PINK SPOKES FTW!!! My wonky wheel build and its maiden voyage...
 

The day that I received my new wheelset I dropped the rear wheel onto concrete and severely bent the rim :twitchy:. I decided to replace the rim myself but with no prior wheel building knowledge my first ride ended with me walking my bike home because ALL of my spokes came loose and my wheel wobbled like the Tilt-A-World. During that ride I bent the rear rim again! ENTER Roger Musson's book "Professional Guide to Wheel Building". With my new knowledge, a new truing stand, a new tensionmeter, a new rim, and new spokes I was READY FOR BATTLE!

Rim: Velocity A23 OC (tubeless ready) black
Spokes: Pro Wheel Builder pink 2mm spokes
Hub: Shimano 105 black

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The wheel's maiden voyage was anything but average. It started off with an hour of gravel grinding up multiple 300' hills. Then I found an old maintenance road through a forest which had four sections of waist deep swamp water that I had to carry my bike through. Then I jumped on another gravel road which led me into the middle of nowhere. Total ride time = 4 hours. Amount of happiness experienced = ALOT.

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I wanted to post this because when I tried searching for info on PWB powder coated colored spokes I couldn't find a single review. I was very hesitant to try them but I am quite happy with the durability so far. I was NOT gentle on them during the wheel build process. Each spoke set was squeezed with my full grip force about 5 times and each spoke was jammed into my tensionmeter about 20 times. At the spoke bend near the hub each spoke has a crack in the paint but I tried scratching it off with my finger nail and the paint wouldn't budge. Otherwise the powdercoating is flawless. The off center rim was a GREAT success too! Final spoke tensions were 22-23 NDS and 23-24 DS! The pink spokes are not as awesome as the purple anodized rim that I used for my second build but Velocity doesn't make the purple anodized a23 anymore so pink spokes were the next best thing. My tire choice is Ritchey WCS Shield 700x35 tubeless which I also love. Thanks for reading guys!

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yippee! Looks good!

So did you have to use the expensive velocity tape to get your tires to fit on?

Nope. I have used gorilla tape to set up my A23's tubeless in the past but I got tired of the residue left behind so I started using the stan's yellow tape. It is WAY more freaking expensive than gorilla tape but it works so much better. I just fill a water bottle with dishsoap/water, shake it, then squeeze out suds onto the bead. The tire then easily pumps up with a hand pump.

Nice build... glad you were able to get it dialed in and learn a bit in the process.

Thanks Seely. Learning to do it myself was so much more gratifying than paying someone else to do it.

Absolutely! Mechanical self sufficiency on a bike pays off in numerous ways.

Pink and black makes a cool combination. It reminds me of an art deco bathroom I had in my last house.

I can do just about anything when it comes to working on bikes except building a wheel. I need to get Roger Musson's book and give it a try.

I can't think of a reason why not to! It is a cheap and fast read. I am a very slow reader and got through the book in 3-4 hours (but I skipped the chapters that did not pertain to my specific wheels). Then when I built my wheel I just reread the important stuff. Make sure to really focus on the part about equalizing spoke tension. I was doing it very wrong prior to reading the book.