After about 6500 miles the rear wheel of my trusty Dawes Horizon touring bike is failing .\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019ve over tensioned it whilst trying it up in the past or perhaps it\u2019s the bumps in the roads of London but it\u2019s developing cracks round some of the spoke eyelets.\u00a0 I’m not worried that there is going to be a catastrophic failure as the braking surfaces still look like their holding out but soon I expect that the spokes will begin to loosen and the wheel will drift out of true.<\/p>\n
Initially I had toyed with getting new rims and putting them on to my existing hubs.\u00a0 As I thought about it, it\u2019s the perfect opportunity to upgrade my wheelset.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been told many times that putting better wheels on the bike is an upgrade that I\u2019d appreciate.\u00a0 After doing some internet searches my shortlist was down to Spa Cycles for Exal LX rims with Deore XT hubs for an economic option or \u00a0H Plus Son rims with Deore XT hubs for something lighter that would go really well with my stainless steel mudguards, silver pannier rack and silver spokes albeit more expensive.<\/p>\n
My thinking was:<\/p>\n
Having spoken to Spa they persuaded me that the Deore LX hub would be a better option as in their view it us more durable.\u00a0 As it was also slightly cheaper I took their advice.\u00a0 Having been informed about this I’ve now found several articles comments where people have come to favour the steel LX hubs over the alloy XT hubs;\u00a0 Travellingtwo,<\/a> Woollypigs<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 and YACF<\/a>.\u00a0 Given that in the past I\u2019ve had a hub acquire a large groove in the cup due to a broken bearing I\u2019m not too worried about the future cost of having to replace the a broken hub as long as it is smooth running in use providing I don\u2019t need a new hub every week commuting to work.\u00a0 I did have some agonising over their suggestion to put a 32 hole rim on the front instead but felt that for a little extra weight and cost in spokes it would be easier to try and more likely to survive the potholes on the roads I travel.<\/p>\n Now time to put to use the wheel truing stand I bought ten years ago for the purpose.\u00a0 It\u2019s just taken me longer than expected to wear my wheels out and require its use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After about 6500 miles the rear wheel of my trusty Dawes Horizon touring bike is failing .\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019ve over tensioned it whilst trying it up in the past or perhaps it\u2019s the bumps in the roads of London but it\u2019s developing cracks round some of the spoke eyelets.\u00a0 I’m not worried that there is … Continue reading Wheelbuilding – Part 1<\/span>