cross from Road forum - clyde wheel help
 

Any help is appreciated.

Mike

How much weight?

What price range?

With a Clyde wheel, spoke count is important! I run 40 spoke rear and 36 front, personally. It might be overkill, but I also tour.

There are three basic points with a wheel according to Kieth Bontrager, paraphrased for wheels specifically:
Cheap, light, strong: Choose any two!

For the application, what are you going to be doing riding wise? How much do you want to be tuning the wheels?

All of these are factors selecting a wheel.

Personally, I'd go for a hand built wheel from a master wheel builder rather than a robot assembled wheel.

Thanks Tom. I mostly do rides < 50 miles at about 15-17mph average; some climbing and sprinting on occasion. I never had to true the Xero wheels in 1200 miles if that is any indication. Price range ~500 and weight < 1800. I think both of those criteria can be met in a Mike Garcia custom build IF he recommends them for a rider my size. Emailed him and awaiting a response.

Mike

Another source of handbuilt is Neuvation. They will hold a Clyde according to communication I have had with the company. When I was still in the 300+ lb category, I was looking at them and they said I wouldn't have a problem.

I'm still looking at Neuvation for a future endurance race I'm thinking about.

Mike,

Give MG a call - he's kinda sketchy on email responses. Be prepared to talke in depth about what you want and how you ride. He will ask you all sorts of questions and then make some recommendations.

He built me a custom set that came in at $449 delivered, and weighed 1570g. Click HERE for the discussion

Ditto, great experience with Mike.

odd eustion on this...wouldn't uit be better to go to your LBS and get them to build it up? Mine has a "wheel guy" and will then make adjustments etc. as needed.

Just curious -- so many folks talk about the LBS relationship, and going in and asking them to true a wheel bought from another brings up issues.

I'm looking at getting some ceramic open pros with ultegra hubs (36 rear, 32 front) and was planning to ask my LBS for an estimate since I tend more towards giving them business.

I used to love my LBS; it was owned by a guy who used to wrench for Landis' mountain bike team and I'd trust him to do anything including build me a wheel. Additionally, I'm sure he would have made this issue I'm having right somehow. Unfortunately for me, he sold the shop in September and the new owner, while nice, is not a mechanic. The other people that were working there are not nearly at the level of competence of the former owner and therefore I have chosen to go elsewhere for my wheels. I will still support the LBS with other purchases, but in this case I would not feel entirely comfortable. I have asked them to price me a set of Ultegra Open Pros which I trust them to detension and prepare for me once they arrive, but building me a set is, IMHO, beyond their current capability.

Yea I love my LBS but their wheelbuilders suck. Mike Garcia is a master. I will second the notion to call him...he shouldn't even post his email address IMO. And Like I said in the other thread, I am about your weight (well a little less but pretty much exactly the same when I was buying) and Mike put me on his standard DT Swiss RR1.1 build with 32 spokes in the rear. AL nipples other than driveside rear which were brass. Great wheels.

When I was shopping around, I wanted to have the wheels built locally. But in every bike shop I went in to, the teenager counter guy listened more or less politely to my request for custom built wheels, and then led me over to the pre-built wheel rack and tried to sell me what was in stock. Some even said out loud that there was no reason to waste time and labor to custom build a wheel. They just did not want to do it.

So, I gave up and went on-line. No problems, no regrets. Mike Garcia is my wheel builder of choice now. He, like many others, is a specialist - that's all he does, and that's more than fine with me.