Trebor Snave

Who built your wheels?

Here's the deal. When I built my bike up last year, a friend very graciously allowed me to borrow his old wheels. They served me well, but I've imposed enough and feel the need to return them to him. I've picked up some Campy hubs (32 front, 36 rear) and saved my pennies. After reading lots and lots of wheel threads, I came to the conclusion that I really like Velocity Deep-V's. So that's what I'm going with.

I was going to build them myself, but the more I thought about it, the worse that idea seemed. I could probably do the front alright, but the rear kind of scares me.

I like the local shops, but if I'm going to have them built special, I'm inclined to go with someone who builds wheels as their main line. So it's mail order wheels for me. I've got enough saved to have Peter White do a rebuild on my hubs. I've read over his website and I like the attitude towards wheelbuilding he projects.

Guess I'm just wondering if there's anyone I've missed in my search. Gotta admit, I pretty much stopped looking after I saw he would do a rebuild on my hubs.

txvintage

Take a look at Wheelbuilder.com

There also a guy in Grandbury, TX. He's pretty much nationally known, but I can't think of his we site off hand. I'll try and find it tonight at work.

Both will use your existing hubs.

I'm sort of stuck on the same deal. I have a set of Chorus hub and a set of Mavic rims that are not Deep V, but found a great deal on some Vuelta Italia Corso Deep V's for rims. Now to talk myself into learning to build. I'm lucky that I have a couple of folks local who can help/teach me though.

cohophysh

I went through Universalcycles.com...you can send them your hubs. So far so good.

Tom Stormcrowe

Mine were built by Linn at Hodson's Bay in West Lafayette, Indiana.

ls01

let me be the first to encourage you to learn to build your own wheels. while it is a little intimidating at first. the satisfaction is unbelievable. another option is to build and lace them,then take them to your lbs. for finishing

Mr. Beanz

I built my own, after so many failures by the pros at the shops. It's not as tough as you think. Common sense and a short break when you need it helps to regroup. I've got 17,000 mile on my first rear wheel. Finally had to true it slightly for the first time last week. I read Sheldon Brown's site.

Mr. Beanz

What scared me was the fact aht the rear is offset. But since the drive side spokes are shorter, as long as you keep the wheel dished while building, it's actually simple. Almost sets itself!

Mr. Beanz

Typing is tougher for me than building a wheel!

sstorkel

Lots of guys from the Road Forum seem to rave about Mike Garcia at Odds and Endos. Last time I looked, Peter White seems a bit pricey in comparison to some of the alternatives...

andymac

Building your own is the way to go if you are willing to give it a try. One of the benefits to building it yourself is that you can do it over and over if need be. If you are nervous about it then get a piece of junk wheel and take it apart and put it back together a few times.

When you get a wheel built at a shop you expect it to be good to go. So when it turns out that the spokes are wound up or not stress relieved you are going to find that out when you are 10 miles from your house when they come loose, leaving you riding on a noodle. If you built it yourself the same thing may happen but you will know what happened and you will have a spoke wrench in your pocket and be able to fix it up enough to get home before any damage is done and then you can fix your mistake later. You will not need to walk your bike home and you will not need to take your wheel back to the shop.
Before you know it you will be building wheels for friends and truing up complete strangers wheels just for laughs.

Wino Ryder

Very good answer. You've helped convince even me. Case in point is my Ambrosio Excellent rims I had built up by my LBS. They done a good job but they charged me $50 a wheel. Thats $100 just in labor charges that I could've bought some more bike shwag with.

Next time I'm gonna build them myself.

Mr. Beanz

Like Andy says, I've trued wheel for maybe 20 others on the road with wheel problems.

I did find a Deep V on a clearance table for $25. Another $20 for spokes left me some extra dough for the $100 Dura Ace hub. $145 and I have a pretty nice wheel on my roadie! Saved on labor charges too!

socalrider

I would check locally with other riders and see if anyone is a good builder.. If not Peter White and Mike Garcia are both solid choices for wheel building.. Peter built wheels for friend and they are rock solid..

jaxgtr

I had mine built locally by Scott at Open Road Bicycles. Had them retension and check to true about 400 miles and 1500 miles later, still solid as a rock.

homebody146

i had deep v's built by eric gottsmann (sp?) at ergottwheels....he's in Long Island, NY.....

Trebor Snave

Well, it turns out my friend isn't really in a hurry to get his wheels back after all. Since there's no rush it looks like I'll be building them myself after all.

Thanks for all the good responses and advice!