Help me with my wheel dilemma (what to buy)

[ian74]

After 11,000+ miles on my bike my rim broke on my rear wheel. Combination of lots of potholes and eating lots of bagels. I’m very sad. Now I have to decide what I’m going to do about it. My bike is a touring bike with 700c/36 spoke/6 bolt discs. The factory wheels are built up with WTB i19 rims and Shimano Deore hubs. I run 38mm tires on the bike. Rear hub needed new cones a few months ago and front is due for an overhaul too. I have several options. I have my dream bike fund I set aside money in and now I have to take from it to buy a new wheel. This also sucks, but when I buy dream bike it will be a weekend rider and not a commuter which I spend 12+ hours riding every week. That will remain a constant so it probably makes sense to lay out money for a decent set of wheels now.

I have the following choices, should I:

1. Ask the shop I bought the bike from to see if they can get me a replacement wheel?
2. Buy a new budget wheel off the shelf from any number of online vendors (I’ve seen some rear wheels for less than $100)
3. Buy a complete new wheelset and take $300-400 dollars out of the dream bike fund for them? Maybe more?

I hope I could get some recommendations for wheels. Can you get a decent set of off-the-shelf wheels for $300-400? Should I ask local shops for custom built wheels (maybe out of budget range)? Do more expensive wheels always equal better wheels? Do I need a mountain bike wheelset or a road bike wheelset to keep running my 38-40mm tires on? Does anyone have any used disc wheels they want to get rid of?

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[anomad]

@ian74 166126 wrote:

Odd. I just checked, it’s a 36 spoke wheel, there are 9 spokes that have cracks where they enter the rim (1/4) and every one of them is on the drive side. How did this happen? I must be a torque beast putting out sick watts. I wonder what my VO2 max is.

Ian has the highest Functional Commuting Power currently on record.

[Judd]

I’m no physicist either, but I’m thinking that the sudden momentary deceleration caused by the numerous daily low fives is probably what did it.

[hozn]

@ian74 166126 wrote:

Odd. I just checked, it’s a 36 spoke wheel, there are 9 spokes that have cracks where they enter the rim (1/4) and every one of them is on the drive side. How did this happen? I must be a torque beast putting out sick watts. I wonder what my VO2 max is.

Perhaps it was over tensioned; DS tensions are significantly higher than NDS on a [non-asym] rear wheel. I’m scratching WTB i19/i21/i25 rims off my list of rims to consider for my next gravel wheel build.

[Steve O]

@Left Field 166055 wrote:

Quick question: I have been running one bag on one side for many years and never thought much of it. I never thought it made a difference; does it?

@anomad 166057 wrote:

It puts more stress on one side of the rear wheel, which is already under less than ideal stress because the drive side spokes are shorter and under more tension. If you put a loaded bag on the spokes that are already under higher tension it exacerbates their weakness.

I am thinking that the lateral stress imposed on the wheel when one is out of the saddle cranking hard is at least an order of magnitude greater than a pannier hanging there with a suitcoat, tie and lunch in it. Maybe two orders of magnitude. Even a bag of heavy groceries.
So I’m still going with “doesn’t matter.”

[ian74]

@hozn 166132 wrote:

Perhaps it was over tensioned; DS tensions are significantly higher than NDS on a [non-asym] rear wheel. I’m scratching WTB i19/i21/i25 rims off my list of rims to consider for my next gravel wheel build.

I don’t think my experience should color your decision. These were OEM on my Salsa I bought from BicycleSpace. They are the ST model which is their cheapest and were 36 hole rims. I can not find any WTB i19 36 hole wheels or rims anywhere online. Not even on the WTB web site. Likely a budget build to start with. Of course the Googles has some anecdotal evidence of WTB Frequency rims cracking at spoke holes.

I thought they were really nice wheels and I was pretty happy with them until very recently. They never went out of true, but if that’s my sole criteria for a good wheel then I’m showing my ignorance.

[Author]

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