What are your wheelbuilds for multi-day/week road racing?

[roadpacker]

I've got a super-heavy, 36h, MTB rim with steel spokes and 37mm conti-contacts at an incredible 90 PSI. Want to take down the weight and make it slicker, I think, without making it too weak. I have, all-together, about a 45lb rig. What do you guys use? What do the pro's use? Is there a thread on this??

 

[othersackett]

I have two wheelsets built with dt swiss rr465 rims. Both 32 hole built 3x.  One has dt 190 hubs and 32c continentals.  This is the bike I commute and haul groceries with - gets ridden at least 5 days a week and regularly hops curbs and hits potholes.  The other has dt 340 hubs and currently regular road tires.  Have a lot of miles on these and still in great shape.  I have done short tours (a few days) on this one and many rides with a light load on the rear rack and a handlebar bag.  These wheels have proven very durable and I would trust them for any long trip.  I don't have any experience with loads much over 40 lbs though and I weigh about 165.

[Area54]

Disc or rim brake?

[Mini Bear]

A whole mess of questions to answer before going further down this rabbit hole:

1. Weight. Both yourself and gear; bike, worn, carried. And keep in mind the max weight that you will carry. You may weigh 150, but maybe you pack on a couple pounds over winter... And maybe your base weight for bikepacking is 15lbs, but how much water/food are you going to carry? If you'll never do the AZTR, and carry the requisite billion gallons of water, then hooray! You can have lighter wheels. But, if long desert stretches are in your future, it changes the math.

2. Riding style. Do you ride like a sack of bricks thrown down a hill? Or do people stand agape at the beauty of your flow? Do you grab the brakes like your favorite blankey from childhood? Or do you ride like a ninja down even the wildest descents? Two riders who look identical on paper will ride entirely different wheels depending on riding style.

3. Current and future bike setup. Pretty self-explanatory. Different frame, tire, brake, blah, blah, blah means different rim, hub, blah, blah, blah. Are you only using it for this bike or will it go on future bikes? Also, will the wheel go on multiple bike styles (cx, mtb, touring, monster cross, etc.).

4. Riding setup. Kind of tying #2 and 3 from above: do you always run insanely high pressure or do you ever run low and/or normal pressures? Do you ride crazy upright? How do you load the bike? Do you run different tires on different occasions? Do you ride differently with different setups?

All the above are considerations to be made when talking about wheels. This is why I usually (and selfishly) advise people into handmade wheels. There are so many different styles of riding a bike, that the idea that you can choose from 3-5 different models from a pre-built company feels a little silly. I'm one person and each of my dozen bikes has an entirely different build depending on it's given purpose.

Disclaimer: I'm a huge nerd and lifelong mechanic. Your decision need not be so labored if you don't want it to be.

[Yogi the Barry]

As road wheels on my 29er, with 28mm Conti UltraGators:
Front: 32-spoke, 2.0-1.5 DT Revo, 3X, Stan's Crest rim and SP dynamo hub [QR axle]. I built-up this wheel myself.
Rear: 32-spoke, 2.0-1.7 mm DT Comp, Stan's Arch rim and Stan's generic hub with DT 10mm thru axle and hub ends. This is a semi-custom wheel from Stan's [~$300]. If I was building this wheel myself, I'd put Revos on the non-drive side and Comps on the drive side.
Both wheels, 12mm aluminum nipples, 160mm SRAM HS1 rotors.

[dgjessee]

Building some up for the Transcontinental Race right now. These were "designed" for me by my bike tech. American Classic RD2218 rims 28h, AC micro 58 front hub, AC RD205 rear hub, DT competition double butted spokes and brass nipples. I weigh about 150 and my racing/ultralight touring set up is probably 10-15 lbs. not including food/water.

[roadpacker]

Thanks for the insight so far. More info (looking at you Ruff Al),

I weigh in at 180. I ride a 30lb road bike (with empty bags attached), and add probably 12-15 pounds of gear and maybe an additional 8 to 10 of water.

1. Rim brakes. Brake usage: I am mindful of grinding the brakes on descents since I came up bike touring with huge loads. I usually open-throttle and scrub off speed in 1 to 2 second intervals with about 8 or 10 seconds in between depending upon the needs and descent. Otherwise I take it easy and don't skid the back wheel except when I'm trying to look really cool.

2. I am fleetfooted on the bike. I dodge potholes.

3. See above for my current wheel set-up.

4. I ride decently upright for a road-bike-- my handlebars match my saddle height since my favorite thing to do is go on 16+hr rides. I use aerobars. I have an entire 3" of riser on top of about 3 spacers on my steering tube to achieve saddle-bar equilibrium. Say what you will, it keeps my back and my hands happy. I have very wide flat bars. I often wish I could ride with higher pressure-- I put my 90's at about 100 and love the feeling of it but it still feels sluggish. Probably could lose about 10 lbs from the steely ass bike, too, and that would help. I run these bastards year-round commuting and other riding, rain sleet snow and glorious dry pavement.

My gear that I'd take for a weekend trip is probably the same that I'd take across the country, which is to say that I'd carry some more ibeuprofen and butt'r but everything else is about as lean as I like. No backpack, just a bedroll, seatbag and framebag. And a tiny trianglebag behind the seat stays for holding tubes but don't judge me it was usable space!!

OK doc... tell me about it?? What was that Mike Hall running when he was speeding across the planet? What are those transcontinental kids speeding away with?? My wheels are tough as nails, they never go out of true, but I feel like they're built to hold up 150lbs of bike and gear, not this dainty stuff I'm carrying now.

I'm going to study up everyone else's replies so I know what they're talking about. I'll post back.

 

[Mini Bear]

If I had a bit of money laying around, I'd probably build up a pair of HED Belgium Plus rims in a 32 hole laced up to DT Swiss 240's. DT Aerolite for the spokes, 3 cross front and rear. And to err on the side of caution, I'd go with brass nipples. Alloy nipples are great, but most builders that I've known don't make the appropriate spoke calculations to support them. The HED rims are nice and wide, fairly light, and not nearly as expensive as a carbon rim. The DT hubs are pretty expensive, but light and very easy to field service if the need arises. The Aerolite spokes are expensive, but light, strong, and fast. If you've got money to burn, you could go for a carbon something or another, but the hubs are some of the best you can get, period. Keep in mind that the bigger tires you run and the lower pressure you ride, the lighter you can build the wheels. Not that I'd personally change the build a whole lot.

You could go with lighter lacing patterns, radial or 2x, and a lower spoke count to save some weight. But, by running 32 hole rims and the same lacing pattern front and rear, you'll be doing a couple things that aid in serviceability should something go wrong.

1. a 3x pattern will yield a spoke length that is fairly common. That is, you would be able to find it at most any shop. This particular build has 287-290mm spokes.
2. Likewise, a 32h rim is extremely common. If you were half asleep, smacked a pothole, and cracked/bent/whatever the rim, you would be able to find a replacement at pretty much any shop in the world.
3. As you can see above, the spoke lengths between the front and rear are very close. So, you can carry two or three 289mm spokes, and the redundancy that it allows, instead of three unique lengths that give you no redundancy.

So there you have it. My own take on a good, dependable, but fairly light and fast touring wheel. You can go lighter, but it'll cost you, either in cost or serviceability.