Help me with my wheel dilemma (what to buy)

[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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