I am going to be building a wheelset for a single speed commuter.
What are some good options that I should be looking at?

Things I hope for in this wheelset:
-Solid, not easily un-trued
-less than $200 (ideally less than $150)
-not too flashy (teen thugs and crackheads love deep V's in all the colors of the rainbow)
-flip-flop hub
-will complement this frame...


I've heard great things about Mavic rims but there are so many options that I don't know which Mavic rims I should be looking at.
thanks

Formulas on Alex DA28's and thread over. Mavic, meh. The only rim i'd use of theirs is a touring A719 rim. And that's not going to be what you want.

You can get Shimano Ultegra hubs laced to silver Mavic Open Pro wheels for about $153 for the front and $183 for the rear. Unless your wanting to spend a total of $200 for both wheels then that could be a tad harder to find. Nashbar has a set of Vuelta single speed road bike or track bike rims for $90 for the pair. They also have a pair of Mavic Aksium for geared bikes for $180.

Go here for details and to view other rims. https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/SubCate..._200276_200335

Open pros suck. The only reason people keep recommending those is because of group think. Not to mention none of those wheelsets have flip/flop rears.

+1 to Formula hubs, and another +1 to Mavic rims being overpriced for what they are. I think a nice, old school box section rim in polished silver would look perfect on that frame. You didn't mention if these will be used with brakes or not.

Some suggestions on ebay to keep within the budget.
https://cgi.ebay.com/Sun-CR18-29er-70...item3359d7f329
https://cgi.ebay.com/New-Sun-Rims-MZ1...item1c0fe52e88
https://cgi.ebay.com/SUN-CR17A-ROAD-R...item563909e8b1

You need to spend more time on medieval history since you like to quote such trivial mush like "Companions whom I loved, and still do love,... Tell them, my song." To you I would say: Mal cuple en fist li Criatur, e de sa curt nus out chascez couardement a pavours a doutance." Question is, are you one of the queens?

mavic rims are overrated. they are decent rims but even cheap alex or sun rims build up fine. its more about the build quality than the rim.

A few affordable choices here: https://www.bicyclewheelwarehouse.com...ewCat&catId=10

I got lucky and snagged their $85 Venus/Formula set when they were in stock the one time I've seen them in stock. Been damn good so far.

Definitely brakes. I don't see any reason to not have brakes, especially in traffic. I guess velodrome rules is the only valid reason for a brakeless set up.

Trivial mush apparently you're familiar with or spent time googling. Learn to read threads before attempting to answer them next time. Kthx

P.S Feel free to post something relevant to this thread instead of garbage. You wouldn't know a quality rim if it banged your wife on a sunday afternoon in your garage.

I agree completely, but the fixie crowd - especially the ones riding all over the 10+% grades in Los Angeles - seem to think brakes are optional.

With that in mind, do you care if you have machined braking surfaces or not?

I don't have any experience with non-machined rims so I am not sure if it effects the stopping time. If the stop times are equal then I guess it doesn't matter if it is machined or not.

It's about the same in dry weather (not sure about wet, see where I live), but anodized rims get the finished rubbed off in weird, unsightly streaks very quickly. Not an issue with silver rims, but otherwise, machined breaking surfaces generally look more uniform. Non-machined just has the classic look to match your frame.

For a nice balance of economy and performance the DA28 and Formula hub combination is hard to beat, we have had one LBS selling these for $150.00 a set (on clearance) so people have been buying them and bringing them to me for a once over and then riding the snot out of them.

(I really can't compete with this price as the parts cost more than this).

They have also been popular with the polo players here as they are cheap and can stand up to some massive abuse and are far better than many of the pricier boutique wheels that cost twice as much.

Sun CR18 rims might be the best deal out there for a high quality rim... their low price is not indicative of their quality and their price is due to Sun having paid off their tooling costs many times over as these have been around a long time.

My favourite heavy duty touring and clyde worthy rim is the Mavic A719 but it is going to be overkill for a lightweight commuter and with other Mavic products there will be a lot of debate as to whether they are worth the money spent. I also like the Mavic 319 and have built up touring wheel sets with these and had no complaints at all.
although they aren't finished to the same close tolerance as the 719.

And in the end, the quality of the wheel will have more to do with the builder.

I have been beating the hell out of a pair of lightweight single walled Weinmann road wheels for 3 years and close to 20,000 miles and they have stayed true as the day I built them up.

"I've heard great things about Mavic rims but there are so many options that I don't know which Mavic rims I should be looking at.
thanks"


Mavics are built by smelly frenchmen. I would buying some araya 700c wheels nos. The ones on my kronos are a sort of steel blue and would look great on your bike. Ah, how great single wall aluminum wheels are.

Sun CR18 on Formula 36h hubs with DT 14g spokes. $164.00

Which non-machined rims did you have in mind? If they are non-machined aluminum then the brake rub shouldn't affect the look/coloration of the aluminum sidewall?

I'm thinking about getting these Sun CR18 rims on ebay then taking them to the LBS to make sure they are properly built up and tensioned.
CR18

See my ebay links above. The CR18 you posted is also a nice rim. You will get some marks from the brakes, but polished silver rims won't show any more than a machined braking surface will. If you get darker anodized rims, however, the anodizing will wear off and show streaks of silver.

As to Operator and Open Pros...

Like Operator I'm not a big fan of Open Pros...unless they are going to be used as racing clinchers only and built up with DT / Ritchey 2.0/1.6/2.0 spokes. I personally prefer the CXP-33 over the Open Pro...

My recommendation to keep costs way down:

Alex G6000's - decent balance between strength, weight and tire selections - should be able to handle larger 700c tires if needed.

Find someone with the Joytech loose ball flippable single speed hubs...they are not bad at all IF YOU DO THE FOLLOWING:

- pop some extra grease in.
- break 'em in for a couple miles.
- do a final locked adjustment such that they have a very slight grind.

The noted hubs are basically Sansin copies from the 1980's.

Go with a mid-range or higher spoke that is 2.0 or 2.0/1.8/2.0 - i.e., CN's Mac spoke, Sapims, DTs or Wheelsmiths...

Tension the front to and rear as close as you can to the 107 kgf to 110 kgf range.

CR-18 is a good rim suggestion - so are Alex Adventurers and KinLin ADHN's w/ eyelets.

=8-)

What about a good local LA wheel-builder? What is the going labor rate for building a wheelset. I figure it maybe cheaper/better than getting a wheelset online then having to pay a shop to check the tension.

"Open Pros Suck" is not a very informative comment. What about them is unsatisfactory?

I read this group for factual information and opinions from informed people. There is no factual information in your comment and your opinion has no supporting information.

Once again, what is wrong with those rims?

I bought this wheelset from the same seller, only silver in color, for only 139.95 shipped to my door.... Awesome quality, and a great price..!!

https://cgi.ebay.com/CXP22-Single-Spe...item27af9f0393

on sale now only for a day at $134.95.... Good luck..!!


p.s.- That's a sweet looking frame..!!! I look forward to seeing it 'done'....

Thanks for the heads up but I have decided to go with a more classic silver box section rim like the sun m13II or mavic open sport. I can get either wheelset for about $150. I was leaning towards the sun m13II but then read a thread where builders mentioned that they are a pain to true properly, and never quite round when properly tensioned. That gave me second thoughts.

Most negative comments about Mavic have to do with them being overpriced. If open sports and m13II are the same price what is the better wheelset. I also read that open sports are rebranded MA3 which I have on a road bike and have been happy with.

I prefer riding 23 tires and I only weigh 175lbs so I don't need a beast like the CR-18.

What I would really like is some NOS araya or campy rims but that is going to be out of budget.

I have CR18's on my MTB, built with LX hubs. The rims are strong, and hold true perfectly. When I had to have spokes replaced a few years back, the guy at the shop said they looked to be very well built and strong wheels. Of course Now I have all the tools to do my own wheel building, and I should try it, someday. I have a wheelset with XTR rear and LX front hubs that needs a new...rear rim.

As far as the CR18 being a beast, you can never have too strong of a wheelset