How to choose your wheel
Once you know your axle type, your hub OLD & you’ve got the brake type you need, how do you choose the wheel you need?
It has a lot to do with the rim, but also the hub.
Choosing a rim – the width
When it comes to rim’s the internal width is a major factor. The internal width is where your tyre bead will sit, and the width determines the size of tyre you can run on it.
You will find rims from 17mm to 40mm width in our warehouse. This accounts for skinny road tyres (think 25c-32c) up to mountain bike & fat bike tyres (anything from 2.1″ to 4.0″).
So if you are running 35c tyres on your commuter bike, you will need something like a 17mm internal width rim. If you run 2.5″ tyres on your mountain bike then 1 32mm internal width rim is for you.
Choosing the rim – the height
But the width isn’t the only thing to think about with rims. It’s also the rim depth (or how ‘tall’ the rim is). Deeper, taller rims are more aerodynamic but they are also stiffer & stronger. Being a larger profile rim there is more material to resist the torsional forces enacted on the wheel.
So you will find a deeper rim (often called “deep dish”) is a more expensive rim, and a higher quality too. If you want to upgrade your road bike wheelset you would generally choose a deep dish rim.
Choosing a rim – the spoke count
Spoke counts on wheels have reached a pretty ‘standard’ number at 32. So it’s very likely you will be looking at a 32 spoke wheel on any modern bicycle.
But different numbers of spokes still exist – because they determine how strong the wheel is. More spokes makes for a stronger, stiffer wheel as there are more points of stability. Your 36h rim is stronger than a 32h.
For this reason if you have an electric bike wheel or a downhill bike wheel or a cargo bike wheel you are likely to have more spokes. These wheels are doing more work under load, and need to be stronger for this.
We would always recommend choosing a higher spoke count wheel if you are loading the wheel up with a lot of weight. Or are creating a lot of weight with a lot of downward or lateral forces like enduro or downhill riding.
Choosing your wheel – the hub bearings
When it comes to hubs it’s a lot to do with compatibility (like drop-out dimensions and compatibility with the cassette & shifter you are running).
However the big difference between the hubs once you have passed the compatibility stage is the type of bearings used.
The bearings determine how well & how freely your wheel will spin. Loose ball bearing hubs are generally cheaper and lower quality than sealed bearings. Sealed bearings are long lasting & have your wheels rolling smoothly.
There are often cases where loose ball bearings can be replaced with sealed bearings when it comes time to service the hub. But this isn’t true of all loose ball bearing hubs, and if you want sealed, go sealed!
Choosing your hub – the pawls
Not often mentioned on our hubs or in our wheel descriptions but a big factor in hub quality are the pawls.
Pawls are the points of engagement that the hub has as it spins within the freehub. The pawls catch on the hub body and you will notice this on your rear hub the most. When you stop freewheeling and begin to pedal forward this is your pawls engaging within the hub to ‘resist’ you and push the wheel forward.
There are hubs with a very high number of pawls (think 72 points of engagement) and others which will have 4 pawls inside. The hub which uses 4 pawls is perfectly good, but if you are a mountain bike you want more engagement. Because if you are climbing up and over a rock you want every tiny movement of your foot on the pedal to create momentum. And that’s what a high pawl count will do for you – use your effort more efficiently!
