There are things we do the rest of the world may never understand. My most recent dilemma came about as I was deciding on the right wheelset for my Fuji The Finest. I know many of you have lamented over similar situations. The saga…

The Finest came with a set of 36h Ukai tubulars. Said to be a fine set of rims but I’m a clincher guy. I really wanted to keep the high-flange Sanshin hubs with the bike so I disassembled the wheelset and sold the rims to a fellow BF member.

It was then that I discovered the only other silver, 36h rims I had were a pair of semi-aero Arayas. Not at all appropriate for an early 70s Fuji. I completely forgot I unloaded my 36h Mavic Module E rims to another BF member.

Then I realized my ‘86 Super Sport I use on my trainer has a 36h wheelset with Araya box rims. Not purist-correct for early 70s but looked the part. Now I had to come to terms with not wanting to separate the 600 hubs from the Super Sport and really wanting to use the original high-flange Sanshins on the Fuji. Clearly the perfectly good wheelset on my trainer was going to have to come apart.

Now I am not a quick wheel builder. I had a lot of measuring and spoke acquisition to do so I had to have an interim wheelset for use on my trainer. I built up a 32h wheelset with Rigida rims and Campy hubs which I will use to plan a subsequent build.

With the Super Sport now donning the Rigida wheelset, it could still fulfill its training duties. I disassembled the Araya wheelset from it, rebuilt the 600 hubs and laced them to the semi-aero Araya rims. This new wheelset then went on the Super Sport for permanent training duty. The semi-aero profile looks right at home on an ‘86 Super Sport. The Rigida wheelset is now on the hanger awaiting its next build.

Finally I could come back to the Fuji which is what caused the musical chairs in the first place. It now sports the original Sanshin hubs laced to the box-profile Arayas from the Super Sport. Although a decade separates the bike and the rims, I think the aesthetics work well.

So is our plight. I could not simply buy a new wheelset from Velomine because I just had to use those Sanshin hubs. I could not buy a pair of Sun CR18 rims because dammit, this is why I have a parts bin! At the end of it all, the finished product didn’t turn out half bad.