New Wheel Day

nocellajoe
Dec 24, 2025
3 min read

718 Outdoors is a 1-person operation that has remained small, local and independent by design since 2008. If this resonates with you, your support is welcome and greatly appreciated! If not, that's cool too.

Intro:

Part of my overhaul of my 2013 Salsa Vaya this offseason is getting my wheels rebuilt (with Tuned/Honey Wheels). After 2 season and about 9,000 miles, I was starting to develop cracks in the rear rim. This was due to all of those miles being loaded touring miles, as well as a packing system that had a disproportionate amount of weight over the rear wheel (that is getting solved in another blog post).

Hand-Built vs Store Bought:

I always get my wheels built at Tuned / Honey Wheels. A hand-built wheel is stronger due to the attention to craftsmanship. There is an increased cost associated with the process, but since this is what I do for a living, the expense is worth it.

Wheel Size:

I wanted to move away from the 650b wheels I was using, and move back to 700c. While the 650b's provide for a stronger wheel (shorter spokes), in the end the availability of that size in tubes and tires on remote trips proved to be tricky. Also, since most riders on our tours are riding 700c's, I wasn't a resource for being able to share extra tubes.

In addition, the bike was designed for 700c wheels, which have a 38mm larger diameter than 650b's (622mm - 584mm). Since I was running smaller wheels, I did experience pedal strike more often that I would have liked (pedal strike is when your pedal hits the ground/terrain below you while riding). So, 700c's it is!

Tire Size:

In looking through the original specs for the bike, you can see that the frame specs describe "clearance for 700c x 38mm tires with fenders or 700c x 42mm without fenders (54cm sizes and up)".

This is a bike from 2013, where 700 x 38 tires were considered huge. Bikes today are designed with much larger tire clearances. Since I will be installing fenders, my max tire size is 700 x 38. The tires that I selected (Panaracer Gravelkings SS +) only come in 35mm or 40mm, so 700 x 35 it is.

I honestly would like to go bigger here, up to al least 38, but that will potentially start to become a fender clearance issue (see below). 35's will be fine.

Fenders:

Sizing and installing fenders is an exercise is patience and experience. These can be selected and sized once tires are spec'd, and referencing the frame specs. The general rule is that the fender needs to be listed about 10mm larger than the tire diameter. Many fenders these days simply come with the tire size range listed explicitly (this was not always the case).

On my last run, I had metal fenders from a brand I love. For me, I felt that all of the endless banging around I was doing on crazy roads and trails on my tours didn't serve the metal fenders well, and eventually the front one broke free in Vermont. To save some weight, and for ease of installation, I decided on SKS Bluemels (45mm). This particular size/model is rated for 25mm-37mm, so the fit should be a nice one.

Rim Width:

The next thing to consider is the internal rim width relative to tire width. Sheldon Brown has a seminal chart that describes this, but this chart is at least 20 years old, and really doesn't reflect the tech and widespread use of wider tires and rims.

(left image from Reddit R/gravelcycling, right image from Sheldonbrown.com)

I will be using DT Swiss M462s, which have an internal rim width of 25mm. A slightly more modern approach to tire/rim sizing states that rim width should be around 0.7 times the width of the tire (give or take). I should be fine (Rim Width 25mm / Tire Width 35mm = 0.71).

Hubs:

I have a SON28 front dynamo hub that needs to be snipped of of the old set and installed in the new one. While we are at it, I am also re-using the rear Shimano hub.

Spokes:

Finally, let's talk about spokes. 32 spokes/wheel, double-butted in s 3-Cross pattern. I went with silver as everything in the bike industry is so "blacked-out".

Final Note:

For better or worse, I do not use AI to create my posts. This is all me, with my misspellings, questionable grammar and tangential thoughts. I didn't get into this line of work to hand over my thoughts, expertise and experience to AI to spit out blog posts.