Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone knew of a good wheel builder in Cambridge or Boston. I currently go between Ace and Cambridge Bikes for my stuff but don't know how good they are at building wheels.
Thanks!

I've had a wheel built at Paramount Bicycle Repair in Somerville and was pretty happy with the result. It's a one man shop, so turnaround might not be so fast, but if you're willing to wait, he does good work.

I would go to Rockland Cycle in Rockland. 781-878-7508. He will make exactly what you want. If you do not want know, then tell him your application. He will figure it out for you. He has some really nice rims at some good prices for certain things.

bill

I have had overall negative experiences with Cambridge Bicycles. I won't detail them, but let me say, I live about two blocks from Cambridge Bikes, and ride across the river to "my" shop to buy tubes.

Just a thought. Another place that isn't too far is Broadway Bicycle School. I have never had a wheel built for me, but I did get a quote on just that a couple weeks ago. The cost was less than I expected -- I wish I could find the paper -- and the guy made it sound like they do a lot of wheelbuilding.

Sorry I can't give you information that's a little more on-point.

EDIT: Another possibility, if you've got the time to ride out on a weekend, is Harris Cyclery, which was St. Sheldon Brown's shop.

Thanks for all the posts. I will call around to the shops and see what's up.
I've also been thinking I might just try to build my own wheel but am not sure if my curiosity about bikes will offset the cost of all the gear I would need to buy and subsequently barely ever use.
Thanks again

i have rockland cycle do all my work. he just re-strung my mtb rear rim with a new hub. came out great. i plan on having him build me a set rims for my road bike. he'll make it as tough or stupid light as you want

Community bicycle supply is a pretty good shop, they're on tremont pretty close to downtown, (400 something?) It's a smaller shop, but they're pretty good with attention to detail, the mechanics there really know there stuff (or should I say mechanic, I've only worked with one of their guys) I don't know how prices would run for building you a wheel, but they're def. nice people.

Or, just do it yourself, upsidedown bicycles work great as truing stands, and a spoke wrench is one of the least expensive and most useful tools you can have (second to maybe tire irons)

mmm... that's dangerous advice to give.

I'd say that an upside bicycle is fine up to a point as a substitute truing stand. You can't really fine-tune side-to-side adjustments with just a couple of brake calipers (or, well, you could, if you just keep on tightening shorter lengths of brake cable, but that gets really tedious after a while) and you unless you've got some kind of mobile brake stay, you can't do radial up-down adjustments .

Though, I saw recently, I think on Urban Velo or one of the other zines, a neat hack where you basically clamp a pencil to your seat stay/bridge stay and use that in place of the truing stand calipers for checking side-to-side. Though I haven't used it myself.

all in all, though, an upsidedown bicycle works ok for tweaking a wheel that's slightly out of true. Using it to build a wheel from scratch, with little wheelbuilding experience? Can be done, but it likely won't be a good wheel.

That's a good point... I guess I forgot about the "first time" aspect. As for the vertical adjust, I typically find some small flat piece of furniture (chair, small table) and slide it closer and closer to the wheel. It gives you a pretty good fixed reference point. Granted, this is no where near a substitute for a good truing stand, or a dish tool.

Anyway, Harris Cyclery and Community Bicycle are both fantastic, let me know how it works out for you.

I would go to Back In Action Bikes personally. I've been taking my racing bike there and the guy that runs the shop Zach is a racer and occasional pro team mechanic.