Landgolier

At most shops you're going to get a discount on a custom wheel for buying the stuff there, so stop worrying about sourcing the stuff yourself. Like I said, find yourself a good wheelbuilder and they will hook you up.

mattface 

a 36 spoke wheel should be sufficient, but if you want to go 40, you could do it with an old English track hub. English bikes used 40 spoke rears very commonly back in the day, so there are plenty of vintage track hubs with that configuration. Probably easier, and durable enough just to do a 36 hile formula hub 3x to a beefy rim. There are some nice wide 700c rims on the market popular with the 29er crowd for off road use. So you could build up some beefy ****, and run nice wide tires to further absorb impact.

dirtyphotons

I can recommend the IRO from personal experience. I'm not terribly heavy, but I skid a lot and have no complaints. Below that price the hub quality becomes a safety issue more than a performance one. I don't think you'll find a decent track or fixed gear hub for less.

As far as spokes, Sheldon has some good stuff to say here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/192318-building-my-1st-set-wheels-spoke-suggestions.html

He's post #9

big boy phil

The link is not working for me. and what does it mean to lace it up 3x

dirtyphotons

yeah, the forums get funny this time of day. try it again in a few minutes.

3x means each spoke crosses three other spokes. example:

big boy phil

nevermind it works now. I have not had a chance to check out sheldon's site, but in the thread they reference his site for wheel building. i hope it will explain a few more things for me. this is all very new to me.

dirtyphotons

that's okay, learning about it is an important part of the fun.

kurremkarm

Actually with price im thinking 36 hole is probably the way to go. With a nice wide tire, say 700x35.

dirtyphotons

not to be contradictory, but you might have trouble with a 35mm tire on a deep v (if that's what you decide on). check with the rim manufacturer for maximum and minimum recommended tire size.

Learn_not2burn

Good golly miss molly... where did you get that CAD'ed wheel from????

Pipebomb

Mavic cxp33 are real strong and a bit lighter and priced about the same, maybe a even little less.
I agree with most everyone here in that your biggest concern is who builds it for you.

big boy phil

so does anyone know of a good builder that they can point me towards? Do you think its absolutely necessary to have someone locally build me a wheel? I only ask because of the possibility of no offering a local solution. So if there is a good builder elsewhere that is willing to ship to me, I am more than happy to give them a call and see what they can do for me.

Pipebomb

https://www.sfvbc.org/members.php
That site should help you find a shop in your area

Landgolier

I'd imagine there are good wheelbuilders near you, I've heard there's a couple cyclists in SoCal. You could get it done elsewhere and have it shipped, but shipped wheels sometimes need to be trued afterward, and there can be other benefits to developing a relationship with a good local builder/shop. I would do some searching here or contact your local roadie club or collegiate cycling team.

Jesse M

i wouldn't go any cheaper than IRO.

with that being said, i wouldn't call IRO cheap.

they're inexpensive, but well made, and will probably serve you alright as long as they're cared for. plus, you can get a complete wheelset from IRO with their hubs already laced to deep vs.

i've been riding the iro/deep v wheels for the past couple of months, and they seem indestructible to me. granted, i'm a super feather-weight kind of guy (5'10" 125lbs), but these wheels are way beefier than i need.

i think the IRO hubs will treat you well, if you decide to go that route. they're a quality product, and i haven't heard much about them being prone to any type of failures.

mascher

Yeah, I don't see what all the hubbub about hubs is - how many people have broken flanges on a hub, and how many times was it normal/careful riding combined with extreme weight? I'd say a suzue jr would even be fine, but for the price diff, might as well get a Kogswell, IRO, or Formula, and spend the extra dough on a nice and tough touring or tandem rim. As a heavy rider, I break spokes and bend rims, but I've never killed a hub, and I've been broke most of my biking career.

I'd bet even a Mavic MA3 would be fine, and if they're $35 canadian here, they're cheaper there for sure. I've never ridden one (or even seen them) but at that weight, 29" mountain bike rims would let you run wide (32mm or greater) tires and deflect a lot of the stress on the wheel with the higher air volume, not to mention being more comfortable. They're boutique stuff though, so will be more expensive, but possibly worth it.

I'm not an expert on wide tires, but at my weight I had a lot of trouble with flatting 1" and 1.25" wide slicks on my mountain bike - I think the width of the rim had something to do with it, using a tire with the same width of the rim. On road rims with narrow tires that are wider than the rim itself, I've had less of a problem except riding off road. All that to say you might want to consider what width tires you're going to run in conjunction with your rim choice; as a fellow clyde, flats are par for the course, but you can choose parts that minimize it.

I also think the voodoo about a "good" wheelbuilder is mostly bunk; unless I've been extremely lucky, any bike shop worth its salt at all should be able to build you a good strong wheel; I've killed every machine laces wheel I've had, and I've only put one of my 8 handbuilt wheels out of true, the rear on my mountain bike, and only after 3.5 years, and that's with practicing 3 foot badly landed drops. 4 built by the head mechanic who I adore, two built by the minimum wage doofuses they hire for the summer that crossthread pedals, two built by decent ham and eggers, all excellently built.

I'm probably 235 in clothes and shoes, and 250 with a bag with lunch, clothes etc, and I'm surviving very well thanks with handbuilt 32 hole wheels on my fixed bikes and my mountain bike.

That's my two cents. $50 Kogswell hub, $30 Mavic rim, $40 on a shop wheelbuild with double butted spokes. IRO and Velocity wheels are built by hand by Velocity as well; I haven't had the chance to really abuse my mountain fixed rear, but it was true and nicely tensioned out of the box, and still is after three months, and with me and loads like a 25kg bag of deicing salt on my back. Phil Woods are nice, but they're the Rolls Royces of hubs.