Just got home to see my new wheels were waiting for me!! These were built by Mike at www.oddsandendos.com. It took two weeks from order to delivery, but has been well worth the wait. I called to check on the status yesterday morning, and was informed they would be done yesterday (Thursday), and decided to upgrade the shipping to overnight. Alex, who answers the phones and email, helped me do that and made the appropriate notes on my order--and here the wheels are today!! The are DT RR1.1 rims with Speedcific hubs. 28 AE15 spokes radially laced on the front. 32 XE14 spokes rear, 3X drive and 2X non drive, with brass nipples on the drive side. Total weight, with skewers, is about 1650g. Total cost around $370 including overnight shipping, which I don't think can be beat ANYWHERE for a quality hand built wheelset!! The new rear wheel with tire mounted, and cassette and skewer, weighs LESS than my old rear wheel without skewer or cassette! I can't wait to get out tomorrow and do a nice long ride on these, I'll post a report then. For today though, its only a short spin around the complex to make sure my brake pads are lining up properly as I replaced those yesterday (switched from DA to Kool Stop Salmons). Here's some pics:

sweet! congrats jeff!!! u'll be able to post up a ride report before me..

btw.. what kinda pedal u running on the gunner?

Pedals are Look Keo's (cromoly version). You can get them for about $150 from www.probikekit.com right now for anyone thats interested--unfortunately I got my pedals before I found that deal...

Another satisifed Mike Garcia customer. Welcome to the club!
By the way, wait until you see how those SpeedCific hubs roll.

I can't wait until July 12th when I can make the same post but with a blue Salsa in the photos.

did i hear July 12th? that's my bday.. i'll be hitting the big 30 that day..

probably gonna get treated to a round of golf at a nice course.. hehe

welcome to the cult.. *evil grin*

And now for the ride report:

Did my usual route today, riding from my apartment complex out to Stone Mountain (10 miles each way). Once at the park, I did 4 laps around the mountain (5 miles per lap), and then rode back for a total of 40 miles. The ride out (at least the first few miles) is pretty hilly and gets my hr up there pretty good (so much for a warmup). The new wheels performed beautifully!!!! They are much lighter than my old wheelset which is evident on longer hills, and while accelerating. Also, there seems to be a great deal less "road buzz" transferred from the wheels to my hands/butt--which is a big bonus to me. Not once during my ride was I able to get the wheel to flex enough to hit the computer magnets on the sensors (on either front or back wheel)--which is a problem I used to have with my 32 spoke Mavic Open Pros with DA hubs. At this point, I don't hesitate at all in saying that I'll be an Oddsandendos.com customer again in the future.

Mike built me a set of Velocity Aeroheads with 32 spokes front and rear using the same combination of spokes, 2X/3X and nipples he did with yours. It never fails to amaze me how smoothly they ride and I can totally relate to your comment about having less "road buzz". I have 6 sets of wheels and these things stand alone in respect to ride quality.

I'm going to be starting my Saturday ride in about an hour and hadn't decided which bike to ride today, but your post nails it for me, I'll be riding my Basso Coral on my Mike Garcia wheels.

I can vouch for ride quality... I have a superlight aluminum frame (Fuji TeamSL) that should for all intents and purposes beat the living crap out of me. I've noticed that it's somewhat rough, but not unbearably so. I've noticed the same thing about the road noise making its way to the "buttockal" area. It's not really THAT much worse than my MTB... at least not as bad as I had expected. Also, I have the Speedcific hubs and I can say those suckers are like mini perpetual motion machines.. they roll forever!

He uses agressively butted spokes which not only last longer (they fatigue slower) they smooth out roughness (in theory). Nice side benefit is that these spokes weigh less, but are harder too build with (I'm sure he's got the hang of it though....LOL)

He most definitely has the hang of it, that's for sure. Heck, look at all the rave reviews his wheels are getting.

Well I got an email from Alex and it was bad news. Aparently they are out of 28 hole DT RR 1.1s and wont have any more until late July, DT says they are out and are working on more. I guess there were about 10 pending orders needing these wheels including myself. Not sure what I am going to do at this point...may just get him to do the rear and then when they get the 28 hole rims do the front. The rear has been my issue anyway...I just wanted a matching set.

You don't want 32 hole for extra strength? Overbuilding stuff doesn't float my boat either so I can see where you are coming from if you want 28/28's.

I got 32 hole in the rear...the front is the issue. Which is my point...he can do the rear and ship it and then I can wait for the front.

OK, yeah 28 in the front makes sense then.

I guess I could have him build my wheels with the Velocity Aeroheads rather than the DT rims...... Thoughts? Maybe build them like the DT wheels (AE15s rather than XL14/17s in the front and the AE/XE mix in the rear rather than the XL/DB mix)...would that makes sense? I dont' know a lot about spokes...is that an upgrade?

That seems interesting to me. Talk to him about it.

It would definitely be more aero.

I don't know what is involved with making a 15 guage elbow work at the hub.

I thought about doing this myself with some cheap 36 hole 105 hubs I got from performance on sale for $54 for the pair.

I can't afford 72 XE14s ($140 in spokes!) for my first build you know, but I've heard bladed spokes are easier to work with since you can see the wind-up visually whereas with 17 guage centers it's tough.

Seems to me like the hub isn't an issue since that is how he mixes them for the DT wheels. The question is the difference in the rims, are the DTs better and would it be worth waiting for?

Oh BTW my Ritchey WCS compact is on the way for the Salsa as is a 12-27 Ultegra cassette, it has been a while since we conversed about it but I finally pulled the trigger on that project too. I am going to stick with my Ultegra stuff for now and see how it goes before I make the dive into Campy stuff.

The weight difference between 28 versus 32 on the front is negligible. My MG AeroHeads are 32 front and rear and came in at 1577 grams without skewers. They accelerate easily and ride smooth as silk. Worth thinking about . . .

I kind of like the idea of the asymmetric rear with mixed spoke guages on the drive and non-drive side. That's what Campy does with the Neutron and Proton wheels also.

I guess lately the aeroheads have been weighing more, but it depends on where the extra metal is going I guess. Rims always start to weigh more when the dies get old apparently.

The niobium 30mm is a great deal too because they come with XE14s all the way around.

Mike built me a Nimble Spider 28-hole front rim on a Speedcific hub with DT revo spokes. It's very light (648 grams without skewer) and nicely stiff. I would highly recommend looking into this option.

Mark

Why go with the Velocity rims? Go for the Niobium 30's if you're going to go with a deeper profile. I have a set and really love them. They're reasonably light as well. However, it seems that he's out of stock on the 28h version of those as well... the highest spoke count he has is 24. I went with 20h front and 24h rear, but then again I'm a featherweight so I don't have anything to worry about. I've smacked my fair share of potholes and they're still true.

Call me anal but I want a matching front and rear set (other than spoke count). If I went with the Velocity then I would go Aerohead front and rear. I also discussed the Niobium 30 with Mike and the thought was that due to my weight and less than perfect roads here in the north east that the higher spoke count (especially in the rear) would be a good thing.

As for going 32 in the front, 28 will be plenty, I am riding on 24 right now and they are doing fine...I can wait for the front...

The nice thing about having wheels made to order is that although they may be from common components, they are "your" wheels. All the suggestions that have been made, including my own, as just food for thought. Whatever decision you make based on Mike's advice will be the right one for you. I know you will enjoy your wheels even if you get them one wheel at a time. Good luck!