Those 100+ spoke 26" wheelsets...

[Sir]

Hey, y'all.

Long story short: I have a couple of black Schwinn middleweight frames in need of new wheels (hopefully 3 frames by this weekend ;-)), and I'm intrigued by those 100+ spoke wheelsets. These builds won't see anything crazy, but they will be ridden quite a bit. I have a couple of questions...

1) Are most of these wheelsets created equal? Anything to watch out for when shopping around? Recommended brands/vendors?

2) How does the ride quality compare to the factory wheels?

3) Do they known to have any particular issues (bad hubs, staying true, peeling/chipping finish, etc.)

4) Anything else I should keep in mind?

 

[Starnger]

I had 144 spokes single speed wheel set stock on my Lowrider Limousine i bought in 2013. At some point it started to rust a little, i was living in Amsterdam, the place is very wet and the bike spent a lot of time outside, so rust is a normal thing there. It was really really difficult to clean the rust and polish the spokes on the wheel like that. In the end after a couple of years i put them to another bike, then painted them, then the bike with those wheels got stolen
So if you are going to keep your bikes inside and take care of them, that should not be an issue. But if you ever want to polish them, be prepared to spend many hours of hard work with that
And another thing, that is pretty obvious, but i mention it anyway. The wheels are way heavier then the normal ones.
Looking forward for your builds!

 

[rickpaulos]

#2 ride. Like Starnger said, HEAVY. I sold my last pair last year and I don't miss them.

Also note, they are not the Schwinn middleweight size (BSD 571). The are standard ballooner / modern mtb size (BSD 559) (26x1.nn or 26x2.nn) so wide tires will be a really close fit on a Schwinn middle weight frame/fork. At 559 vs 571, they are 12mm smaller in diameter so there will be 6mm more head room but the side room will be reduced if you try any tire bigger than 2.125 or 2.35 or 2.50.... With all tires, the manufacturers stated size for width is usually just an estimate. On the plus side, you can get nearly any tire for them, just not 26 x 1 3/4" S7 tires.