BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

go to your favorite bike shop. they should be more than willing to go over parts with you and put in an order for everything. if they aren't find a new favorite bike shop.

I was at Freeride yesterday and there was a box of vintage rims, new, unbuilt. I didn't look to close because I would have hoarded them.

Spend $200 on the parts and $100 on the beverages needed while learning to build and true them yourself. This has been one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. I literally built and trued a set of wheels while staying with my dad in the hospital (fighting lung cancer). The truing process (if approached correctly) is better than meditation for your soul.

$300 should buy you some nice stuff. Sun and Mavic make some nice rims. I suggest getting something with eyelets. Eyelets help with durability in the future. Brass nipples while heavy will add durability also. I recommend double butted spokes for a road bike, the butted section will make the wheels ride a little softer and give a better ride. Hubs are a pretty personal choice. Shimano makes some awesome hubs but you will need to maintain the bearings. A cartage bearing hub can be ridden until the bearings are trashed and then just replace the bearings. If you do that to a Shimano you will trash the cones and possibly the races. There are not many cartage bearing hubs that cost less than your 300 budget so I am going to recomend some shimano hubs. What ever you pick, make sure it is fairly standard, that way 5 years from now you can get parts for it.

With all that said, I know you can buy some really nice pre-built wheel sets for less than $300. Shimano makes one and I know QBP stocks a nice Tiagra/Mavic Open Sport wheelset for less than $200. Building wheels is a lot of fun but there are a lot of pre-built options out there that are really make building hard to justify.

I recently bought a Stans wheelset for my MTB, I could not buy the parts for less than what the whole wheelset cost. I wanted to buld my own wheels but I was not going to spend more money and do more work just to have the same thing.

so now i've gone to a bunch of shops and got some prices and stuff, and a) there is a lot of variation in prices! and 2) i still have no idea what i want.

is there any reason i should spend twice as much on 105 hubs as i would on tiagra? i haven't found anyone who could elucidate the reasons i might prefer 105 at that price.

is there a place around town to get, say, dt double butted spokes for less than a buck a pop? i think that was the lowest price i've been given so far, but it still seems like a lot to me. though some places were asking 2 bucks, so i don't know.

given that i plan to commute every day on these wheels (pretty much), and hope to be able to race once a week at the oval, what should i be looking for? mavic open pros were recommended - are spokes a pain in the backside for those (e.g. special spokes, or different sizes for each side)? do i want 32 or 36 spokes (i'm over 200 lbs)? i've never really put this much thought into these questions.

no reason at all to go over 32 on a road bike, unless you weigh like 4-500 lbs. hell i'm over 200 and my road wheels have 18 spokes each.

The difference between 105 and Tiagra is not all that great. The bearings, races and cones go up in quality. The hub body may be cold forged on the nicer hubs. I do know on the Dura-Ace hubs the cones and races are laser scanned, the each ball bearing is laser scanned. A computer then analyzes everything and figures out which cone/race and set of ball bearing will work best with each other. After you wear out the first set of bearings you can never duplicate the setup they made at the factory.

Ok, back on topic here. The Tiagra hubs should be fine but if you want to keep them forever you might want to step a level to 105, they will be more durable over the long haul.

Spokes. About a buck a pop for butted silver is what we sell spokes for. Black will cost you about 20 cents more. That includes silver alloy nipples. Brass nipples will run about 12 cents each.

You are going to have different length spokes on the drive and non drive sides of the rear wheel, unless you pick a hub that has unequal hub flanges. Like a Chris King.

How many spokes? Over 200 pounds? What size tires are you running? City riding with pot holes and curbs or regular road riding? Rim choice will play a role in this also. A velocity deep V is super strong, a Mavic Open Pro is a little lighter and not as strong (but still a very nice rim).

Thinking about it some more, you might want straight gauge spokes on the rear for a stiff and fast accelerating wheel and butted spokes up front for a lighter and softer feeling wheel.

if you want an inexpensive, tough, classy and eyeleted rim go for the Salsa Delgado cross any day. Its a little heavier but tough and easy to build with.

Shimano hubs are the way to go. Ball bearing but really low maintenance, you will need to screw with them much less than you think. I ride ultegras on my commuter year round and barely touch them. (I am also lazy).

You may be able to find used hubs in nice shape for a fraction of the price of new ones. Unfortunately you can't "feel" hubs on ebay.