Originally Posted by
Aubergine
Actually, you'd be paying for a machine to build those wheels at that price.
Lacing and truing wheels is not that hard to learn, and I would encourage everyone not to be intimidated by it. If nothing else, it's a skill that makes it easier to take care of your bike if a wheel gets out of true or breaks a spoke.
Very true this. I built a wheelset with DT Swiss R460 rims ($31 each), 105 hubs ($22 front, $41 rear), and DT Swiss Competition spokes and nipples ($65). So under $200 in materials. Nothing top end, but all good and appropriate to my bike (Felt Z100). I bought a used Minoura truing stand on eBay for $8. I downloaded Roger Musson's wheelbuilding book for $12, followed the directions, trued and tensioned the wheels. I took them to my LBS as a final check. One of the wheels was slightly under tensioned and the other had a little bit of hop. He fixed them up for $10 each. So for $230 I had a wheelset that the owner of the shop said would probably retail for $350-400. Building the wheels was much less intimidating than I thought it would be, I have a new skill, I saved a few bucks, and dare I say, it was kind of fun. I'd recommend it to anybody.