triplebutted

I was just toying with the idea that I'll make new wheels for my 3 speed. I did the online shopping at Harris Cyclery just to see what it'll cost me in parts. Whew! $200 bucks! 2 rims, spookies, and nipples. Dang!

kpug505

My LBS just quoted me $65 just to assemble a single wheel....Not to mention the cost of parts.

Panthers007

Yep - my LBS wants $65 to build a wheel. Plus components. I'd consider it if they learned HOW to build wheels first. A high price doesn't indicate high quality. That LBS screwed up twice - BAD. Peter White charges $35 for the build + parts. He's a master of the craft.

Chris_in_Miami

I've seen cheaper wheel sets on eBay with generic looking 26" MTB hoops. If you want different rims & SS spokes you'll pay more. I think a patient bargain hunter could do it on the cheap...

triplebutted

Its been a while since I put wheels together but I ain't too shabby. I just didn't expect the pieces to be so expensive! And I have the hub too!

graywolf

Harris is about the most expensive place to buy stuff. I bought my rims, the same ones Harris sells for about $25 ea at ebikestop.com and got my spokes and nipples from an eBay seller in Taiwan. Total less than $100 with cheap tires and tubes from amazon.com.

Sixty Fiver

It all depends on what components you want to use... if you already have the 3 speed hub and get a good quality rim and good quality spokes you are looking at $70.00 - $80.00 in parts plus the cost of the build which runs around $40.00 per wheel (my standard fee).

Why bother with an economy wheel when you are getting one built up ?

I agree that $65.00 for a wheel build is ridiculous.

triplebutted

Excellent! Thanks for the tip. Here's the linke from Ebikestop for the rims.

https://tinyurl.com/csnnxe

Do you have the name of the ebay seller for the spokes?

Chris_in_Miami

+1, do tell!

kpug505

Especially in my case 'cause the wheel I want built is a 16 hole!

Sixty Fiver

And why are you building a wheel with half as many spokes as it needs ?

kpug505

Because I have a Hi-E hub that is 16 hole which will get laced to a sub 300 gram tubular for my weight weenie build......Yes it will be fragile and stupid light and it will probably collapse with the first speck of dust I run over....But it sure will be light! I'll warn people not to sneeze while anywhere near it.

slushlover2

Here is a 3 speed wheel I built up. Original 1955 SA hub, generic mountain bike 26" alloy rim $15. 36 spokes $18. I built it myself.

cyclotoine

$65 is maybe a tad high, $50 is reasonable. It should take a skilled builder about 40-60 minutes to complete a wheel build. Labour rates at a bike shop vary from $60 and up ($70 at mine). Considering how small a portion labour is of a bike shops income it doesn't seem to ridiculous. Bikes are people's transportation. They rely on them, can't get by without them. They are important vehicles and some people thing they should cost nothing to work on because they are toys. They're not toys. They are tools and sophisticated machines. People dedicate their lives to being skilled mechanics, many of which are under payed. You make peanuts as a bike mechanic because it is not a trade and there are no unions, most mechanics in Canada work seasonally and are at the mercy of bad small business owners with no benefits and no protection. Labour rates on bikes are still low when you take this into consideration.

Oh and $200 for a set of wheels seems pretty darn cheep to me.

Grand Bois

My LBS charged me $168 to build my 3 speed wheels. I supplied the hubs and they supplied the Sun CR18 rims and DT Competition spokes.

NormanF

I would go with alloy 650b today. At the time good rims and tires were scarce in the size so I switched to 700c alloy. The largest tires I can run on them under the fenders are 32c. That's on my Raleigh Superbe. Its no longer a three speed with a Shimano Nexus 7 speed hub installed.

NormanF

Good quality alloy wheels will lighten the old all steel bicycle and make it quite nimble. Its the most cost-effective upgrade on an old bike and it no longer rides slow and heavy.

NormanF

Good bicycle mechanics are hard to find. I never leave a bike stock and when I'm through with it, its very different from the configuration in which I originally bought it.

-holiday76

both my local lbs's charge $35 to build a wheel.

Panthers007

Join the club. That's what I do. Before I'm even out the door with a new steed, I'm well into plotting the alterations. With 3-spd's, as a 12 year old budding mechanic, the first to go was the handlebars. I'd put in dropbars and wrap 'em. The diameter was always the same as the removed bars. And the brake-levers fit fine for a 12 year old. Then I'd find some tape that amused me and attach shifter & brake-levers. Then I'd wrap the bars (top to bottom, of course). Then I'd forage for better wheels. But they were tough to find. Once I found them, it all fell together. I bought my first 10-spd: Astra Tour-de-France. That was as good as a 12 year old could go in 1972.

Happy Trails!

p.s. I'm still looking for a decent, old 3-spd. Relive my youth!

USAZorro

Pretty. The spoke upgrade probably set you back about $20.00 though (for the OP's reference).

Grand Bois

$1 per spoke and $30 per rim. Labor was $35 per wheel.

USAZorro

That's a good price for butted spokes.

graywolf

Yes, those are the rims. I got the 32 hole and 40 hole to match the traditional setup.

These are the spokes (eBay item # 170293047243), he sells the nipples too. A complete set comes to $30. The normal length for english 3-speeds is 282mm (32x3 front, 40x4 rear), he custom cuts them so you can get any lenght you need. You need the standard nipples the long ones will not work. Of course if you want double butted spokes it is going to cost you more. Also he used to sell 75 in a set, now I see it is 72, you might ask if he will toss in a couple of extras as it is nice to a spares.

You also ought to get spoke washers, but those are harder to find these days and my bike is doing fine without them but the thin steel flange really should have them.

PS: building them yourself is really not that hard. The trick is to tighten them up in small increments (an experienced wheelbuilder can do it quicker because he has and idea of how it should feel). The best way is to use an existing wheel for the spoking pattern. Otherwise books like "The Bicycle Wheel" will tell you how to do it, but looking at how they are layed out on an existing wheel makes it much easier to get the pattern in your mind.

graywolf

I am going to add my own comments to how much better than the steel rim wheels the alloys are.

Not much, if you have good steel wheels, if the ones you are replacing are loose and wobbly then you will notice a big difference but that ain't because they are alloy. You will notice slighty better acceleration. Braking in the dry is actually a bit worse, in the wet it is noticably better if you change to modern brake blocks. Changing to alloy pedals was far more noticable than the lighter wheels. I think most of what people are saying are imaginary, because "newer is better" in their minds. However, nice shiny alloy rims do look better than old rusty dented steel rims.