Another one to recommend a good wheel builder to build the wheels. Besides Rich, Jim at Hiawatha here in MN is a good builder. He's built all my wheels.
Agree more air in the tires is the cheapest fix. On 35mm Paselas, I'd run them at 80 to 90 psi. A year or so ago I was that weight and that's what I did. No flats and no spoke issues. Besides the Velocity rims, will also plug the Salsa Delgado in 700C. They are wide and can handle higher pressures on wide tires. Right now my Sam Hillborne has Marathon Supreme tires 40mm wide at about 65 psi and no problems. Even when I was 300 pounds, didn't have a problem breaking rear hubs. That sounds like a frame alignment issue. You can spend $500 for wheels, but a good builder should be able to make a full set for less than that. Eric Platt St. Paul, MN On Apr 19, 6:55�pm, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote: > On Apr 19, 2010, at 12:02 PM, Thomas Lynn Skean wrote: > > > Hi, all. I seek counsel. > > > I weigh about 250 lbs. I often carry 10-15 lbs on a rear rack. I ride > > a Trek hybrid, sitting bolt-upright. (By the way, this Trek is about > > as Riv'd up as any Trek could be. Actual Riv relevance: Later this > > year I'll also be riding a Hillborne and any counsel I receive will > > apply to it for sure; maybe/maybe-not for the Trek. Also, the riding I > > do is very much non-clubby, non-race-y, and non-trivial in distance; > > this seems to match up with Riv philosophy and thus seems appropriate > > for this group.) I use 700x35 tires on 32- or 36-spoke wheels at about > > 60 psi. > > <snip> > > > Help? Thoughts? Musings? > > Tandems put more load than you on wheels. �So do loaded touring � > bikes. �They are not experiencing the failures you are. �The axle � > failures you report really bother me. �I would look very carefully at � > the frame- make sure the dropouts are properly aligned (if not they � > can put a bending force on the axle). �A *good* bike shop with frame � > alignment tools can check this and make any adjustments, or go to a � > frame builder. �If your frame has horizontal dropouts I would � > recommend replacing the frame with a bike with vertical dropouts; � > these support the axle better and were created to reduce axle � > breakage. �They also work better with fenders. > > 60 psi in a 700 x 35 tire at your weight seems low to me. > > My going-forward-advice would be to use no less than a 36 spoke rear � > wheel. �I'd recommend a Phil Wood freewheel hub (less expensive but � > still spendy) or Phil Wood cassette hub (grande expensativo). �You � > won't break those axles nor will you be at all likely to tear the � > flanges apart. �The rim recommendation I will have to defer, although � > Chalo Colina over on the rec.bicycles.tech group weighs over 300 lbs � > (I think he's like 6'8" or something like that) and he has had good � > results with Alex rims (and rides 48 spoke wheels). �He has � > recommended the Alex AT-400 or the DM-18. �You can Google for "Chalo � > Colina Alex rims" and find some of the threads and his email address � > if you want to contact him. �Jim Thill on this mailing list builds � > good wheels professionally and has put some wheels together for � > bigger riders than you. �He might have an option on a rim, too. > > Chalo is also a machinist and builds lots of bike stuff to meet his � > particular needs as a very big, very heavy guy. �Check out his brakes: > > http://chalo.org/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group > athttp://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
