Wheel Question

[mstone]

@eminva 126620 wrote:

The wheel is out of true again. I plan to take it back to the bike shop, but is this to be expected? FYI, my son is in the neighborhood of 200 lbs. and we recently installed a rack on the back so he could get his extremely heavy backpack off his back. Is this too much? (Although I would note he was carrying the same load before this, just on his back and not directly over the rear wheel).

Is this the version with the 32 spokes or the 28 spokes in the side-by-side configuration? If the latter, I’d be amazed if the wheels would ever stay true. If the former, try getting a second opinion (from a different LBS) on whether the wheels are tensioned properly. If he’s riding it heavy, I’d even consider moving to a box rim with 36 spokes and never worrying about it again.

[jabberwocky]

I don’t think the Quick is a super high end bike. I’ve found that, until you get to the multithousand dollar range, stock wheelsets are not generally all that great (by which I mean they are usually junk). Do you know what wheels it came with?

200+ with a pack is gonna stress wheels. I’m close to that, and my road bike (which I commute on with a pack) needs a retrue at least once a year and rim replacements every 3 or so.

[eminva]

Thanks — 32 spokes. The wheel is a Maddux DC 3.0 Disc. I know this is not a high end bike, but he likes hybrids and you probably wouldn’t want to park a nicer bike in front of a high school on Route 7 everyday.

Appreciate the insights.

Liz

[Crickey7]

My experience with stock wheels is that some are simply not assembled right, and no amount of truing will ever make them right. They will just get back out of true, fairly quickly. If you get a wheel like that, your options are to have it re-built by hand (by an experienced wheelbuilder) or buy a new one.

[Steve O]

@Crickey7 126645 wrote:

…or buy a new one.

Or a used one. Phuoc at the Bike Club has a pile of used wheels, some of which have lots of spokes and might be perfect for what you need. I got a used wheel just for the rim from him once, to build around my dynohub. Not sure if Phoenix might have some, too.

[krazygl00]

@eminva 126629 wrote:

Thanks — 32 spokes. The wheel is a Maddux DC 3.0 Disc. I know this is not a high end bike, but he likes hybrids and you probably wouldn’t want to park a nicer bike in front of a high school on Route 7 everyday.

Appreciate the insights.

Liz

Not really knowing about the quality of the Maddux brand, I would say it is entirely possible to make a 32h wheel built adequately for a 200lb rider with 40lb or so load. You might even be able to do it with the existing hardware; the key would be getting a good wheelbuilder who will re-tension and re-true the entire wheel and do all of the goodies that good wheel builders do such as pre-tension the spoke shoulders and do a final wind-up relief.

Pro-tip: if they don’t use a tension-meter during the build they’re doing it wrong.

[jabberwocky]

32 spokes is plenty for anything short of heavily loaded touring. The strength of the wheel is the rim/spokes/build. At that price point, the rim and spokes will be fairly cheap, and its likely machine built which ain’t the best.

32 spoke/3cross is pretty standard for MTB wheels, and those are quite robust. Its all the build.

[hozn]

Yeah, the key — as others have said — is to have the wheel “rebuilt” *not* re-trued. I am guessing this is a $50-100 endeavour (?). It could also be that the rim is bent and cannot be both true and evenly tensioned, though perfectly true rims are not a requirement for disc-brake wheels (but even and sufficiently high tensions are).

[Terpfan]

I have a Cannondale Quick Hybrid as well from like 2011 I think. Anyway, as others noted, the stock wheels aren’t that good. Frankly, they’re better than most, but I recall mine basically being totally worthless about a year into it. I upgraded for a decent quality rear wheel (granted that’s like 40% of the price of that whole bike) and didn’t encounter another wheel issue ever again. Ditto my recent road bike. Sure the rear wheel needs slight truing adjustments, but ever since I ditched the stock wheel, I haven’t had anything remotely close to the problems I had before. And I’m like your son being a bigger (taller and over 200lbs).

[eminva]

Thank you everyone, for your comments. I tried to respond privately to a couple of you, but technical difficulties prevented me from being able to “send.”

I am reluctant to identify the shop and mechanic by name, but I have always been under the impression from those in the know that he is very well respected (whether he is an expert at wheels . . . I can’t say).

Anyway, back to the shop it went and after some tweaks it is rolling again. Maybe in the long run a new wheel will be needed, but we’ll see if we can baby this one along for a while.

Thanks again.

Liz

[Tim Kelley]

@eminva 127234 wrote:

I tried to respond privately to a couple of you, but technical difficulties prevented me from being able to “send.”
Liz

Are you still having this issue?

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