Wheels with less no of spokes

Mariusroxana said:

Hi,
Are the wheels with less no of spokes less resistant than normal wheels?
I am looking to buy a C'Dale R500 bike,
and the only problem I see are the Wheels with 24 spokes (3 parallel pattern).

I am a 200Pd guy, and I want to spend more time on the bike than
reparinig / buying wheels.
Thank You.

No, not generally. Low spoke-count wheels come in a few different styles, and are made by a few different companies, but in the end, they don't achieve or diminish much over or under standard-spoke patterns.

Wheelmakers employing those patterns do different things to compensate for the lower count--either the spokes are tensioned higher, or they're beefier. One of the aims of low-count wheels is weight reduction, but frankly, there are standard count wheels which match most low-count options; there's no holy grail. Matters of ride quality depend entirely on the make and other factors.

The only really significant caveat is that maintinence tends to be a little tougher with low-count wheels; they're more difficult to true, and in some cases, the designs are proprietary and spoke replacement is a bigger hassle. If you're accustomed to truing your own wheels, low-count options like Rolfs and older Shimanos can be a fantastic pain in the a*s.

Yeah, benefits cited are also aero advantage in add'n to weight, but I doubt you'd notice a real world difference due to lower spoke count unless you're doing TT and racing them. And the con is higher maintenance, and a wheel potentially going out of true to the point of being unridable if you break a single spoke. Why are there so many low spoke count wheels on the market then? Bling. That said, there are many great sub-32/36 spoke wheels out there... pay attention to the weight limits and get a feel for folks' experiences and you should do OK.

lokstah said:

The only really significant caveat is that maintinence tends to be a little tougher with low-count wheels; they're more difficult to true, and in some cases, the designs are proprietary and spoke replacement is a bigger hassle. If you're accustomed to truing your own wheels, low-count options like Rolfs and older Shimanos can be a fantastic pain in the a*s.

My husband would agree. Tried to true his race wheels and made a big mess of it, LBS sorted it all out.
As far as the spoke count goes, my husband is a pretty big guy at 6'4" in the 190's. He's never had any problems breaking spokes on his race bike/wheels. His touring bike with the traditional rims and larger spoke count was a different matter all together. Broke 3 spokes on one trip once. He ended up having someone build much beefier wheels, usually put on tandems for that one and hasn't had any problems since.

Good points from RC2. For the record, Marius, I currently have three wheelsets in use--an inexpensive 32-spoke Mavic CPX rim with 105 hubs for training/commuting, an 18-spoke Ksyrium SL for badass riding (wheels with this sort of sub-20 spoke radial pattern are increasingly in vogue), and a lower-still 16-count paired-pattern Shimano 6500 for when I feel like a nut.

They feel subtly different, there's a broad price gap between them, and the the more eccentric designs are, in fact, tougher to service, but in the end, they all work pretty well.

Thanks all for the answers.
One another advantage is that they look cool, too.

The bottom line is, skpoke count should not be the major factor
in the decision to buy a bike.

I recently bought a pair of Campy Vento's:
http://www.campagnolo.com/pics/VENTO-front.jpg

These have only 27 spokes on the rear and 24 on the front, but my LBS recommended them to me because, at a hefty 2kg's the pair, the are supposed to be bomb proof. You can see why when you see the chunky 24mm rims. So, I don't think the low spoke count makes a difference when you have really solid rims.
Does anyone know what the deal is with the funky 'G3' spoke pattern though? Just a Campy marketing gimmick? If it is, it works.....my bike looks so much cooler with these on 😎

Tonto said:

Does anyone know what the deal is with the funky 'G3' spoke pattern though? Just a Campy marketing gimmick?

Not just a gimmick, it doubles the drive side spokes on the R wheel. With twice as many on the drive the spokes don't need to be higher tension to keep the wheel dish true, generally a Good Thing.

RC2 said:

Not just a gimmick, it doubles the drive side spokes on the R wheel. With twice as many on the drive the spokes don't need to be higher tension to keep the wheel dish true, generally a Good Thing.

That's interesting to know, thanks!