Road Fan

Peter White will charge you more than that! Check out the wheel sections of his website. He does offer a full guarantee.

I had wheels built at my local LBS, which has a UCI-trained wheel builder. He asked me all the right quesitons, selected the parts for the wheels, ran it by me, and went ahead with an innovative design. He was willing to build with my NOS rims, Sapim CXray spokes, and 2007 Record hubs. The wheelset weighs 1550 g, has 32 spoke robustness, takes tubulars, and cost $725. Less weight and more stiffness than Mavic for less $$$, and with a lengthy "bring it back, I'll make it right guarantee, one mile from home.

Road Fan

CastIron

Very reasonable cost actually:

euphoria

I've never felt so inclined to trust someone from website text alone...but damn! I sent this guy an info sheet. As I was reading I kept thinking, "man, I bet the higher tier of his expertise will get ruined by one angry UPS loader" but he only lives two hours away. Thanks for the heads up!

USCswimming

I think some of you may be taking my original post out of context. I have been nothing but cordial, patient and very nice with Mike. 6 weeks is way to long to just get a deal done where I can send my hubs in and know when I would get the wheels back. Yes he did reply to my first email about 7-8 days later. I tried to email him 3 seperate times over the next 2 weeks and they all got bounced back to me. I left him a message saying "I want to do the deal, please call me back with an address so I can ship the hubs out" I left another nice message the next day and that was 8-9 days ago.

The ONLY thing I expect from any business is a return phone call or email stating "I am busy as heck, I would love to help you out sooner but please be patient and we can get it done"

As far as people saying "find a local builder", well I have asked 5-10 Cat 1/2 guys with many many years of local experience plus numerous coaches etc and I get the same reply every time. "I do not know any local builders".

FrankBattle 

I suppose it's all relative. 6 weeks, to me, for something custom, that I'm not dying to have .. is extremely quick. It would help to temper your expectations, I think is what folks are suggesting, especially when you use small 1-or-2-men-operation builders.

USCswimming

I don't think my expectations are, in anyway, out of line. I guess I just have to agree to disagree with you on that point. Its all good. I will find a way to get a good set of wheels done no matter what.

mcteague

Joe Young uses the best wheel boxes I have seen. They are sort of diamond shaped, wide in the middle and tapering to the ends. The shape seems to discourage stacking other boxes on top of them as they would fall off.

Tim McTeague

mandovoodoo

EMAIL: Just an aside on email. I do not get a certain number of emails sent to me. At times people get irate over this and say nasty things to me. Nobody can tell what they didn't get in email! I've also sent email that doesn't bounce and doesn't arrive. Email isn't 100% reliable.

Messages with no subject or a subject that says "hi" or "getabigunit" has a very high chance of never getting read.

Telephones work great. Fax machines usually work very well.

CONFLICT: While not applicable here, most businesses have a line that can be crossed where a customer slips from client to adversary. This is not good to do to yourself as a buyer. In my business, I win in adversarial situations. Watch this very much with chargebacks and claims on PayPal. Possible to "win" on either of those and lose where it really counts.

COMMUNICATION ISN'T DIFFICULT: On the other hand, I attempt to communicate with folks when needed. I've been known to forget. Low-staff, low-overhead shops can get stretched pretty easily.

MAKE IT YOURSELF: Good wheels aren't difficult to build. Great wheels are something else, but most people just need good wheels! With the advent of cheap truing stands and the easy manufacture of home-built dishing gauges it's pretty easy to do a nice wheel.

nostromo

I have to agree with USCswimming, there should not have to be some crazy amount of wait time to get a response, even if it's one line to say they're super busy at this time but will get back to you within XX days.

I'm currently dealing with Ron Ruff and his responses are within hours, not weeks. I now know a few guys online that have bought his builds and are very happy with them (price and workmanship) and all enjoyed working with Ron.

I too would like to have a local builder do a set but after speaking with each of the ones I tracked down it's quite obvious they're either stuck in the past with old school builds (nothing wrong with that if it's what you want) and haven't moved with the times or they ask you to point at a catalogue and tell them what you want and the prices are almost double what they should be.

FrankBattle 

^^^^ exactly, nostromo!!!

Do your homework. Maybe someone should create a ranking list sorted by response time to generic emails. Sorted first, though, by response time to phone calls that aren't cryptic: "Hi. Need a set of wheels for a build. Would like to talk about options. Please call at 123.555.1234"

Solicit feedback too from builders too on which kind of messages they respond to the quickest.

*this is somewhat tongue in cheek, 'cept for the homework part*

homebody146

Ergottwheels in Islip New York.....i can't load his original webpage but he built me a set of velocity deep v's last year that have yet to be trued.....they've held up like a rock....do a google to find him and see if he still does it. he was responsive and since my family lives nearby, rather than ship them i decided to pick them up (and get a family visit). Watched him working on my wheels and liked the way he went about truing, testing spoke tension, etc. Just found the website address
https://websites4ever.com/ergott/wheelbuild.shtml

nostromo

Ergott is still active, nice guy too and responds quickly as well.

socalrider

You should post in the Nor Cal forum and find a good local builder.. I'm sure there are a few people in your area..

AbsoluteZ3RO

got a good thread on how to build wheels yoruself? Got a good place to buy the parts?

waterrockets 

https://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Nahsbar had some great prices on Wheelsmith spokes a couple weeks ago, and aebike.com has good prices on rims and hubs.

USCswimming

A place I just found the other day is: https://fairwheelbikes.com They have by far the best prices I have found on the Niobium 19mm ($45) and 30mm rims($53). I have emailed Jason a couple times asking questions and have received a return email within hours. He didn't have the 32H Niobium 30mm in stock, so he is ordering one for me.

I don't know there spoke prices as I don't see them on the website. Jason mentioned that they do carry spokes and would get back to me with pricing.

Otherwise they carry some crazy boutique type of cycling equipment.

bailcash09

Hey Dura Ace rear hub on ebay $70
https://cgi.ebay.com/SHIMANO-DURA-ACE...QQcmdZViewItem

If you're looking to buy a hub, this is great. Just a heads up.