Originally Posted by
Accordion
+1. We have a local guy here in Orange County with a constant three-month backlog. Every racer around here goes to him. He does it in his garage in what little spare time he has. In real life he manages a Waste Management team!!
That's basically what I do. I own/run 3 racing teams/club with close to 50 racers, do maintenance/build work on all team and friend rigs, own and run a computrainer multi-rider studio, have a family with a 4.5yr old son - wife works full time. Have a "real job" requiring at least 40 hrs a week, and run the wheel business - in which I have built approximately 320 wheels in the last 12 months.
Not trying to make excuses - I wish there was enough money in this stuff to let me do it full time. It is my passion and I am good at it.
Yes, there are a lot of quality wheel builders out there. Yes, it is not rocket science. Wheel building is more of a craft than a cookbook recipe though. Almost anyone can assemble and true a wheel, but few know how to select the components and lacing appropriate for the rider and application and even fewer can go through the process with a well tensioned and relieved wheel. I am definitely not the only builder out there.
Different builders have different niche's. I don't really go for the uber light for the sake of light wheels. I tend to build reasonable and high performing wheels. Other builders could run rings around me when it comes to featherweights - but that's not what I am going for.
As for response time - OP ...pm me the email address you sent it under if you still haven't received a response. I cleared out everything back through the weekend last night and I know there are some hangers from last week I have yet to respond to....