Road wheels for hitting cattle grids fast

The Trough of Bowland is on my doorstep and plenty of tiny lanes and descent size hills but also lots of cattle grids. I am pondering some better quality wheels for my road bike. As much as I’d like light ones I think I am more interested in them being durable. And this leads me to ask what wheels for hitting cattle grids at 50kph+

This is exactly the situation that the high speed long bunnyhop was invented for 8)

Light think you must young Tomaso 😀

Any road wheel that was damaged by cattle grids would be off my shopping list. I’d damn well want some 900g carbon wheels to be just fine! The faster you’re going the less the impact anyway!

What’s your budget?

The Hope road wheels deal with my 90Kg no problem. About £300 or so (not checked – could be a bit more), but you need to get on with the freewheel noise. Cheap enough for a winter wheel.

Mavic CXP33 rims and 25c Yksion tyres coped fine on Dartmoor. Hubs are Dura Ace and weight is about 1750g (i.e. not the lightest). But they roll oh so well 😀

Shimano RS30’s are what I use as my winter wheelset. They’ve been superseeded by RS31’s now and can be had for £140 a pair. Ok not light but strong and alloy so will last a little while yet..

Blurb:
Shimano RS31 Road Bike Wheelset
•This RS31 clincher wheels offers aero performance and excellent quality at a competitive price
•30 mm high profile aluminium rim for improved aero dynamics
•16 front stainless steel butted and bladed straight pull spokes with a radial lacing pattern
•20 rear stainless steel butted and bladed straight pull spokes with a2-cross lacing pattern improve lateral and torsional (power transmission) rigidity
•Elbow-less spokes make for a strong yet compliant wheel
•High lateral rigidity is produced increased by wide flange spacing
•Smooth high polished finish hub shell
•The hub uses angular contact bearings designed to cradle the balls giving both radial and lateral support for superior strength and durability in real world riding conditions. They also offer precision bearing adjustment and easy maintenance
•Labyrinth and contact sealing – low-friction seals effectively shut out water, mud and dirt without affecting rotational smoothness
•8, 9, 10 and 11-speed compatible
•Supplied with Q/R skewer

My Shimano RS80 are fine for northumbria where cattle grids are considered the smoother bits of road.

Most wheels should be fine on cattle grids.

my cosmic carbones have been rock solid.

I have however burst a sidewall on a ultremo which put me in a ditch so be careful with hitting them too fast…often the concrete on the edges of the grid gets worn and can cause issues.

I’ve also had two wheel drift on a wet grid once which was a bit of a squeaky bum moment and make sure I’m dead upright when I hit them now.

DT78 – Member
my cosmic carbones have been rock solid.

Hmmm, my M40C’s rear new one bust a spoke, replaced under warranty mind but took 6 weeks..

I think the best thing you can do is slow down for the Grids, why endanger yourself and ride ?

why endanger yourself

agree, in my defence both situations occurred after I’d been riding for a long time without incident and on century rides so a mixture of tiredness and poor judgement. Luckily they didn’t involve a trip to A&E

Get some H Plus Son Archetypes built up to whatever hubs and some nice 25mm tyres. They’ll be bombproof, and hella comfy. Or some dirt cheap Shimano factory builds.

Go light on the bike, bunny hop or slow down. Pretty much the option some you hit hard some are barely noticable. There’s one near me that you can ride at any speed and barely notice, whereas the next has a trough in front of it and they’ve opened the side gate, it’s pretty much ruin a cars wheels.

Cattle grids around here are steel and get a bit shiny-slippery through use, I wouldn’t be hitting any of them at speed!