cyclist2000

I have found that I can get a wheel built for me at some of the online stores for the same cost that I can build my own wheel, so their labor was free and someone that builds wheels as a profession built it. Only wheel I purchased in the last 20 years was the this one purchased last year.

I have built about 12 wheels for my own use. I do not build wheels for others, I am not a shop and don't want the liability. If a wheel fails that I built, I am looking to be sued. I do ride my own builds but I won't let others.

I agree that when learning to build wheels it is always possible to taco a rim, then the cost of the wheel is more than I would pay. So there you have it, if you are learning how to build wheels you are taking some economical risk, if you screw up the wheel, you buy a new rim, if they screw up the rim, they pay for the new rim and you pay the same for the wheel.

Soil_Sampler

to me, it is.

FreddyV

Thanks for all the input guys. I wasn't expecting this many replies overnight

I came across some seriously good deals on parts. Brand new hubs for half the price for instance. A box full of DT spokes for half the price. Besides that I'm content with the QR's on my old set of wheels, so I'm thinking of reusing these.
Besides that I'm thinking of a set of Mavic CXP23's, unless you point me in a different direction


My mind did drift a slightly different way though. What if I were to find a set of rims with the same height as my current rims, would I be able to take my old wheels entirely apart and rebuild it with the new rims?

Retro Grouch 

The short answer is "yes you can". You'll probably have to replace at least some of the nipples. But what's the point?

We've already established that pre-built wheels are very competitive in price with building them yourself. What you get building them yourself is exactly the wheelset that you want plus the satisfaction of doing it yourself. To me that's well worth it.

Garfield Cat

But that liability issue concerns me. I'm not talking about liability to myself, suing myself. I'm talking about building a wheel and then going down a 5 mile descent at 40 mph or plus and then something fails. Now, this can happen with a manufactured wheel of course. But can I assume that my own build might not pass any kind of quality assurance, quality control, as a manufactured one?

If that's the case, then where do I stand as far as cost and benefits?

Then there's the case of the smaller non manufacturer who basically takes parts, goes to the Far East and gets rims, and slaps it together, offering you choices of hubs, spokes, nipples, etc. What about those guys, who may not even have any kind of product liability insurance? Basically, it appears that they're not regulated. Most contractors and subcontractors have some kind of bonding.

HillRider

Yes, but you have to understand what dimension you must match. It's not the outside diameters of the rims. You must match the "Effective Rim Diameter" (aka ERD) which is the diameter of the circle the nipple heads seat against and this is not obvious from looking at the rims.

Rim makers usually publish ERD figures for their rims and there are tables of these values in Mavic's and other's web sites but it is most accurate if measured by the builder. Matching the ERD is the only way to be sure your current spokes will be the correct length.

noglider 

I guess we should have asked what you're replacing and why. I think replacing the rims is the best route for you. It's easiest and least expensive. And you get the benefit of tensioning the wheels yourself.

FreddyV

I'm looking at a couple of rims right now.

Alex DA22 - ERD 593.9mm (My current rim)
Rigida DP18 - ERD 530.7mm
Mavic CXP22 - ERD 597 mm
Mavic CXP33 - ERD 595 mm

So basically, the DA22's would fit perfectly. Though, they're pretty darn hard to find here in the Netherlands. While looking even more specific around the web, it seems they're very hard to find anywhere at all.
Closest to the DA22, is the Mavic CXP33. Would that fit?

How much mm is the maximum in ERD difference you can take with the same spoke length?

FreddyV

Question answered by Sheldon

https://sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

AEO

depends on how confident of a mechanic you are or how well you trust your LBS mechanic to check for you.

I'd ride my self built wheels any day, in fact I do just that.
I'd also ride those pre-built wheels any day too, after, and this is important, I check the spoke tension for evenness , that they are properly de-stressed and the rim for any signs of cracks that might have been caused by shipping or improper builds.

AEO

cxp33 might not work.
ERD is closer to 598mm since it's 595mm (bead seat diameter)+3mm
you could try 16mm nipples with it, since 12mm nipples doesn't work too well with CXP33 as the nipples sit in deeper.
When using 16mm nipples, you need to shorten the spoke by 2mm, so you might or might not bottom out with your current spokes.

plug it in to spocalc with CXP ERD 597~598mm, then subtract 2mm from the spoke length for 16mm nipples to find out.

Sun venus has ERD 594 last time I checked.

FreddyV

According to Sun the Venus has an ERD of 589mm. How do you come up with 594?

bikinfool

If I worried to this extent I'd just stay home and certainly wouldn't do anything so dangerous as riding a bike at 40mph. You should try building a wheel, might open your eyes as to just how sturdy they are...

joejack951

So what wheels do you ride? Did you do an exhaustive search to find out if there have been any reported failures? How about your frame? Brakes? Tires? Tubes? Rim tape? So much to worry about...

FreddyV

And as sudden as it comes, I come across a wheelset at a very pleasant price.
Mavic CXP22 rims, with 32 spokes.
Basically, at €179 it's not lucrative for me to build my own wheels, especially a set like this.

Only thing I'm worried about, is the 105 hub that's on it.
Would a 105 hub fit a Tiagra cassette?
Or would it take an upgrade to a 10spd 105 cassette, along with a brifter upgrade to 105 as my Tiagra doesn't accommodate 10spd?

AEO

sun gives a Bead Seat Diameter, and it's their way of measuring ERD.
for sun, it's +5~6mm to their ERD

never go with what the manufacturer gives you, always go with your own measurements when you have the rim in your hands.
I know my venus rims are 594mm because I measured them myself.
yours might be 595 or 593mm, you never know until you have the rim in your hands.


always ALWAYS measure the rim yourself when you get it.

operator

Even if you can obtain parts at wholesale costs and assume your labour is worth nothing, prebuilt wheels will STILL be cheaper. Especially if you move away from the traditional 32/36 round spoke wheels into more modern OEM wheelsets from people like Easton, Mavic, Shimano, Campy, Zipp etc.

bikinfool

The freehub body will accommodate your current cassette just fine...fyi a 10 speed cassette fits on the Shimano 8/9 speed freehub body so you can go that way someday if you want to spend money on new shifters and chain.

TRUMPHENT

This thread is proof that truing stands are porn capable.

FreddyV

Magnificent, thanks for the info.

noglider 

Heh. True!

davidad

According to Mavic the CXP 33 and 23 ERD is 595. If at a latter date you want to try to replace the rims you can. When you do tape the new one to the old and replace one spoke at a time. Replace any nipples that aren't in good shape.

AEO

according to the french, they are the best car manufacturers in the world.


don't ever EVER trust manufacturer numbers.
ALWAYS measure yourself once you get the rim.

Fissile

Dude, you f***ing rock!

Fissile

Home built wheels almost always cost more than machine made wheels, but less than custom hand built wheels. The reason I build my own wheels is because I get the exact combination of rim, spokes, nipples and hubs that I want. If I bought the parts and had them custom built, it would generally cost more after I pay for labor. If you are happy with the component combination offered in a pre-built set, there is no reason not to buy them. It's easy to tweak them a bit if you're worried about tension or trueness issues.