Originally Posted by
veganbikes
Hubs: Phil Wood, White Industries, Chris King and Paul Components make some excellent hubs right here in 'Merica. I am a big fan of White Industries (my road wheels are WI hubs and a new Raleigh build I am working up will also be WI) and my touring wheels are Paul Hubs (though sadly they don't make their cassette disc hubs anymore). Shimano also makes a decent quality loose ball hub in their XT and Ultegra hubs which are well liked by touring cyclists.
While I agree with you on hubs, the Bontragers on this bike aren't a bad hub to reuse for a future wheel build. They have cartridge bearings as do all of the hubs you've mentioned. They aren't made in the US but they are still worth using for a rebuild.
I'm mostly "meh" about Shimano hubs. They are okay and there's nothing really wrong with them but there's nothing terribly special about them either. If you are going to buy a machine built wheel, the Shimano ones are probably the way to go but if you are going for something special, spend the money on, well, something special.
Originally Posted by
veganbikes
Rims: Velocity Dyad, Atlas or NoBS are popular options for touring bikes and are made in 'Merica. My rims are WTB Frequency i19 CX rims which are tubeless ready so they are generally a stronger rim because of that. However I personally wish I had gone with the wider variants. Astral Rims likely has a great product since they are made by the same company behind Rolf Prima and also made in 'Merica. I have yet to try their stuff but I am interested in trying their Leviathan rims. Sun Ringlé makes popular touring rims at low prices as well. I know some co-workers who swear by Mavic Open Pros as well.
Without getting too far into the weeds, there's really no need for super heavy rims on a touring bike. The Velocity rims are okay but the real diamond in the Velocity line is the A23 and, most especially, the A23OC. The off center rim allows for more even spoke tension between the drive and nondrive side. Add in triple butted spokes and you end up with a superbly strong wheel without being unnecessarily heavy.
Originally Posted by
veganbikes
Nipples: I go brass always and typically go with Sapim Secure Lock Polyax but any good locking nipple will do the trick. However a regular brass nipple is not bad either just make sure you don't use some odd nipple with a proprietary wrench.
I wouldn't suggest avoiding spoke nipples just because of the spoke wrench needed. Splined spoke nipples are vastly superior to square brass ones as the nipple can't round when the spoke tension is high. I would never use an aluminum square nipple for obvious reasons but an aluminum splined nipple is far better. All my wheels have splined spokes now. Yes, they require a special wrench but all you have to do it carry that wrench. It doesn't weigh much.
Originally Posted by
veganbikes
Quality Bicycle Products AKA QBP has a wheelhouse and they generally turn out some decent custom stuff with any parts from their catalog so talk with your local shop and they can order you some if nothing else. They may not have the prestige of Bill Mould or Peter White but they certainly crank out quite a few wheels that are true and properly tensioned.
I wish the QBP program was better known. If you are going to have wheels built with those Shimano parts, they are very reasonable. You can even spec the wheels with DT Alpine III which QBP is selling now in bulk. For your own projects, you can get black Alpine III for about $1.50 each. If you want silver ones, you can always go to
Rose Bikes where you can get silver ones for about $0.50 each or black ones for about $0.60 each. Freight adds quite a bit to the price, however.