The Best Bikepacking Bike


The Best Bikepacking BikeThe Best Bikepacking Bike

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The stakes are high when traveling far into the backcountry by bicycle. The potential success or failure of your trip is (literally) riding on your wheels. A mechanical malfunction at the wrong time can leave you in a very serious situation. Like teeth, taxes or electricity, your bicycle wheels are easy to ignore when they aren’t causing problems, but can leave you in a world of pain and trouble when things go bad. Fortunately, most of these kinds of problems can be prevented by choosing appropriate equipment and ensuring it is well-maintained before heading out for a trip. This is especially true when talking about wheels.To get more news about carbon mtb rim, you can visit zpebicycle.com official website.

In this post, we’ll discuss what makes a good bikepacking wheel, how to evaluate your current wheels and some points to consider when shopping for new wheels. Hopefully we’ll be able to help you enjoy your bikepacking adventures with no wheel-related malfunctions!In general, we think good bikepacking wheels should be durable and reliable above all else. Gram-saving components will make precious little difference in the ride of your bike when loaded down with 35 pounds of gear and failures are much more than a minor inconvenience when you’re two days from the nearest town. Fortunately, most truly trail-worthy mountain bike wheels are built to handle pretty rough treatment and won’t suffer greatly under the added stress applied by a loaded bike. However, many lower-end wheelsets are not built with long-term durability in mind.

 

Are your wheels ready for bikepacking? Many stock wheelsets are not. Bike manufacturers often cut cost on wheels when spec’ing bikes for middle-of-the-curve riders. Even many high-end bikes are shipped with inferior wheels that don’t hold up to hard riding. However, it isn’t always easy to tell a high-quality wheel from a cheap look-alike. In addition, even top-flight wheels can be a liability if they’re nearing the end of their useful life.
Assuming you’ve put some hard miles on your wheels, perhaps the simplest measure of quality is their service record on the trail. So, how have your wheels performed so far? Have they needed regular re-truing? Have you broken any spokes? Do the hubs make any funny noises or need repeated bearing adjustments? If so, you’d be wise to consider repairing or upgrading your wheels before taking off into the woods. If they’ve taken some abuse with no ill-effects you’re likely to be in good shape. If you’re unsure about any of these points, a trusted mechanic can help assess your wheels.

However, just because you haven’t had issues yet doesn’t mean they won’t crop up in the future. The key here is preventative maintenance. We’ll talk more about that in a bit. For now, let’s take a closer look at your wheels and see if we can evaluate them for quality and condition.A spoke is a spoke is a spoke, right? How big of a difference do spokes really make? Well, imagine if the Golden Gate Bridge was built with suspension cables made from cheap steel to cut cost. Bicycle wheels and suspension bridges have a lot in common. Spokes made from poor-quality steel will have a much shorter lifespan and will be prone to breakage. Quality brands like DT Swiss, Wheelsmith and Sapim mark their spokes, either on the head (DT, Wheelsmith) or just below the j-bend (Sapim). Cheap spokes will have no mark at all or one of a handful of markings such as a star or uppercase “S” or “N”. If you’re curious, you can investigate the mark on your spokes using this extra-nerdy Spoke Head Identification website.