Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Ghetto Aero Wheelset Love

I just finished buying up the parts for my ghetto-aero wheelset. I was trying to spend as little money as practical, and still end up with a reasonable wheel. The proof will be in the pudding, but I thought I'd post my part choices, in case anyone else is looking for things to mate to their on-sale nashbar hubs.

http://www.Nashbar.com Track Hubs, front and rear, including 2 lockrings
- 45$ for the pair, 15% coupon basically means 'free shipping'.

Vuelta Airline 2 (http://www.vueltausa.com) deep aero rims from eBay (seller 2wheels777 has many sets on buy-it-now, such as this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=36144&item=7161924072&rd=1 ). They are 30mm deep V double wall rims with machined sidewalls, 13mm wide. Seems like a nice aero rim for the price.
- 40$ for the pair, plus 14$ shipping.

Wheelsmith 14g straight spokes and nipples, .32$ each from http://www.oddsandendos.com - That was the cheapest I could find for decent spokes in reasonable quantities. Some were cheaper, but then you find they don't include the nipples! oddsandendos will actually include aluminum nipples at the .32 price as well, though I still stuck with brass.
- 22$ for two 32h wheels, plus 6$ shipping

Total? 117$ including shipping costs, for what should be a pretty dandy set of aero wheels. If you increased spoke cost to .59$, you could even get bladed spokes, which are of dubious effectiveness in terms of aerodynamics, but are easy to build with (you can visually eliminate twist), and look cool. Time will tell if these Vuelta rims, which are half the cost of Deep-Vs, are good rims. They don't seem common in the US at all, but what little I've read about them seems favorable.

Anyway, that was the result of my trying to build up a cheap but good set of wheels. I'll post pictures and information about the final product as soon as they are all put together and riding.

peace,
sam

where did you find a 15% nasbar coupon? all i can find is a 10% one.

where did you find a 15% nasbar coupon? all i can find is a 10% one.

I think the one that he used expired yesterday... (AZ52) :(

He's right, the 15% off expired yesterday. :(

The 10% expires today, and its CR203.

You can usually find the latest coupon/promotion in the affiliate links thread for Nashbar:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=99490

peace,
sam

You almost exactly described my plans for a new wheel set, only I am using an IRO rear hub and an Ultegra front. I will also need to buy a new front axle and nuts. I need to sel some stuff before I can start buying though.

I do believe I'll build up a set myself. Good call.

You forgot the cost of various beverages consumed while building said wheelset.

You forgot the cost of various beverages consumed while building said wheelset.

Negligible, I homebrew. :D

Vuelta Airline 2 (http://www.vueltausa.com) deep aero rims from eBay (seller 2wheels777 has many sets on buy-it-now, such as this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=36144&item=7161924072&rd=1 ). They are 30mm deep V double wall rims with machined sidewalls, 13mm wide. Seems like a nice aero rim for the price.
...
Time will tell if these Vuelta rims, which are half the cost of Deep-Vs, are good rims. They don't seem common in the US at all, but what little I've read about them seems favorable.

peace,
sam

They are pretty indestructible and quite popular where I live. I run them for years on my beater/winter wheels with cyclocross tires. They are way heavy, tho - trying to spin them up fast requires legs stronger than mine. Strange, but spinning up older model shamals (2600g a set with tufo tubulars, I have made an adapter to use them fixed, too) is not a problem.

i used a red pair of airline 2s and they needed frequent retrueing. they were stock build from a 99 trek 1000

Well, the wheels that came on your Trek probably weren't built all that well to begin with (common problem with OEM or otherwise machine-built wheels). So that may not be indicative of the quality of the rim.

I'm wondering whether they're actually the Airline 2 rims or another one, though. The picture is for the Airline 2, but the description makes it sound like another rim (different name, different quoted weight, etc).

Hmm... you might be right, rocket... I was going off the picture and profile description, and the fact that I couldn't find any other vuelta rims mentioned in any literature that matched that description.

Heh, I suppose I'll see when I get them, right? ;)

The listed weight for the Airline 2 is 520 grams, which is exactly the same weight as the Velocity Deep-V, so I'm not worried about that, though this ad on ebay mentions 617g as the weight. Now I'm confused.

Well anyway, I'll report back when the rims arrive.

peace,
sam

I read through a couple pages of feedback and nobody mentioned the rims being anything other than what's pictured, so who knows. But yeah, let us know when they arrive. It's not like you can go wrong for $20/ea anyway.

10% off any size purchase at Nashbar.com
Use coupon code CR204 or CR203 at checkout.
Valid through: Unknown

Thanks for the post phidauex. I have been using it for the past couple of days.. So far i have bought some velocity deep-v 700c rims for 53$ from a kid off of phildelphia.craigslist.org and have been to nashbar and oddsandendos.. i have a question though. what size spokes did you get for the flip-flop hub? and the front?(not high flange)

Thats a good price for the Deep Vs!

For the hi-flange rear hub I got 286mm, and for the hi-flange front hub I got 265mm.

However, your measurements will be a bit different with different rims. If you are using a Deep V on the back and the hi-flange track hub from Nashbar, then here are your spoke lengths, straight out of spocalc.xls.

Assuming rim ERD of 582mm (as quoted by Velocity for their 700C Deep-Vs)
Distance from center to flange - 31mm for both sides
Diameter of flange - 71.5 for both sides
No dish.

Cross 0 (radial) = 255.7
Cross 1 = 258.8
Cross 2 = 267.3
Cross 3 = 279.6
Cross 4 = 293.4

I usually round up to the nearest available spoke size. If you are within one or two mm from the calculated size you are golden.

Keep in mind that I calculated this from spec sheets only, and it shouldn't be taken as gospel... I'm not responsible if the parts aren't the exact size they are spec'd at, which would make these spoke lengths wrong. But if you want to order something before you get the parts in hand to measure yourself, here is your opportunity. ;)

peace,
sam

sweet jesus...nashbar makes track hubs? please be careful....

sweet jesus...nashbar makes track hubs? please be careful....
that rules.

Any updates on the rims?

I haven't gotten the rims yet... I'm hoping they come tommorow. I'll post as soon as they come in with my comments...

In the meantime, to sate myself, I polished the nashbar hubs (don't worry, Roland, they are made in the same little factories that make everything else on your bike, just with a different name on them), and I found a WH-R535 shimano rear wheel in the trash. Its one of those 16 spoke straight pull deep-v dealies that you see on fancy-pants road bikes. One spoke was broken, and in typical fancy-pants fashion it was just thrown away, presumably replaced with something even sillier and more expensive. But anyway, it only cost me 4$ for the special shimano spoke (craziness, but still, not bad for a whole rear wheel for me), and it trued up real nice. I don't have a bike to use it on, but it sure looks cool, and I'll figure out something to put it on. Or I'll just sell it. But it was fun to tinker with.

peace,
sam

For those waiting for info about these odd Vuelta rims, you will have to wait a few more days. I just found out that my rims only shipped TODAY, which is about a week and a half after he got the payment... That is highly annoying, though his feedback is good, so maybe his mom is sick and it was a fluke or something... But anyway, buyer beware.

I'll post here when I finally get everything together, probably a few days still.

peace,
sam

HA! I finally got the rims!

Unfortunately, the suspicion that they may NOT be the Airline 2s came true... The rims are Stylus Corsa, which I can't find specs on ANYWHERE. They are double wall aero rims, but instead of the 30mm depth, they are about 23mm deep. Think of them as Velocity Aerohead clones, instead of Deep-V clones. They don't have eyelets, are pinned instead of welded and are drilled for a presta valve.

The rims are nice and straight, very round, have machined braking surfaces, and easily removable decals.

For the nashbar hubs, I used 287mm spokes for 3x, and 266mm spokes for a radial front, and it worked fine. The edge of the holes in the rim are a bit sharp, so make sure you use a good rim strip to avoid tire blowouts.

Hope this helps!

peace,
sam

Sorry to hear that they are not an airline equivalent. :( But that kind of means that the sellers post is incorrect!! I would complain about that. :mad:

More on cheap, aero wheel builds...

I just bought these NOS Saavedra rims (non-machined!):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7166801117&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

I'm going to build them around Promax SB hubs, 3x rear, radial front. Will update as I progress.

Sorry to hear that they are not an airline equivalent. :( But that kind of means that the sellers post is incorrect!! I would complain about that. :mad:

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed by that! I did contact the seller about it, and I ended up leaving 'neutral' feedback. I still think the rims were a good deal, and I am happy with them so I'll be keeping them, but I have made it clear to the seller that he should change his post to reflect the exact rims he is selling.

peace,
sam

Great deal, Adamkell! I wish I'd seen THOSE! They'd look great on a classic bike, with that polished finish.. Let us know how they look!

Speaking of which, I'll post some pics of the built-up wheels this evening, in case anyone else was considering the Vuelta rims.

peace,
sam

Actually, scratch that, the Saavadra rims are 36h, and I needed a 32 hole... Though if anyone is going to build up a wheel for a classic bike with the 36h IRO hubs, go for it, there is another auction up for the tubular version (totally classic):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=36144&item=7166897910&rd=1

peace,
sam

I think he has a number of those rims, clincher and tubular. The set I grabbed was the 4th one I saw posted by that seller. So if anyone's interested, just keep watching.

Hmmm.. Tempting... Though I must ask myself, do I need another wheel set right now? I think the answer is NO, but if I keep watching that seller, I may change my mind. ;)

peace,
sam

The Saavedra rims aren't very deep. Say, less deep than an Aerohead, even. I think he does have 32h available, as I have a set here I got from him a month ago.

If my rims aren't as deep as aeroheads I'm going to be disappointed. Your 32H set were otherwise the same model?

Yeah, same rims. They still look nice, but definitely aren't deep.

If you increased spoke cost to .59$, you could even get bladed spokes, which are of dubious effectiveness in terms of aerodynamics, but are easy to build with (you can visually eliminate twist),

This is BS. aero or oval spokes work very well. In fact tour magazine found that a 32 spoke Open Pro had 30% less drag by merely switching from round spokes to sapim cx-rays (butted oval) In fact, the 32 spoke Open Pro with sapim cx-rays had nearly the same drag as a 18 spoke (fat bladed) Kysrium SSC SL>



WS AE15 aren't the best spoke as far as fatigue life goes (straight 15 guage (non butted blank) forged into a blade) but they are cheap.

Another option is something like a DT revolution which is a butted spoke with a 17 guage center, but like you said it's hard to see twist.