40 spoke wheels for camping?

Are you touring on a Viscount? Or a different frame? b

ps: I AM currently building up a Viscount Aerospace (Pro, Gran Sport, Sport ?), not for loaded touring, though there's no reason why not, other than the downside of Viscount's lack of braze-on fittings for water bottles and racks. I'm sure others may disagree but that's why I have more than one bike. My Viscount goal is a light, fast day tripper, properly low geared for hilly rides with my ancient legs.
Best,
John "wheelson" Wilson
69 years and counting

Bendo, I agree that the Viscount frames are not optimal for a full-blown touring machine. I guess it's how the OP defines "carrying loads".
With respect to 650b, last year I converted my '79 Austro Daimler Vent Noir II to 650b because I couldn't give it enough riding time with my current rail trail/towpath mode. Easy enough conversion for a not-so-optimal bike ONLY because I have an old set of 650b wheels for a trial fit. The A-D made a great 650b conversion in spite of an almost total lack of braze-ons, proving your point about frame tightness being a huge factor. (I'll post photos of the A-D on the "non-Viscount" page soon.) I still won't define it as a touring bike in the full blown sense.

Point is, the Viscount would not be my choice for a long distance multi-day full-blown tourer. Even my Schwinn Voyageur II has it's limitations, namely 27" tires and tire width between the cantilever posts. Another reason for N+many bikes!

Where I believe the Viscount will shine is in a role as light, fast, low geared climbing machine for the likes of Western Pennsylvania hills, the Virginia Skyline Drive, the VA-NC Blue Ridge Parkway, . . . Day tripping or "S240". Front loaded. Probably 32 spokes, well-built wheels. (I weigh about 185).

Note to Kickstandman: tell us more about your bike, the current wheels, and the type of loading you normally use.

Best,
J.Wheelson

b, the 650b conversion bike was a Vent Noir II, the one with the hard smoky chrome finish. It was a 700c bike to begin with, making brake reach a bit easier. I used offset brake shoe holders, first some unknown type, then some called bDop. This bike also originally came with Campagnolo GS group. The original Vent Noir had a flat black finish and came with full black Dura Ace and 27" wheels. I also had one of these models, built from a frame set with all silver 1st gen. silver Dura Ace. We did a family gift to my brother-in-law who has actually used it as a camping bike, most recently on the Pine Creek Trail in north central Pennsylvania, through a gorge known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. In keeping with the OP, this was on well-built 36 spoke wheels with used rims (as was my 650b conversion).

I've actually owned 5 or so different models of the Austro Daimler (shows how obsessive I can be), and I promise to post an account and photos of the 650b conversion, although I'll take it to the "other than" Viscount area since I fear we're drifting a bit from Viscount.

Well, to resurrect an old thread (or beat a dead horse?!), I've done a bit more work on this subject in the past three years. At the shop I contract with, we've had a rash of broken spokes (even on almost new bikes), mainly for larger riders and hybrid bikes. So, after doing some reading and also some experimenting, we started building and rebuilding wheels with butted rather than straight gauge spokes. This began when we had repeat returns for certain bikes in which we replaced spokes, ordered new wheels, then rebuilt the new wheels after more spoke breakage.
My thoughts are that the rim has a huge effect on the spoke breakage, especially breakage at the head. The stronger the rim, the less breakage even if using ridiculously thin butted spokes.

Example 1: 26 x 1 3/8 Schwinn heavy steel rims, 16-17 ga. Radelli nickel plated spokes, on a '48 Schwinn Town and Country tandem (mine), still alive after three years of mostly rail trail and towpath riding, combined rider weight of 300 lbs.
Example 2: In every case of repeated broken spokes, when we replaced the straight 14ga spokes with butted 14-16ga (and in one case 14-17ga), the result is NO repeated broken spokes even when using the same rim and hub.
Example 3: A set of 40h high flange hubs and heavy duty 700c rims built with 14ga straight spokes and used on a stiff framed Cannondale for heavy loaded touring on rail trail and towpath (GAP and C&O). Wheels stayed true, no breakage.
Example 4: In one case, we replaced the offending wheel (front) with a distributor supplied heavy duty, 36 12ga spokes, small flange hub. The result was a broken flange on the hub. We replaced with a standard wheel, 14-16ga spokes, no problems since.
Final observation (not conclusion): It seems that it is possible to build an overly stiff wheel system. In the cases where the 14ga straight spokes broke, the rim flexed but the spoke did not. Since the spokes are in tension, the spoke broke at the weakest point, the J head bend, where the bending process increases the brittleness through work hardening. With the butted spokes, the main section is thinner than the head area and thus flexes rather than breaks, sort of a shock absorber? In the case of the tandem, the rims were so strong that one could get away with using the extremely thin spokes that might not be possible for a weak rim system. In the case of the loaded touring Cannondale, the extremely heavy duty rims, like the tandem, did not flex and overpowered any fault of the spoke system. The high flange hubs had enough "meat" around the spoke heads to prevent hub failure. In the case of the customers heavy duty 12ga wheel that failed, the weakest point - the small flange 36h hub, drilled for oversized spokes, was the breakage point, not the spoke heads.
Wheelbuilding is one of the most controversial areas of cycling. Again, these are the observations of a veteran bike shop mechanic, 15yrs wrapped around a 30yr engineering career.

Comments and opposing viewpoints invited!

Best,
John "wheelson"