Originally Posted by cascade168
After reading your original post for the third time, it occurs to me that it's not only an improvement to "hand finish" a set of machine built wheels, but it's a good idea to "hand finish" any set of wheels you buy (assuming you didn't pay for a quality hand build). I recently got a set of SunCR18 rims, Wheelsmith spokes, and Deore hubs for $90. I could not buy the components for that prices, but the wheelset was on sale. So, I got the wheelset and proceeded to true, tension, stress relieve, (yada, yada, yada) just like I was building a new set of wheels. Now my beater bike has a pretty damn good set of wheels that should last me a long time. Lots of wheelsets are just cheaply handbuilt and you can make them soooo much better by doing a quality finishing job yourself.
Cascade, I have a question about your techique (for "hand finishing" machine-built wheels). Which of the following do you do?
1. disassemble the wheel completely, re-lace and rebuild.
2. completely detension wheel by loosening all nipples, and proceed from that point.
3. simply stress relieve, set bends, tension, re-true.
I, too, have realized that I can't buy the individual components and build a wheel myself any cheaper than simply buying pre-built ones, and hand-finishing them. But I've never actually tried this (although I have built several wheels from scratch).
What would you recommend?
Bob