I’ve been toying with the idea of trying out an alfine setup on my roadrat and notice that on-one are doing a pretty good deal on a factory 8 speed wheel. With all the fitting gubbins it comes to a touch over 200 quid.

The only problem I can see is that it’s a 24 spoke wheel. Is this underbuilt for anything other than unloaded tootling around on smooth surfaces?

The bike is mainly used for commuting and although it’s fairly regularly loaded with innapropriate loads of groceries and beer the stock 28 spoke roadrat wheels seem to have done very well so far.

Is 24 spokes asking for disaster, or worse, will it result in me having to carry my beer back from the offy on foot?

I’ve run 24 spoke wheels for years for cross country riding with out any issues, and i weigh 16st

That exact wheel was used by a bloke (whose name currently escapes me, but Google is your friend) to set the latest around-the-world cycling record. Apparently he had no probs with it the whole way.

Dr Pepper says: “What’s the worst that could happen?”

cheers folks, that’s most reassuring.

Apparently Vin Cox is the current around the world record holder and although it looks like he’s carrying less IPA than me, an around the world trip is a pretty damn good reliability trial for that wheel.