A wheel with a bad build or poorly made parts can hurt you really bad, really quickly. Wheel building is a practiced skill. Something that is thrown together with the cheapest possible parts and labor is not confidence inspiring. Nobody is going to put as much effort into getting my wheels right as I am and I'm sure as hell not going to trust some anonymous vendor half the globe away with no US liability or reputation to protect.

Because life is richer when it is more than consuming. I'm a producer in many ways in life, and now wheelbuilding is another way.

This pretty much sums up wheel building.

I recently built up a wheel for the first time in about 20 years. Took three tries to get the lacing pattern perfect but it all worked out. I've been racing and training on the wheel ever since, and enjoy the satisfaction of my labor.

Glad to hear you built your wheels up without any problem.

Do you know a good wheel builder that can double check your work? If so I'd have the tension double checked. Low tension can cause problems, and uneven tension can be a bigger problem in the long run. Don't worry about it too much, but it won't hurt to have things double checked.

From my experience, most first time builders under tension their first set.

Put 30 miles on them today for the LBS shop ride. They were great. Stayed perfectly true. I checked at every regroup, since I was a bit paranoid. After the ride one of the LBS mechanics looked over my wheels, he is a wheel builder himself, he was very impressed. It was nice to have someone with some experience look them over.

Because with box section rims (you can alternately increase tension and stress relieve until the wheel goes out of true in waves indicating you've reached the rim's elastic limit at which point you back off half a turn, touch up, and be happy - last wheel I built that way averaged 110kgf just like with a tension meter), a $5 smart phone app, or $45 tension meter you can guarantee they're built right, will never go out of true until crashed, and won't break spokes for the first few hundred thousand miles.

It's an enjoyable distraction.

And you can have combinations you can't buy off the shelf.

None of the parts used in this particular build are Chinese.

The hubs are Taiwanese, the spokes Belgian and the rims are American(?).

Good point. Yes, I believe the rims are made in the US.

I put 101 miles, 9700 ft of climbing, and several 40 mph descents on them today. Just as true as when I took them out of the stand. I have to say that at this point I am very happy with these. I promise, pics are coming soon.

Ok, here are some pics of the new wheels.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=390350
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=390351
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=390352

Very nice!

Congrats! How does the bike ride? Did the weight go down?

Bike rides great. It is very smooth, noticably smooth in fact, but I'm pretty sure that is due to the 5psi less I'm running in my tires with those wide rims. Feels rock solid in the corners too. Definite weight savings as well. Bike dropped a full pound with these new wheels. I am extremely pleased with them.

They look great, nice work!

Will the anodizing wear off along the break track with time? If so, I know that would have me laying off the brake, because they look so nice...

Thanks!

The braking surface is machined prior to anodizing, which gives that really cool look. So yes, it will eventually wear through. When it starts to do that I'll probably take scotchbrite to the brake surface to remove the anodizing from the rest of the surface to keep it uniform. Hopefully I won't have to do that for a while though.

I was going to build my own wheels for my fixed gear...but they were cheaper to buy premade from velomine. I guess you already built them and all of this is moot now.

SPECIAL OFFER! 20/24 H Plus Son Archetype Build Kit - $269.95 $280

H Plus Son Archetype Wheelset Shimano 105 Hubs 8 9 10 Speed [0072774743513] - $239.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike $240 for 105 hubs
H Plus Son Archetype Wheelset Shimano Ultegra Hubs 8 9 10 S 32 H [74762] - $289.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike $290 for ultegra hubs

Yep those are cheaper. However a few things to note; at some point in this thread I made it clear that this was not primarily a money saving exercise, I did it because I wanted to learn. However, IMO, I feel I got some good wheels for the money that I did spend. I see that those are shimano hubs in your link....I run Campagnolo on the bike these were built for. The advertised weight of the ones you point out is over 1900gr, without skewers. Mine weigh 1609gr with skewers.

Yep! Sorry, I wasn't trying to be snarky or anything...like I said, it was completely moot. Just throwing those out there if anyone reads the thread and is looking for wheels and decides not to go down your path.

I run the same rims on my fixed gear...completely different hubs, spokes, nipples, so it's probably pointless to compare, but they're a great wheel!

Oh no problem. Thank you for the link actually. I have another bike I need wheels for and their prices do seem reasonable should I decide not to build my own. For that bike I may use the H Plus Son TB14 rim. I see they have a 32 spoke TB14 laced to 105 hubs for $199. Pretty much what I've been considering for that bike. The hard part is going to be convincing the wife I NEED another set of wheels.....

Haha, I've been there! "You're buying what?!"