SS eyelets, the Mavic K's seem to suffer this more than most but honestly most similarly designed rims can have these problems and in many instances it does not effect structural integrity of wheel. The K's however lack torsional stiffness of a big guy wheel, I can easily produce enough flex to cause rear brake pad rub during in saddle climbing, out of saddle sprints are far worse often accompanied by loud popping, creaking and several spoke failures. Mind you, my expiences are with the sewup version but in most cases these are torsionally stiffer than the wire-on versions.

For prebuilt wheels, I'd follow Sr Jerk's suggestion of Bontrager Race X-Lite sewup. Great wheel, low dish, sewup, great customer support. The Campy Nucleon (aka Neutron) sewup olso features assyemtric rim/reduced dish design however its slightly lower torsional stiffness and customer support pales in comparison to Trek(Bontrager's parent). Sounds like you may be a wire-on/clincher guy, I won't hold that against you but would suggest sewups for best performance, handling, feel and strength. For clincher prebuilts, I'd suggest the Campy Eurus followed by Bontrager Race Lite. The Eurus has worderful torsional stiffness that beats out even the great Race X-Lite sewups. The Race-Lite clincher is lower priced clincher only version of X-Lite offering same performance and 2 extra rear spokes plus Trek support.

If you would like to use custom handbuilt wheels, the options are fewer but the results will be significantly less $$ and potentially stronger rear wheels. Unfortunately, there is not a sufficiently strong sewup rim readily imported in 'States thus I would again reiterate the suggestion for the Race X-Lite prebuilt wheelset as my top choice for sewup wheels. For handbuilt clinchers, the Bontrager Aurora assymetric rim is the best clincher rim available anywhere. Nice alloy rim, welded joint and assyemtric 32H drilling for reduced dish. Lace'em up with Campy or Shimano hubs and they should need very minimal servicing or care for 5k miles at the very least. If you needed any extra assurance, Phil Wood (Shimano spline only) or White Ind (Campy or Shimano spline) hubs are also available in several drilling patterns and feature flange designs which will further reduce spoke tension imbalances in rear wheels. Mind you these are considerably more $$ than C/S hubs and probably overkill for your needs (highly recommended for loaded touring uses however) but it is an option. Avoid King, Edco and several other "lightweight" hubs, they actually increase wheel dish due to poor flange designs, bad news for big guys like you and I. I would also suggest a straight 14g driveside spoke 3x lacing -- a very good friend of mine similar in size and fitness to you(he recently retired from NFL as TE) used DT's butted 13/14g spokes on driveside and his wheels are absolutely bombproof. For leftside (non-drive) rear use a butted 14/15g spoke with 2x lacing, the spoke length and tension left-right will be almost completely equal which results in a VERY strong, durable and torsionally stiff rear wheel. Best of luck.

Ride on!

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Big Boy Wheels cont...

William:

I'm not really looking to "convince" you to change your ways, I merely suggest you try a quality sewup and let the experience do the convincing. During my frequent travels i often ride loaner bikes and I can assure you the minute I take the initial pedal stroke and just the slightest nudge on the bars, I can identify whether the bike I am riding has clinchers or sewups. If its clinchers I just do not enjoy the experience of riding nearly as much.

I would like to correct a misnomer you seemed to have acquired regarding sewups, clinchers are FAR more prone to roll-off than a sewup. Pro's still use sewups predominantly, by a very wide margin. In fact, many teams and vendors go to great lengths to disguise a sewup to appear like the sponsors' clincher tire for marketing-sponsorship reasons. Why are sewups the pro's tire of choice? Reduced rolling resistance, ride quality and cornering ability are important but somewhat minor factors from race support standpoint. The primary reason is that when a clincher punctures, it flats in under 30 seconds and is basically unrideable. If one was to be descending at high speeds, a puncture could very likely cause a roll-off and very severe crash. Conversely, short of a blown casing, a sewup puncture will cause a very slow leak allowing the rider to continue racing for several minutes while race support vehicle can provide wheel replacement assistance. This alone can save 2 or more minutes for a single rider. A sewup is in fact glued to the rim but that is actually a supplemental retention system. The primary retention is the tires inflation pressure. Unlike a wire-on where the higher the psi, the greater the pressure on bead and casing to prevent dismount, a sewup actually increases it grip on rim as psi increases.

If you're worried about glue softening due to brake induced heat build-up, the easiest response is to improve your descending skills such that you will not need to brake as often. You should basically never use a rim brake enough to cause excessive heat build up in racing or hard training conditions, this is only a concern for loaded touring bike riders. Not good enough? If front brake begins to feel soft or fade due to said heat build up, use a H2O bottle and apply 2-3 light, steady squirts at backside of forkcrown.

Joseba's roll-off was in fact a sewup however it is my understanding from 2 of the now former Once mechanics that the tire in question had flatted prior to the roll-off. This is based on some unscientific video review but primarily a close examination of the tire in question which had a severely punctured casing when examined. Interestingly (or frighteningly as it were), Joseba does not recall much of the actual events leading to his crash.

Enough about sewups v clinchers, the modern clincher is infinitely better than the clinchers of old and if you're happy with'em, no problem. Find a local wheelsmith and have them lace up a set using the Bontrager assyemtric rim in rear, you should have trouble free wheels for many thousands of miles. I would encourage you to use a local wheelsmith only. I would personally never recommend any mail order/online wheelsmith to anyone, but for someone your size it would be even more critical. Big guys like you are hard on all wheels, no matter the quality of build. An occasional tweak or trueing is to be expected, many local wheelsmiths will either not touch a wheel they did not build or will charge a very high fee for any adjustments and offer no warranty for said work. If its a good local wheelsmith, they will provide spoke repairs/replacements at no charge along with any adjustments on wheels they have originally built. Check with local cycling clubs for the referrals, there is usually 1 or 2 local wheelsmiths who's name and reputation exceeds all others. If you are located in SF BayArea, the best wheelsmith is in Berkeley, I'll be happy to give you his name if you require.

Ride on!