Hey All,

I'm looking at a wheelset upgrade and am looking to do a custom build to save some money and because I love wrenching on bike bits! I'm thinking of sourcing from Bike Hub Store as many users have recomended. The UltraLight hubs with CX-Ray spokes seem like a no brainer, but I can't decided between the Pacenti SL23, Kinlin XR-200 rims, and Stan's Alpha 340. I'm a 165 pound rider and enjoy the varying New England terrain. I like to spend a lot of time on dirt, but most of that will be done on my old wheels. Even though I'm looking to shave as many grams as possible, I still want a reliable wheelset that rides well. With that in mind, I'm looking for input on whether the extra $140 and 100 gram weight penalty would be worth the extra durability, stiffness, and tire profile of the Pacenti rims. The Alpha 340 costs even more and has a narrower rim but brings the weight back down. I could probably get away with 20/24 lacing on the Stan's and Pacenti, so that also helps a bit. Any input on rim choice, spoke count and cross, or any other wheel build thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks much,

Arty

While I can't address your specific questions on rims, anyone looking to build their own wheels should also look at the DIY packages at BDopcycling.com.

I used their road kit III to build a set of wheels for my new bike and am very happy with the service, package contents and of course the wheels themselves. As long as you are capable of doing the build yourself (which I actually enjoy) I don't think you can do much better for the money than a DIY kit from either source.

I've used Stan's Alpha 340 hoops for a few years, and love them. The inner width is 17mm, so they are functionally the same width as many 23mm hoops like Kinlin xr279. You might want to use an Alpha400 for the rear wheel, just to help deal with the rough New England roads.

Built my first wheelsets 2 winters ago. Duplicate copies for myself and wife. H plus sons Archetypes, BHS hubs, lasers 2x crossed both sides, 24/20 (I'm 140 lbs). Very happy so far, good allrounders. Your mileage may vary.

You are ignoring the obvious solution, the Kinlin XR31T: deeper than the Pacenti, wide like the Pacenti, cheaper than the Pacenti, tubeless ready like the Pacenti and similar in weight. Not as svelte at the XR200, my go-to rim, but excellent for someone looking for extra stiffness and a little aero effect. I will tell you that Kinlin rims have no peer when it comes to out-of-the-box flatness, roundness, and seam smoothness. The reasonable price is just icing on the cake.

Personally I would go with the XR200s...I always do. But if you want the other characteristics, Kinlin has you taken care of there too.

Some wholesale distributors like QBP have a wheel building sub section (people building wheels in cubicles)..

because their parts are closer to Manufacturer than you can buy retail. sometimes ordering them thru your LBS
will be close to your collection of parts at retail, or Less..

now back to parts pick touts..

Thanks for the input folks! It seems like my two best options are either going for the Bdopcycling road wheel kit III which uses the XR31t and weighs 1485g for $320, or a BHS build on XR200 rims which would come in around 1290g for $460 delivered. There's a definite weight penalty, and I'd miss out on BHS's smexy red hubs, nipples, and light skewers. On the other hand if I go for the cheaper option, I could enjoy the extra stiffness, offset drilling, and slight aero of the XR31t rims, and I could make most of the weight back by getting a new saddle with the savings (granted it's not rotational weight). I'm still pretty torn here...

Are you sure you are pricing things right? XR200s are really cheap at BHS. And they have XR31Ts too. Email Brandon to see if he will compete with BDop on the kit you want.

Aeromax Race SL 700c Road Bike Wheelset 20 24H 7 11S Shimano SRAM Compatible New | eBay

To be fair, the $460 price was with the expensive skewers and shipping, but BDop shipping is free. It's still $428.99 if I choose an equivalent skewer. I'll try emailing Brandon to see if he can give me a bundle discount.

On a side note, I just realized that the XR200 has an arguably minuscule 13.8mm inner dimension which I don't think would jibe with the 25c tires I wanted to run.

Those could be ones to watch, but they're a bit heavy for the rim width and lack of much aero. Besides, half the fun would be building the wheels

But, arg! Ebay! I'm falling prey to the allures of Chinese carbon...

60mm Clincher Bike Carbon Wheels

I hear you. I'm a little different. I only use my hands when I need to.

having owned chinese wheels like that before, my personal take on them is ok.. it's a trade off. you get some type of aerodynamic advantage in races, at a sacrifice of braking performance. the basalt braking surface really suck (and when I say suck, I mean noisy and haunting), and even with cork pads, the surface wear started to get noticeable real soon. it makes no sense to me to use rim brakes on carbon rims. disc seems like the way to go to get the longevity that you should get out of carbon.

BHS charges $120 (+ cost for parts of course) to built a set of wheels?

Yeah, they aren't the cheapest place for builds, but I was planning on building them myself

Also very true. You can get ally braking surface, but then you're talking 300-500g more than a similar priced build. For TTs the aero probably would be worth it, but I'd prefer have the edge on the hills

I just paid BHS $340 for parts for my build, XC279 rims, CX-ray spokes, SL85 and SL210 hubs. I value a bit of aero over absolute lightness. I'll run 23mm 4KIIs on these.

Why would you get CX-Rays over Lasers if cost is a concern and the wheels aren't aero?

I built a set of Bdop wheels 2 years ago, they are great 8000 miles. I can build wheels these great for price. Never had to true the rear wheel minor tweek on front once due to my OCD.

That is another good consideration. I wanted to scrape up as much aero as possible especially if I'm going with 31mm deep rims, but is that a lost cause on alloy clinchers?

It would be safe to run the wider tires, but not very aerodynamic. Standard rims and 25 mm tires are a normal combination. For many years that was the only way a roadie could run 25 mm tires.

It's not a lost cause, but it's $100 for maybe a watt or two. There's also other brands of spokes like MAC that make very similar spec spokes for considerably less money, but they're not as nice to build with.

You really need to try some wider hoops. I know you love lightweight and cheap, but try a wider hoop. I think you'll see the light. AC and Stans have wider hoops, with only a tiny weight penalty.

No, they aren't as cheap as Kinlin hoops, but the difference is very noticeable.

Don't forget Danscomp as a source of inexpensive CX-Ray spokes. $1.75 is essentially dealer cost for those spokes.

I forgot about them. I tried to contact them once to see if they had road lengths since they're mostly BMX and couldn't get a straight answer at the time, so I ended up going with CNSpokes. After building with CNSpokes, I'd pay the premium for Sapims at that price and an extra $50 over lasers isn't so bad.

And that difference takes the form of...? Are we just referring to the lower pressure because of higher tire volume effect and the extra comfort that represents?

Some is the difference in comfort, some is the difference in handling due to the different profile of the tire.

It's difficult to describe the actual difference, but it's easy to feel when riding.