Originally Posted by
urbanknight
LBS: LBS built and master wheel builder built are two different things. I've heard stories of a time when every LBS had a master wheel builder on staff, but such a time existed before I got into cycling 18 years ago.
Labels (excuse the double use of this term), e.g master wheel builder doesn't mean much in the 'industry'. Neither do titles like service manager or any other fancy titles that denote nothing. We've had plenty of "service managers", "head mechanics" that have tried out at our old shop that sucked balls.
Labels: I'm not sure about other builders, but I was taught and go by the rule that the rear hub should be read from the rear and the front hub should be read from the front. The rim labels should be read from the drive side. For this reason, a set of wheels not on the bike might look like the front hub is backwards when it makes more sense on the bike.
I don't think it matters for the front, as you can just reverse the wheel so the label is read from the front/back as you wish. Hub labels for me, always read from the riders pov.
Crossed spokes: Although not generally a functional problem except on high spoke count wheels, this is an indicator that the builder might have cut corners or not paid attention to more important, and more transparent, aspects of the build.
Yeah, I really don't think there's an excuse for this other than just lazyness or lack of experience.