Putting road wheels on hybrid bike?

VonLuck

I currently own a hybrid bicycle that is about 10 years old. I use it solely for commuting, but there has been the odd time I've cycled it for leisure at the weekends.

It requires a bit of TLC and I was considering upgrading a few bits and pieces while I was doing some repair work. I know little to nothing about bikes so please bear with me.

There is a slight buckle in both my wheels from the many potholes I encounter on the way in to work. I do about 16km each day, so it's not a huge amount of cycling through the year.

Seeing as I should fix my wheels, I thought I might take advantage of the opportunity and replace the hybrid wheels with narrower road wheels. Is this possible? And if so, is there any real advantage given the mileage I do?

brownian

TBH, I wouldn't bother. You can more-or-less true wheels pretty well with a fiver's worth of spoke key. They'll keep getting you five miles each way to work and back, and if you slam a few potholes, no biggie.

Unless, of course, you think that you might cycle more, with better wheels...in which case there are several not-too-stupidly-priced wheelsets out there, that you'll very likely notice the difference on.

tomasrojo

If you've been commuting on the same wheels for ten years, and doing any decent distance per week, it's time to change the wheels anyway. If they're not that old, you could, as said already, try truing them yourself. Spoke keys are cheap. It requires some skill, but getting wheels adequately true is easier than legend suggests.

Maybe just get another ok hybrid wheelset and put 700x28 tyres on. That's a cheap option. It's what I did when I had a hybrid, and I did it again with my tourer (the tourer is much like a very good hybrid with dropped handlebars).

VonLuck

tomasrojo wrote: »

If you've been commuting on the same wheels for ten years, and doing any decent distance per week, it's time to change the wheels anyway. If they're not that old, you could, as said already, try truing them yourself. Spoke keys are cheap. It requires some skill, but getting wheels adequately true is easier than legend suggests.

Maybe just get another ok hybrid wheelset and put 700x28 tyres on. That's a cheap option. It's what I did when I had a hybrid, and I did it again with my tourer (the tourer is much like a very good hybrid with dropped handlebars).

I have had the same tyres since I purchased the bike. If there is no real advantage of slimmer wheels, is there any need to even change my current ones?

The treads don't look that worn, the only problem is the buckle. I'm not even sure if it's a problem. I do notice one brake pad getting more worn than the other, but that could be the brakes themselves. Beyond that I haven't noticed any other issues with them besides it visually looking off.

I don't really want to go changing the wheels if there is no need!

tomasrojo

VonLuck wrote: »

I have had the same tyres since I purchased the bike. If there is no real advantage of slimmer wheels, is there any need to even change my current ones?

The treads don't look that worn, the only problem is the buckle. I'm not even sure if it's a problem. I do notice one brake pad getting more worn than the other, but that could be the brakes themselves. Beyond that I haven't noticed any other issues with them besides it visually looking off.

I don't really want to go changing the wheels if there is no need!

The most compelling reason to change the wheels is if you have rim brakes. After ten years, your rims will be worn very thin and can fail catastrophically while you're riding the bike.

I kept the same wheels for five years on my main bike, and by the end of that time the rims deformed just from the pressure of the tyre levers when I took the tyres off.

Similarly, I had to change the tyres around that time, because I was puncturing so often.

If you're not puncturing all the time, maybe the tyres are ok. Look out for the inner tube protruding trough the wall. That's the main catastrophic failure with worn tyres: if the front tube bursts suddenly you can lose control.

tomasrojo

As for why change to a narrower tyre, no very compelling reason. I find 28s a little faster (not very important for me), look a little nicer (not all that important to me), and also I have loads of spare 28 tubes at home, so I'm sort of locked into that size now.

Zen0

If the OP is still running the original tyres, I can't imagine there is much wear to the rims.

tomasrojo

Possibly not, but I was running the same tyres for five years at the same time I was running those wheels; same five years. Both were completely knackered, but I had severe cash flow problems at the time, so I just had to limp on.

Brian?

Buy a spoke key, true your current wheels.

Put the money saved towards a 2nd bike, a good bike for weekend spins.

magicbastarder

is there any easy check for rim wear?
i'm using a 12 year old road bike (which was in storage for years) so it's hard to gauge just how many miles are on it.

tomasrojo

Concavity of the outer wall. The wear-indicator groove is supposed to disappear as the rims wear, but my paper-thin rims still had the groove.

tomasrojo

If your rims bulge slightly causing brake judder and need to be adjusted with a spanner every time you hit a bad pot hole, that's a pretty good sign they're really thin. (Speaking from personal experience.)

tomasrojo

Also, dental calliper, apparently:
http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/4039/can-your-rims-wear-down-from-too-much-braking

magicbastarder

hmm, they've stayed fairly true but i've not had any bad knocks in the last while.

tomasrojo

I've a friend who had the wall blow out while pumping up the tube. That's never happened to me, but it's mentioned in that link above.

magicbastarder

i have digital calipers at home, must check for a difference between front and back rims.

tomasrojo

A thin rim also often deforms a bit and you'll feel this as a rider via a pulsing when you apply the brakes.

http://bike-works.blogspot.ie/2009/01/bike-rims-wear-out.html

That's what it's like. I said "judder" but it's more like a pulsing, alright.

That mentions over-inflating your tube to see if you can blow out the wall. This doesn't seem a great idea, as you could damage your hearing, I assume.

tomasrojo

magicbastarder wrote: »

i have digital calipers at home, must check for a difference between front and back rims.

That last link says to check the rims haven't thinned below 1mm.

magicbastarder

tomasrojo wrote: »

That's what it's like. I said "judder" but it's more like a pulsing, alright.

that's what has me worried. i do get this - feels like the braking force comes and goes as the wheels rotate.

tomasrojo

You can see the bulge if you spin the wheels and have a look. It's really obvious, or was for me the three or so times I got it on my clapped-out wheels. Or you can _nearly_ engage the brake and spin the wheel slowly and it'll stop when the bulge meets the brake shoe.

tomasrojo

Also, not sure you'd "feel" as if the brake force was coming and going. It's completely unmissable when the bulge passes through the brakes!

magicbastarder

ah, it's not that bad. will see if i can measure the wheels later anyway.

route66

Another thing to add to this debate:

Hybrid and Mountain Bike wheels generally have 135mm wheel spacing whereas road wheels have are 130mm.

I made the mistake of replacing the wheels on my Trek FX 7.3 hybrid with road wheels. I managed to make it work without too much kludging, but it's not ideal: If you do need to replace your wheels, do so using hybrid (135mm spacing) wheels.

cdaly_

VonLuck wrote: »

I have had the same tyres since I purchased the bike. If there is no real advantage of slimmer wheels, is there any need to even change my current ones?

Changing your tyres for new, supple, wide tyres will improve the ride a lot. Narrower tyres will make it feel harsher.