In my latest Youtube video I’m chatting to Steph from Every Body Outdoors.
Every Body Outdoors is “fighting for clothing, gear and representation for plus size bodies in the outdoor movement”.
You see, the bicycle industry has a problem. Not necessarily a conscious one, but a problem nonetheless.
Most products are designed to cater for that broad 80% in the ‘middle’ of the curve. Whilst that suits most people, the 20% at either end are left with a significant barrier to getting on a bike. And that sucks.
So, in my latest video, we’re discussing how the cycle industry, bike shops and brands can do a better job of catering for those people who don’t fit into the ‘standard’ shape and size. We discuss product design, how you address customer enquiries and the language you use.
Building Bicycle Wheels For Larger, Heavier and More Powerful Riders
We also, cos I’m a wheel builder, go deep into how to build bicycle wheels for larger, heavier or more powerful riders.
Many wheel manufacturers simply add more spokes or use larger gauge spokes. But, that’s not necessarily the best way to build wheels for heavier riders or fully-loaded bikes. That just creates heavy wheels that aren’t enjoyable to ride.
Too many people seem to think that the answer is simply to take the ‘burliest’ (read heavy!) rims they can and then strap as many large gauge (also heavy!) spokes onto them, and for me that simply doesn’t cut the mustard.
Whilst – especially for budget-conscious touring or commuting rigs – I’ll often reach for the legendarily tough Ryde Andra series of rims even these don’t need an absurd quantity of spokes with 36 being quite enough and most riders not carrying load being A-OK on 32h setups.
An alternative lighter and tubeless-ready rim comes in the form of the Velocity Cliffhanger which makes a truly modern option available at an uptick in cost versus the Andra series (and I can get them in a tonne of custom finishes!).
The RyanBuildsWheels Bomber range of wheels utilise DT Swiss’s excellent PHR series of rims which have a host of options for those requiring a sturdier set of wheels, with the most common Road Disk option being the the wide and tall DT Swiss RR521db; an excellent option for speedy but strong wheels.
I talk in the video about Bitex hubs and their touring and MTB Boost series are very good indeed. The Touring series allows both rim and disk brake builds to benefit from an increased bearing count in the hub and freehub bodies, steel rather than alloy free hub’s for increased stiffness, reduced wear to the pawl pockets (a common point of failure), and steel axles to suit.
The Boost series benefits from everything but the additional bearings in the hub shell and all options mean increased longevity, decreased service intervals and the confidence that you deserve in a set of wheels. These features do mean a weight penalty but remember; increased weight at the hub (lying as it does in the middle of the wheel) is next to meaningless in terms of wheel performance and feel and too often the cycling industry wants to use weight as a metric for selling its products (look out for a future blog / video on exactly this subject matter).
Other hubs that regularly get used in these builds are DT’s tough as boots 350 hubs thanks to their ‘just won’t die’ ratchet system freehub or Hope Technology Pro5’s released early in 2023 and already proving to be their best hub yet with e-bike ready options already available and proving great for hard hitters.
Finally, spokes are the magic that makes a wheel work and one of the areas that a lot of shops seem to let riders down ATMO (According To My Opinion as the exceptional Richard Sachs, Framebuilder, says!). Wheels work and last because our job as wheel builders is – essentially – to make sure that spokes last as long as they possibly can and that their fatigue life is increased.
Butted spokes exist for a reason because their design increases fatigue life whilst also making them lighter than their thicker, heavier plain gauge counterparts. Simply adding a load of spoke material (in spoke count or thickness) doesn’t make a wheel more durable in this respect and so I’ll always choose the most appropriate, high-quality spoke for a given job.
It’s worthwhile noting that wheels WORK because the humble spoke; each sharing it’s load of the work equally when a wheel is built to the high tolerances for tension balance and with an understanding about stress relief that a professional builder brings with them.
Wheels are neither the mysterious dark art you may be led to believe and nor are they deserving of ignorance and assumptions that they’re a simple structure but are instead deserving of being built by those who understand them best, where high tolerances and best practices can craft a structure that pushes at the boundaries of what riders who have been otherwise let down by the industry are led to believe they deserve, because – trust me – you deserve better.
If you’re a heavier or more powerful cyclist I’d love to build you a pair of custom bicycle wheels. Similarly, if you’re a very lightweight rider. Or if you see yourself as anything outside of what the bike industry deems ‘normal’, I’d love to hear from you. The joy of custom-built and hand-built bicycle wheels is that we can make them exactly fit your needs – and I love doing it.
So get in touch.
Interested in supporting me? https://www.patreon.com/RyanBuildsWheels
Or you can visit my shop here.
Or you can learn more about my handbuilt wheels here.
