Wheels for a hybrid?

[WindingRoad]

Sorry if there is already a thread on this but I couldn't find it. So I have my workhorse bike that I use for heavy duty chores like going to the grocery, carrying books etc. I keep on tearing the heck out of this bike so I'd like to upgrade it to be more durable. First off it's a Giant, TranSend which is I realize it a low end bike but I plan to have it for a long time I really like it and love riding it. It's having bottom bracket problems and the wheels just keep going out of true, not to mention the deraillers are really cheap. Soooooo..... I'm thinking of new cranks, wheels, deraillers and brakes. I can get pretty good deals on parts but I still need to watch my costs. It seems to me that to find 700C wheels for a hybrid is a custom product thing? I wonder what is the best combo of rims, hubs and spokes to achieve the lightest wheel with most durability? Not really sure, getting a bit overwhelmed with info at this point. I'd appreciate any input you all might have, not sure on what crank set would be appropriate either???? So many questions. Is a road bike crankset usable or the same as that for a hybrid??? Help girls!!!

[Cataboo]

What I did when building up my surly to be more of a work horse - I found some truvativ elita road cranks on ebay that were new and I think the cranks went for like $35 on the auction. They're nice looking cranks and have worked well for me - I managed to get them in 165mm, which is the length I like my cranks and is kinda hard to find. We got the bf a set of 170mm as well for about that price. I do have a spare set of carbon fiber cranks that I could put on the bike, but that kinda would turn it into not a work horse.

For wheels.. there's a place called rocky mountain cyclery on ebay which sells a lot of wheels. I got a 36 spoke deore xt hub, thick mavic rims 700c wheelset from them (well,I've gotten 2 sets) - great bomber wheels that spin well. the ones I got were 135 mm which is mountain bike width (I don't know what your hybrid takes for hubs), which was wide for my surly which is supposed to take 130 mm hubs, but since the surly's steel, it flexes justenough that I can use the wider hubs - I just gotta pull and push while putting the back wheel on.

[Melalvai]

I don't know the answers to your questions, but I really enjoyed building my own wheels (with the mechanics' looking over my shoulder). My understanding is that because I built them myself, they are better wheels than if they'd been trued by a machine.

[WindingRoad]

Catriona - the XT hubs are actually what I was looking at using; I found some rims by Velocity that look promising, they are called a Dyad and they come in 32/36/40 and 48 hole patterns. They are 24 mm wide which I think is what my wheels are. Not sure which hole pattern would be best really. I'm just getting started here so I think I have more questions than answers at this point I have noticed that spokes come in different diameters too?

[KnottedYet]

If you can get ahold of a copy of "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brandt, do it! Beautiful book, chock full of clear illustrations and more knowledge than I'll ever manage to retain.

I know Brandt has a big rep as a curmudgeon, but I can put up with a lot of curmudgeoninity when there's passion for the subject involved!



Jobst and Sheldon. RIP Sheldon, we miss you.

[Cataboo]

http://stores.ebay.com/Rocky-Mountai...34Q2ec0Q2em309