Wheel set for 240 lb rider

[Redevil]

Hi all
i got the Zipp 404 last year but forgot to ask the weight limit (250)
so i had lot's of issues with the freehub and i managed to convince
my bike shop to take them back with full refund.
Any recommendations for a new set at the same (or below) price
($2000)
All Mavic wheels are out of the question as their max is 264 (including bike)

Thanks

 

[Froze]

You didn't mention how much you weigh, I assume between 240 and 270?

Reynolds claims that their Strike DB and Assault DB can take riders up to 250 pounds but I would email them to make sure. Mavic admits that for riders in excess of 250 pounds that a custom wheelset be built; I know if you can build a Velocity Dyad with 36 spokes it can easily hold a 250 pound rider with another 65 or so pounds of touring gear on a touring bike! Along with a Dyad build you would need to make sure it is built with a 3 cross spoke pattern, double butted DT Alpine spokes, and brass nipples. I would go 36 spoke wheels both rear and front but some may argue all you need is 32 on the front, that's fine, but I prefer to be on the side of over engineered for better reliability.

On that note, if your LBS cannot build a wheelset for your weight, or you don't trust them to do so, Peter White at Peter White Cycles can, he is the foremost wheel builder in the US and maybe the world and his prices are very reasonable. He's sort of an odd duck to speak to but if you approach him with mindset and speaking manners that say you are open to whatever suggestion he makes and don't try to act like you know more about wheels then he does, or are hesitant on his suggest, you'll be ok, because what he will suggest will be the only best suggestion. If you accept his recommendation you'll get a lifetime guarantee on the wheels! He is really good, I have a set of wheels from him and they have never gone out of true! http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ Personally if I was a very large person this is the only person I would want to build my wheels!! In fact he is the only person I want building my next set of touring wheels. By the way, he may have a better idea than the wheelset I mention which is fine, go with his suggestion and not mine, but if you don't like to do things remotely and want your LBS to do it the Dyad wheel build I suggested will be fine assuming the LBS knows how to build a strong wheel.

 

[Leo001]

I'll add my 2 cents, I'm a Clyde (250lb) all my bikes have their stock wheels, (bontrager, etc...) I have never purchased a set of "upgraded" wheels. I have a few bikes ranging from vintage Bianchi steel frame, to a Specialized, to a hybrid and even a fat bike, I ride a minimum of 2000 miles a year, some wheels are 32 spoke, one set of Mavic are 28 spoke (straight pull) over the years I have broken 2 or 3 spokes. I'd say just buy quality wheels (no light weights) keep them true and spoke tension even and you'll bee fine.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

About the same weight and I won't waste my time with fancy botique wheels.

Give me a good Velocity Deep V, well made (me ) , 32 spoke, 3x and it's good for 20.000 miles.

I myself don't get much use out of a stock wheel (Bontrager etc). I get a little over 2,000 before they go crazy and won't stay true. I toss them in the trash. Matter of fact, my last 2 bikes, I tossed them in the trash even before my bike hit the road. No sense in wasting frustration.

My wife, at a lower weight did get 13,000 out of her Bonti's before cracking around the nipples, as Bonti's are known for.

Yeah I could ride the stocks for several years if I had several bikes and did low mileage on them. I could make one set of stock wheels last 5 years.

But doing a 7300 mile year, those stock wheels didn't last me more than 4 months, waste of my time and frustration trying to keep them true. TRASH CAN!

I have used 32's and 28's in the rear with no problems at all in a 30 mm deep rim.

I have used 28's and 24's in the front with no problems at all.

 

[Cbtbakkes]

I used to do some loaded touring at 320 plus gear. I never had an issue with 36 spoked 700x25 wheels with mt bike hubs.

 

[Froze]

I used to do some loaded touring at 320 plus gear. I never had an issue with 36 spoked 700x25 wheels with mt bike hubs.

you probably wouldn't have any issues but to be safe 40 spoke wheel for the rear is recommended, which is why expedition bikes and a lot touring bikes came with 40 spoke rear wheels and 36 front though some expedition used 40 spoke front wheels too.

 

[swampy1970]

I do have to ask the question, since I'm way over 200lb now but from prior experience on several occasions I have to wonder: how can you cycle for years on end and still be over 200lb? I don't know how that works...

 

[swampy1970]

you probably wouldn't have any issues but to be safe 40 spoke wheel for the rear is recommended, which is why expedition bikes and a lot touring bikes came with 40 spoke rear wheels and 36 front though some expedition used 40 spoke front wheels too.

32 or 36 spoke wheels from a good wheel builder will do the trick.

If the wheels head south when the rider is north of 200lbs, then maybe a course in pothole avoidance and basic riding skills is required. Stuff doesn't break on smooth roads, stuff breaks when something bad happens - like hitting a pothole. Hitting potholes isn't just a thing - it's something that can be avoided.

At the start of every ride, check your tire's air pressure. During every moment of every ride, watch out for things that make your wheel go 'bump'.

 

[Froze]

I do have to ask the question, since I'm way over 200lb now but from prior experience on several occasions I have to wonder: how can you cycle for years on end and still be over 200lb? I don't know how that works...

To answer your last question about riding years on end and still be over 200 pounds is real simple...it's called genetics. That is NOT saying your genetics is inferior to someone weighing 160 pounds and riding for years on end, just different that's all plain and simple. If you've gone to a doctor and he says you need to lose weight then ok, but how much weight are you to lose? If you've been trying to lose say 40 pounds because the doctor said so for the last couple of years and you've been unsuccessful then you need to ask the doctor about a diet and what to change in your physical exercise. Larger people are built to be muscular, so maybe going to a gym every other day and riding your bike every other day when your not at the gym will build up muscle mass. In some aspects I envy you, because when I was young I tried like crazy for years to put on muscle mass and it failed, I was that skinny guy that girls instead looked at the more muscle bound guys. So don't let your weight depress you, you were made like that so you need to work with it. I knew a guy who had large bones but he weighed a lot, or so he thought so, so he virtually starved himself to the brink of death with very little fat on him and he still weighed 185 pounds, though he did drop 80 pounds he looked horrible, and it wasn't till he was admitted to the hospital that he discovered he wasn't suppose to be that thin for a person 6' 4" with large bones, the doc told him his idea weight should be 215 to 220 pounds. So your idea of a weight problem may not be one at all, so go see a doctor and find out the truth and then ask what changes you need to make to reduce if that's what the doctor says you must do.

Wheel wise, usually lower costing wheels are more stout because they are heavier and built to be stout. ROL makes a nice set of wheels for heavy riders called the Volant R/T and they're only $525 for the pair; see: https://store.rolwheels.com/volant-rt-alloy-clincher-p148.aspx the recommended rider weight max is 240 pounds. If you weigh more than 240 pounds you may need to go with a custom built wheel using Velocity Deep V Clydesdale wheel and opting for 36 spokes front and 40 rear; see: http://www.velocityusa.com/product/wheels/clydesdale/deep-v-clydesdale-wheelset These are actually less expensive than the ROL so you might want to consider only the Velocity if you need to save a bit of money. On that Velocity site the wheel weight they list I'm sure are for the wheels with the least amount of spokes and not for the set with the middle amount or the most amount of spokes.

Are there other wheels out there? Of course but I didn't have time to list a bunch but those, especially the Velocity, are a great set of wheels for a very reasonable price. they're not racing wheels they are wheels designed to take a heavier person banging on rough city streets without fail or constant truing.

 

[swampy1970]

I’m not buying the genetics thing. In some cases yes but for most folks no.

I do several things pretty well that causes me to pack on weight. Become a human sloth, drink lots of strong IPA and rekindle the love for all things BBQ. Who can resist a brisket that comes off the smoker and rests for a few hours and cuts with the side of the fork like butter? But for cycling that’s terrible! I get back on the bike, cut out the beer, limit the food intake and get more sleep. For me, the sleep is the key. If I ride and don’t increase the sleep then my weight loss is much less and I just end up tired.

To answer your last question about riding years on end and still be over 200 pounds is real simple...it's called genetics. That is NOT saying your genetics is inferior to someone weighing 160 pounds and riding for years on end, just different that's all plain and simple. If you've gone to a doctor and he says you need to lose weight then ok, but how much weight are you to lose? If you've been trying to lose say 40 pounds because the doctor said so for the last couple of years and you've been unsuccessful then you need to ask the doctor about a diet and what to change in your physical exercise. Larger people are built to be muscular, so maybe going to a gym every other day and riding your bike every other day when your not at the gym will build up muscle mass. In some aspects I envy you, because when I was young I tried like crazy for years to put on muscle mass and it failed, I was that skinny guy that girls instead looked at the more muscle bound guys. So don't let your weight depress you, you were made like that so you need to work with it. I knew a guy who had large bones but he weighed a lot, or so he thought so, so he virtually starved himself to the brink of death with very little fat on him and he still weighed 185 pounds, though he did drop 80 pounds he looked horrible, and it wasn't till he was admitted to the hospital that he discovered he wasn't suppose to be that thin for a person 6' 4" with large bones, the doc told him his idea weight should be 215 to 220 pounds. So your idea of a weight problem may not be one at all, so go see a doctor and find out the truth and then ask what changes you need to make to reduce if that's what the doctor says you must do.

Wheel wise, usually lower costing wheels are more stout because they are heavier and built to be stout. ROL makes a nice set of wheels for heavy riders called the Volant R/T and they're only $525 for the pair; see: https://store.rolwheels.com/volant-rt-alloy-clincher-p148.aspx the recommended rider weight max is 240 pounds. If you weigh more than 240 pounds you may need to go with a custom built wheel using Velocity Deep V Clydesdale wheel and opting for 36 spokes front and 40 rear; see: http://www.velocityusa.com/product/wheels/clydesdale/deep-v-clydesdale-wheelset These are actually less expensive than the ROL so you might want to consider only the Velocity if you need to save a bit of money. On that Velocity site the wheel weight they list I'm sure are for the wheels with the least amount of spokes and not for the set with the middle amount or the most amount of spokes.

Are there other wheels out there? Of course but I didn't have time to list a bunch but those, especially the Velocity, are a great set of wheels for a very reasonable price. they're not racing wheels they are wheels designed to take a heavier person banging on rough city streets without fail or constant truing.

 

[Froze]

I’m not buying the genetics thing. In some cases yes but for most folks no.

Wait, you worded it so you can have it both ways! So in other words you do agree with the genetics thing you just want to say it in a roundabout way.

Maybe instead of being wishy washy in your thoughts read this: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-people-become-overweight

And some people can indeed get heavy then do all the right things and get thinner, but those people got that way due to mostly environmental, what they eat and drink and lack of activity, but there are people that have always been heavy even as a baby. I know of a kid who is 4 years old that weighs 125 pounds! And YES he has been seeing doctors for this for quite awhile, and mom said he has a genetic thing going on that got past down by one of grandparents and the doctors can't do a whole lot. Yes he can exercise which he does, and the docs have him on a diet as well as medicine. But he also has very large bones for a kid which will be needed to support his weight when he gets older. He's also taller than most 5 year olds. Right now I think his weight is dangerous for him because he's short of breath as he walks and the doctors have noted that, of course it doesn't help a lot that both parents smoke a lot and in the house in regards to his breathing which I believe would be helped, not cured, if they stopped smoking inside.

Me on the other hand for about a year as a teen of 15 tried every type of weight gain thing I heard about and I never so much as gained an ounce! I wasn't picky about what I ate, in fact I had a see food diet, what I saw I ate, and I had too because I was always hungry. I remember my first bike race I packed all the protein bars my team said for me to do, ate what they said to eat before I left the house for the event, it was a 100 mile race and I ate up all my food and was starving and bonking before the 50 mile mark. I had to ride into a mini mart and buy a couple of egg salad sandwiches which I ate one and put the other in my jersey pocket which I ate around the 75 mile mark. Fortunately for me I carried a little money but unfortunately for me I lost the race by quite a bit because of the food stop.

Even now that I'm 65 years old, when I go on a weekend bicycle camping trip the extra 55 pounds I have to lug causes me to get hungry much quicker then when I ride my regular bike without the load, so every hour or so I have to eat a bar before I bonk from the hunger. There are people I know who toured when they were a lot younger than I am who never had that hunger issue. It's just genetics which plays into how the metabolism will affect a particular person. Genetics does a lot of things that people don't realize.

 

[swampy1970]

That kid is an example of why I said “in some cases.” Those cases are rare.

I used to get the bonk around the 50 mile point - that’s normal if you’re silly enough not to feed right. You’re about 2 hours in and your glycogen has all but gone... That was your bad for racing for that long and not eating right during the race.

 

[Froze]

That kid is an example of why I said “in some cases.” Those cases are rare.

I used to get the bonk around the 50 mile point - that’s normal if you’re silly enough not to feed right. You’re about 2 hours in and your glycogen has all but gone... That was your bad for racing for that long and not eating right during the race.

Some cases is not a rare case, while my example is rare due to the extremest of it which I only showed due to the genetics discussion, the other not so extreme is not so rare and just as genetically true, just as it is for genetics to allow for a very skinny kid as I was when I was young.

And my feed thing was governed by a cycling club that had racing teams all the way up to cat 2, so hopefully they knew what they were talking about since everyone on the various teams didn't have the same extreme situation that I had. So with the coach and myself, we had to figure that I had to carrying more food.

Not so sure why you are having such a difficulty over this genetic thing. It's like you don't want to believe that it has any effect or if does you can control it completely, no you cannot, you can control it some degree but if you're destined to be a large person and can't be skinny without starving yourself to death...literally. I knew a girl that was 6' 2" tall with large bones for a woman, she thought she was fat so she dieted, it didn't work, so she went into extreme mode, a did in deed lose weight but the she was rushed to the emergency room because she almost died from being too weak. The doctor later told her that she can't ever be whatever weight she was trying to get too because she was a large bone person and would kill herself trying to get there as it almost had. So the doctor told her what her ideal weight range was and she reached that and stayed there.

There is a lot of other stuff that is genetic too like cancer, heart issues, etc that diet and exercise alone can't overcome. And even if you had the very best diet ever devised by man, along with the very best exercise program ever devised by man, and follow it religiously, be completely absent of any environmental hazards, genetics says you will die, some will die younger than others and they can all be on the same best diet and exercise program (etc) but death will come at various stages for various reasons because of genetics.

 

[swampy1970]

Do you need some Preparation H?

 

[Mr. Beanz]

To answer your last question about riding years on end and still be over 200 pounds is real simple...it's called genetics. .

I like that answer! So many guys have asked at my height why I am still over 200 pounds. One guy said I ought to be at 175 like him at my height of 6'1. He went on and on then we met in person. My shoulders are bigger than his thighs, my wrists bigger than his calves. After we met he said, now I see why!

I was at 220 trying super hard and busting my ass to eat right and train hard for a competition. Friends and family said I look sick and undernourished but at the same time guessed my weight at 180.

Genetics? Yeah, my father, an inch shorter than I just passed a way of cancer, big dude dwindled down by cancer, skin and bone still weighed 115 pounds when he passed.

 

[Froze]

I like that answer! So many guys have asked at my height why I am still over 200 pounds. One guy said I ought to be at 175 like him at my height of 6'1. He went on and on then we met in person. My shoulders are bigger than his thighs, my wrists bigger than his calves. After we met he said, now I see why!

I was at 220 trying super hard and busting my ass to eat right and train hard for a competition. Friends and family said I look sick and undernourished but at the same time guessed my weight at 180.

Genetics? Yeah, my father, an inch shorter than I just passed a way of cancer, big dude dwindled down by cancer, skin and bone still weighed 115 pounds when he passed.

Exactly correct, and you are living proof of how genetics works. It's funny that in modern times with all of our technology we still have people that don't understand how genetics works in relation to a person size, but the Romans understood this very well, they had their military designed around the size of a person and what they could do best for the size they were, we don't understand that, we try to push a square peg into a round hole because everything should fit a round hole.

 

[VelocityVincePro]

Hey, you're absolutely right. It's fascinating how the Romans recognized the importance of tailoring their military to individuals' sizes. We can definitely learn from their approach!