Hello All,

I'm looking at getting some new commuter wheels and I'm on a budget. Nashbar has a set of Ultegra hubs (28F/32R) laced to Mavic CXP33 rims for $199. I can't think of anywhere that I can buy the rims/hubs/spokes for even close to that price. Does anybody have experience with Nashbar builds? I'm assuming their wheels are machine built. I know that the wheel build is a big part of the wheels strength and longevity, so even though it seems like a good deal - is it worth it? Would I be better off buying them and then backing everything off and re-truing/tensioning them?

Thanks,
Nate

I've purchased machine built wheelsets on a couple different occassions from Supergo, on sale. Supergo, Nashbar, and Performance all belong under the same ownership. After putting a couple hundred miles on them, I made sure spoke tensions were true and tweeked a few spokes. They have given me absolutely no trouble. It's true that it is cheaper to simply buy pre-built wheelsets, especially when they're on sale and a discount coupon on top of that. That is one reason I have not done any standard wheel builds recently. I still build my own fixed gear wheels though....there's really no way around that.

bought a set a few years ago from nashbar. still running fine after a couple touchups at my LBS. I'd buy another set from them were I in the market

buy them, then have your LBS retension and true them after a couple hundred miles.
you'll still be $$$$ ahead