I have a set of old Dura-Ace hubs which I need to change out the bearings. I am going to get new rims, spokes, and salvage these hubs with new bearings. I don't know anything about wheels and hate working on them with a passion.

1) What are the best value clincher rims on the market?
2) Can somebody give me a link/explain the process of making my old hubs feel like new again?

Thank you

Your post is funny. I think maybe you should just buy new wheels

Not a bad idea, but I am far too cheap to spring for a pair of what would be comparable wheels.

Me too. Or at least have them built by someone else. If you really hate wheels, you'll hate building them, and you'll rush through the process and get more and more frustrated.

There are tons of rims out there. What are you going to do with them (race, tour, etc.)? How many spokes? Price range? These need to be answered to give a worthwhile response.

How to re-grease your hubs: https://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/hubs.html

Not racing. I want a durable wheel but not heavy. Id weight importance 60% durability, 40% weight. Price isn't a huge deal. I'd like to keep it under $100/rim but it depends. Spokes are 32.

And no no no I will not buy a new set of wheels. I think my hate of wheels stems from a lack of knowledge. Which will be cleared up after I learn from torturing myself with this project.
-And thanks fast jake for the sheldon link.

Assuming the rear uses a freehub - chances are it is on it's last legs. You should get an opinion on that first before anything else...

=8-)

Spokes are expensive, too. Unless you find comparable rims that could be used with your existing spokes, you'll be out the cost of spokes, too. I assume no truing stand? Spoke tension meter? These aren't essential, but greatly increase the chance you'll do it right and the wheels will stay true. At the end of the day, I bet you'll save money on a used wheelset compared to new rims, spokes, rim tape, bearings, tires?, etc.

But building wheels is a nice skill to have. Just may not be the cheapest/best option in this case given the info you provided.

Assuming the hubs are usable and the free-hub doesn't need replacement, I would use Velocity Aerohead up front and Aerohead OC in the rear. They are a "best value" in my mind. at $53 and $54 respectively https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=1712 and https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=1712

I usually work with Wheelsmith spokes. Double butted will provide the strongest build to hit your goal of durability without being too heavy. https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...4&category=778
and nipples https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...8&category=777

That's around $180 in parts and should produce very good wheels but that's not the challenge. Make sure you do a lot of reading and feel confident that you want to learn the skill. Wheel-building is a great skill-set to learn. Just read up and take your time.

Some other Links to reading:
https://www.wellspokenwheels.com/wsw1.htm
https://www.gtgtandems.com/tech/wheandhub.html
https://www.miketechinfo.com/new-tech-wheels-tires.htm
https://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/tension.htm

I agree. I learned to build wheels because, like OP, I had hubs and didn't want to see them go to waste after a toasted a rim and becasue I thought it would be a good skill to have. That said, by the time I bought rims, spokes, paid shipping, etc, I probably spent about what I would have on comparable machine built wheels and not too much less that what hand built would have cost. And that doesn't count cost of tools, which was significant initial investment. But now I build all my wheels because I like to.

I just built Velocity offset for rear and fusion for the front. Great rims trued out perfect.

You'll definitely want to get some guidance before attempting a wheel build (for safety's sake)! I'd highly recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Wheel-...8635713&sr=1-1

I've built all my own wheels (and some for my kids) since 1988 using Jobst's methods, and have never had one fail. Here's my favorite new sport rim (since my beloved MA-40's are no longer available) https://www.cambriabike.com/shopexd.asp?Item=100008191

One more tip: wear safety glasses while tensioning the spokes! Good luck!

Agreed. I own this book as well. If you are serious about building your own wheels, take the time to learn it and do it well. Also, be aware that you rarely save money unless you find good components on sale or as in your case, already own some decent reusable parts. Building your own gives you the options of combining your own preferred mix of components that may not be available in a commercially available and machine built configuration. But once you plunge in and learn the skill, you can get a great deal of personal satisfaction riding on your own wheels.

I am with the buy new crowd. if you are having difficulty and dreading overhauling the hubs building new wheels around these hubs may be a bit much for you.

last winter I had several pair of wheels built at a cost of about $250 to $300+per pair. I wanted very specific wheels though, old school tubular rims on shimano cassette hubs, with radial or crowsfoot lacing. unless you have such needs you may be better off buying new.

If you are mechanically inclined the jobs are not that hard. I second the Mavic Open Sport. The Park Tool site has good info on repairing the hubs. https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-...es/hub-service

+1 on the jobst book and the Open Sport rims.I built my wheels for the first time with those rims,Sansin($12 pair on e-bay-perfect condition) hubs and help from That book as well as the SheldonBrown site and the Zinn book.(Zinn and the art of road bike maintenance)I built my wheels myself cause the choice of new ones with 126mm spacing were limited and I don't trust or wish to pay any lbs mechanic!The wheels are a great source of pride as they came out splendidly.I recommend you practice truing on old disposable rims first!

Dura Ace freehubs can be extremely long-lived and I've got a set of the 7700-series with over 50,000 miles on them that are still going strong using the original cones and freehub body. However, I'd certainly second your recommendation the OP overhaul his hubs and see what, if anything, needs to be done before going ahead with lacing them to new rims.

As several posters mentioned, it is often less expensive to buy complete wheels than to have your own hubs built up, particularly if you have to pay anything near retail for rims and spokes, and in spades if you pay a shop to do the build or have to get all the needed tooling to do it properly.

Finally, if you are determined to build your own, my favorite rim is the Mavic CXP-33 for durability and reasonable weight. And, by all means, get a good book before starting the project. The Brandt manual is one of the good ones and the Sheldon Brown reference is also very useful.

Go here and download the wheel building chapter. https://www.bbinstitute.com/index.php

Thank you so much! I want to keep these hubs because they are a part of a grouppo of the first generation of dura ace STI shifters. I have the complete group and would like to keep my bicycle in that condition. I want to upgrade the rims because they have the original mavic something or anothers which are all used up.

-First step. Dig out old bearings and see what I have sloshing around in there.
-Second step. If all is well, purchase bearings and do all hub work myself.
-Third step. Purchase new rims. Either Velocity A-23's or Kinlin XR 300's.
-Fourth step. Hand it all over to a wheel builder and ask him to order the correct size DT Swiss spokes.
-Fifth step. Pay more than I want to, and maintain happiness.

This plan couldn't possibly go wrong, could it?