I've heard mumblings about the invalidity of bicyclewheels.com's claim to be selling hand built wheels. I think it has much to do with other shops carrying the same combinations of rim+spokes+hub, such as the super popular Mavic CXP22 rim+DT spokes+Formula hub. Also, their prices seem abnormally low for hand built wheels...but it seems they've sold thousands of wheelsets (check their eBay profile!).

Does machine laced, hand tensioned and trued = hand built? Because that's what it sounds like is going on.

I'm not trying to bash the company though, I have a valid question as I just ordered that wheelset from them.

now that you bought them do you really want to know
?

$145 for a set of black anodized Mavic and Formula track wheels I'll take them hand or machine made.

I'd have to retension them anyways after a couple months from the spokes settling into the hub.

I have these wheels on my only bike, which is my only form of transportation. If they are hand built, they aren't built very well. I had to have them retensioned and trued after a month or two. They were seriously out of true and spokes would come loose at least once a week, like unscrew-the-nipple-with-your-finger type loose. 5 months later they were out of true again. Occasionally a spoke or two will lose tension and get all spaghetti-like on me and I'll have to bust out the spoke wrench. not really a big deal at all, but its annoying.

To be fair, I weigh more than 200 lbs, ride every day, often with a heavy load and have crashed 3-4 times on these same wheels, so I guess it all evens out. The rims and hubs are great though, and i got them for $135, so I can't complain. For the price, they are a good set of wheels.

I have two sets of the formula/mavic wheels, and both have held up very well. Though it wasn't completely necessary, I tensioned and trued them right out of the box. I think that definitely helped keep them in shape. I have never had a loose spoke, and I only have to true after hitting some major potholes.

I suspect that this shop must lace wheels mechanically to operate on the scale that it does. Whether they are finished by hand is questionable. Mine arrived in usable, but not perfect condition.

Does it even really matter though? When you get any new wheels it's always check tension.

^true.

I've only ever bought one set of wheels from eBay; they were for my MTB and were advertised as "hand-built". I think I paid ~$100 for them, and noticed that when they arrived they were beautifully true, but the spoke tension in both wheels was about a half of what it should have been. I re-tensioned them and rode them all last season with no problems, but I'm sure that if I'd used them straight out of the box, it wouldn't have been too long before the spokes would have started breaking.

FWIW -

- Wil

If they're equilibrated, it doesn't necessarily matter. Granted I prep the spokes and sometimes hub before I lace, machine built isn't the worst thing in the world. I just appreciate the fact that I know what went into the wheels I'm riding.

I'd rather have machine-built than hand-built by some high-schooler making $6 an hour.

I do not, however, share the mentality that you should have to retention every wheel you buy. That's what I paid labor for the builder to do. Plus, if I had the tools and expertise to do it myself I wouldn't be paying someone else to build them.

I hope I can figure out how to tension them without screwing them up. There are some NASTY potholes in Cleveland. If I just do a half turn all around that wont make it out of true will it?

What shop are you going to that has unskilled HS kids lacing & tensioning your wheels? Doesn't matter, find a pro shop. I've always had any wheels I've parted up built by professional mechanics, preferably one who I know has a reputation as a wheel builder.

Then I'll ride them, and bring them in after 150-250k if I can, being at my heaviest 145 if the initial build is very good it'll stay good under me, so it isn't a priority.

ANY wheels that have been shipped should be checked for tension & true, then checked after a few hundred miles, same as any other wheel.

take the wheels to a lbs and have them trued......its only a few dollars and they will know if there tensioned properly.(if there competent)

They charge upwards of $30 a wheel at my lbs for truing. I hell as don't want to spend another $60 on my wheels.

then you should learn what you are doing

that shop should be firebombed.

$30 is a fair price for building wheels, 1 wheel specifically, a true shouldn't take as long as a build IMO, or cost as much.

my pal got a set of the mavic/formulas, i trued them a little out of the box and she hasn't had problems yet. its been about a month, but she doesn't ride them everyday. they seem pretty decent, machine built or hand built.

and you should find a shop that isn't trying to dig into you for 30 dollars a wheel, 7 dollars a wheel was the shop i used back in PA, around here i've seen wheels trued for 10-15 dollars a wheel, 30 a wheel is over the top

Also at that price a competent builder will include a true/checkup for after you've put some miles on the wheel. Yer gettin hosed Billy!

No shop that I frequent, but that's my point. You have no clue who's slapping together these ebay-specials. Every truly competent wheel builder I know of personally has as much or more business than they can handle already.

Are you sure this isn't for equilibration? It shouldn't be that high, but equilibration is a far more involved task than simply truing. True when you want your wheel to go out within a month or two, equilibrate when you want it to be straight as an arrow for years.

Word, the wheel guru at my shop offers a lifetime guarantee of trueness and against spoke breakage...

take'm to shaker cycle if you're really worried... i'm sure mitch would have a thing or two to say...

For the money what do you think?