Hey, as many of you know, I'm in the process of a buildup of my Rocky Mountain Pipeline. I want a pair of wheels that are strong but relativley light. I jsut ordered my Hayes disc brakes through a pro-deal so I saved more money than I thought, so it allows me to spend more money on my wheels and fork. I'm either getting the Sun Rhyno Lite or Sun Rhyno Lite XL on XT disc hubs. I can get the rims relativley cheap (20-25 bucks a piece) and I'm sure the hubs arent expensive through employee purchase. So ultimatley, the wheels would cost around 100 bucks or so (including spokes/nipples/rim tape). I know pre-built wheels are usually recomeneded as they are cheaper usually and are of course, pre-built. However I really want to learn how to build wheels and am wondering if its risky to build a pair of wheels for which I will be dirtjumping and freeriding and trailriding on. Also, I will need to build a new front wheel for my road bike, so I have to learn at somepoint. Any recomendations on rims or hubs would be helpful. Also what type of spokes would you recoment? Like DT revolutions or champions or something?
Thanks
Byron
sshock4
06-30-03, 09:21 PM
for rims go with the rhino lites, or xl's, maybe check out some singlewides, atom lab aircorps[small and light trailpimps], or something along those lines. if you want something a bit stronger them maybe check out an atomlabs DHR[strong aircorps basically, also eyeletted], or a mavic 521 or d3.1[if you want the option to go tubeless], if your going to learn to build then and will be able to rebuild wheels on your leisure maybe go with some deore hubs and once they go kaput just rebuild. id suggest this especially fi your gunna be breaking rims. [which knowing you, you wont:D], or check out kings, dt hugi fr[which are probably the niceest fre hubs], xts[you really cant go wrong with shimano hubs, they are easily rebuilt amd usually reliable], also if your going 20mm up front you could keep an eye out for hayes/dt hugi front hubs, i think universal cycles carries them[check out my front wheel if you wanna see that], formula front hubs are also a good bet for discount hubs, expecially 20mm, their rear hubs wont last you though, also keep a zocchi front hub in mind for 20mm. but to tell you the truth if your going standard qr both ends, xt is probably best, or maybe go with a woodman or hope switchable front if you ever do decide to go 20mm. on spokes just go with dt revo 14ga straight, you really cant go wrong with that. for nipples go brass no doubt either black or silver your choice, but no alloy nipples.
on the subject of building it yourself, i personally wouldnt, the wheelbuilder can make or break a wheelset, epsecially in dh/fr. its possible for a poorly build set of trailpimps to go bad before a really good tight well built set of rhino lite xls. or maybe built them and have a very experienced wheelbuilder tension them and tru them. maybe you can build a front road wheel before you build the mountain wheels, or maybe you could even build me some half decent road wheels to get practice on.:D
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