How is this rim for my wheel building plan?

[sps7]

Hello everyone,

Tell me if you know about the soundness of a rim I plan to use for a new rear wheel, to be used during heavily loaded touring and during around-town riding.

Last year, while riding my now 38 year old Raleigh "SuperCourse" touring bicycle, I was hit by a careless driver. The sturdy, strong front 27" wheel (which I had built, along with the rear one, in 1983) was destroyed. A friend gave me a 700 size wheel which I'm now using. [Luckily, the original Weinmann centerpull brakes have long slots so I can drop the brake blocks to land nicely on a 700 rim.] Now I plan to take apart the still sound, strong and in great shape rear 27" wheel, buy a Sun Ringle model CR-18, 700c, 36 hole, Presta valve hole, Silver rim, and use the 1983-bought-and-installed Specialized sealed hub in the new wheel. [I'll use that hub since my bicycle is the original "10 speed": there are only 5 sprockets in the freewheel.]

I know there are rims more costly than the Sun Ringle but I wonder if you feel it's a sturdy, well-made rim to use in my plan.


Thanks

[robo]

I used  27 inch CR18 wheels on my 1500 mile tour last year, and just finished up a ride in Yellowstone on the same wheels.  They are still perfectly true, and their weight didn't seem to be an issue at all. 

I'm not huge-  weigh about 130 and carried about 35 pounds of camping gear, water, and food, so your results may vary.


By the way, the Performance Kevlar tires I used for about 2000 miles held up great- until I got a tread cut from some unknown object.  I stuck in a boot and rode them several days until I could get to the bike shop in West Yellowstone, where there were still a pair of Conti Top Touring tires.  I am also pleased with the new rubber.

[gpshay]

I too am looking at all the options for front and rear wheels so I checked robert beckmans' web site to see what he uses on his ultra high dollar touring machines. He also uses Sun rims 48 hole rear and 40 hole front with Phil Wood hubs.Velocity Dyad is another rim i am considering .glenn in phx

[whittierider]

Peter White at peterwhitecycles.com is practically a wheel-building legend in his own time.  I learned about him on the tandem forum where loads of customers raved about the wheels he had built for them, with virtually never more than 36 spokes for tandem wheels.  The man knows his stuff.  We have five wheels from him now that have been excellent (but then what would you expect for being only a few years into a lifetime warranty?)  One of our sons commutes daily carrying heavy tools and supplies on his rack, sometimes 50 pounds with no give (which puts a horrible strain on the rear wheel when hitting the bumps on our local roads), on a 36-spoke wheel built by Peter White with a Velocity Deep-V rim, and it has never even needed truing, let alone had any other problems.  Peter White's wheel-building pages tell that he will only put his guarantee on wheels built with parts that he knows from experience build a good wheel.  He doesn't like to build wheels he can't put that warranty on either, and he only stocks the rims he has come to trust.  I don't know if there's a Sun Ringle or if that's a typo, but he does list the Sun Rhyno Light and the Velocity Diad (among others).  IOW, if he trusts them, to me that says a lot, even if you only use the info for reference and build the wheel yourself.  If you don't go for a deep-V rim for the rear, I would definitely recommend using a rim with the holes off-center (O/C) to get a better spoke bracing angle on the drive side, resulting in a nearly dishless, much stronger wheel.  This is what is meant by off-center: