I bought machine built wheels twice this month. To begin with a lone rear wheel from Bikewagon via Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_os_product, and then again from Harris Cyclery http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/wheels/622.html .

The bikewagon wheel was described as having 2.0/1.8 spokes, 36 count, deore lx hub and Dyad rim. The wheel that arrived had 2.0 spokes. Up on the truing stand it was fairly true and the spokes were well tensioned. It had a few minor hops. A check with a dish stick confirmed that the dish was perfect. All in all, except for the spokes being single butted, a very respectable wheel. I still needed to respace the 135 O.L.D down to 130mm, but my parts bin yielded up the axle and I didn't foresee any problems in that area.

I was worried it wouldn't be strong enough, however, so I called Bikewagon and spoke to the owner, Kurt. We checked the description together. Then he gave me an RMA # on the spot and confirmed he would pay for return shipping. I notice that since then he has gotten the description corrected to single butted spokes.

The Harris Cyclery wheels likewise arrived quickly. Up on the stand, the rear wheel was out of dish several mm--and had no shortage of hops. Several spokes were well below tension. The front wheel was true, but grossly under tensioned to an average of about 65.

I didn't know if my expectations were reasonable--that right out of the box I could ride the wheels for a 100 miles or so before their final truing, but I knew this: the dish on the rear wheel was unacceptable, and the under tensioning on the front made it unrideable.

Concerned, I called Harris. I told my story to two people. Then I was passed to a 'mechanic'--Elton. First Elton told me to take them in to a shop and get them trued. Then he told me at my size/weight I should ride custom wheels. This despite what it says on the Harris site about their premium wheels. Somewhere in our conversation I realized I knew a lot more about wheels than Elton knew about shoes and socks. Then I told Elton 'I'm not gonna make a federal case out of this. Tell me what you'll do, and that's the end'. Elton grunted 'That's it'. 'Okay' I said. We hung up.

Lessons learned:
1. Machine wheels are all over the place.
2. It's just about mandatory to have a dish stick and a truing stand and know how to use them.
3. Bikewagon is a low to the ground operation that stands behind its stuff
4. Harris Cyclery is a shadow of what it once may have been.

It made me sad to think about all the basic bike knowledge I learned from Sheldon Brown courtesy of Harris hosting his work. But facts is facts.

I'm getting backed into the corner to just lace the next wheelset up myself.