My rear wheel has died a death and is beyond further use. Would it be sick and wrong to just buy any wheel and run the bike like that or should I buy a pair of new wheels in the name of superior aesthetics? Do bikes with unmatched wheels suffer more punctures? Will folk point and laugh at a mixed wheel pairing?

Do you want an excuse for a new wheelset, or are you just after getting it sorted? Performance wise, no issue at all. I have 2 bikes, both set up tubeless, with different sets of tyres. Instead of changing tyres, I often just swap wheels as its easier, so ride mismatched all the time.

Do I want an excuse for a new wheelset? Naturally.

Odd hubs are acceptable as long as they are the same colour…

Odd rims though, you will fall off and probably die.

Are you a tart?
That’s about the only reason to match them with exactly the same hub rim combo!

As long as you don’t do anything daft like put a 2.5inch tyre on something like a Mavic XC717 and expect it to perform like a ex723 you will be fine

Mismatching wheels may result in pointing and laughing, embarrassment and even death!

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Mismatching wheels may result in pointing and laughing, embarrassment and even death!

My fears exactly. I have visions of the bike bursting into flames beneath me causing me to fall off whilst riding past pretty girls.

Jedi – best I make sure I pair my wheels before my session in Jan!!!

Ps – I don’t align my rim and tyre logos either – will you still coach me??

i have never understod the logo lining up thing 😀

Aligning logos with valves-

1: it looks right, possibably the most important reason!
2: it helps find the cause of punctured tubes, which is handy.

wierdo! 🙂

Lining up logos just makes it potentially easier to locate puncture sites, as for matching wheels, it matters not a jot to me, I use what suits my needs, and as an added bonus it pee’s off people who think I should spec MY bike for THEIR riding 😛
Edit-I also have a colleague who’s bothered about headset logos alignment,so my commuting bike has two different Hope logo’d cups deliberately out of line, and both are bottom cups so one’s upside down.

[/url] Untitled by Sticking2glueing, on Flickr[/img]

Oops!

I have matching wheels. I line up tyre logos. I don’t ever consider mismatched tyre brands.

People who don’t match up their wheels will die (although it’s very unlikely the wheels will be the cause).

The weird thing is, I’ve always been tempted to fit my king headset upside just because I can.

My mate doesnt have matching rims on his bike and his wife left him recently.

*these two facts may not be connected.

Miss matched wheels are where it’s at.

26″ on the front and 29″ on the back. 😉

2011_0830beach0032 by singlespeedstu, on Flickr

If you’re going to do it wrong then you may as well do it really wrong:

Of course it matters. What next, people using different brand tyres front and back? Madness.

Never bothered me

You could just take the stickers of both rims (if the same colour) and only a bike nerd would know.

Matching no. It just shows that you speced the right wheel for Each end of the bike.
Logo lining up matter of life and death

Maybe Euro and DaveWalsh need to do a bit of swapping!

‘Do bikes with unmatched wheels suffer more punctures?’

No, don’t be daft; it’s miss-matching inner tubes that cause the punctures, not the rims or tyres.

If you run tubeless you should never ever fill the tyres from different pumps. It’s potentially fatal.

Odd hubs are acceptable as long as they are the same colour…

Nooooo, you’re doing it wrong. Red Hope front with orange dust cap, orange Superstar rear with red dust cap = matching mismatched set-up 😛