Unless you find a donor bike with an acceptable wheel set cheap, be prepared to spend a few bucks on decent hoops. Decent wheels are all but mandatory to achieve decent ride quality and dependability. The wheel build, on this old Torpado, set me back close to $350.00 for spokes, nipples, hubs, rims, tires and tubular tire tape...


Building wheels is not all that hard to do. Building themproperly is hard to do, until you learn how to do it and that takes time and builds to achieve. That said, I do recommend giving wheel building an honest try. Expect frustration while building and while using. I doubt that a newbie will nail a wheel build first time out of the gate; however, before long you will be able to build a wheel, without even looking, as you watch the latest edition of Beast Master or what ever on the idiot box.