So I'm looking for a wheelset. I'm looking to put on 27" rims with 36h spokes and a flip flop 17/15t cog.
1. What are the pros and cons of assembling your own wheels? It's hard to find 27" wheels so I'm leaning towards building them myself, but...
2. What did you do?

Build 'em. It's a lot easier than you'd think.

PROS: Pick your own hoops, spokes, drillings, hubs, good set of handbuilt wheels will last forever (if you're not flogging them)

CONS: A lot more expensive, time consuming, super time consuming if you've never trued before and plan on getting your wheels straight


I've built at least 8 sets of wheels and I'll be the first one to tell you to buy complete.

There's no resale for wheels unless it's a hed3 or an aerospoke or a damn h+son, so you can find a decent set for a good price.

I spent well over $300 on my 29er wheels, and they're nothing special. Factor in a $100 freewheel, and I have a set of wheels worth more than my frame, and it's money I'll never get back.

Try these: Very good for the money. I owned a pair.
However. If I had to do it again? I'd get a decent set of 700c (and a long-reach front brake); that's the kind of wheel your next frame will take, and there are so many more tire choices available. I got 27" for aesthetic reasons. But now that I cracked the frame that takes 27" wheels, that wheelset will probably just sit around my basement.

Good point. I'm running on a 70's Japanese steel frame for the moment that I picked up on the cheap. So I am definitely moved to go with the 700c's.

hubs $42 ea, Spokes $1 ea, rims $36 ea. That's pretty pricey. But, I'd like to learn how to work on wheels. I've heard it can take a minimum of two days and your first go at truing. May just bite the bullet on that.

Thank you, Yo! and Bklyn!

I laced and trued a wheel today. It took four hours without a truing stand. It was my very first time. I feel a did a good job. The guys at the shop had nothing bad to say about it when they put my cogs back on.

The only reason I could think that it would take a minimum of two days to true a wheel is the spokes falling into form after riding a bid but I wouldn't say that you'll be fighting with a wheel for two days. I guess I don't know yet though.

I say build it yourself if cycling is a big hobby of yours. It's a great feeling to be riding on something that you completely put together and not just something that you bolted on. You may even find out that you really like the process of building wheels. I can honestly say I love it.

Plus you get some pretty good bragging rights out of it since a lot of people look at it as extremely difficult.

This is a classic build vs buy question.

Let's see. You don't have parts, training, or proper tools. And you are gonna build one set every year or two.

Not really worth the investment in time and tools for such a limited gain (one wheelset). Unless you count the smugness of knowing how to do so (which is obvious in this thread). You won't break even with the value of your time learning and the money spent on tools till you build at least a handful of wheelsets because one must remember that off-the-rack wheels are actually CHEAPER using the exact same parts due to economies of scale. We all know that buying parts for a bike al-la-carte is expensive. Buying components for a wheelset work the same way.

For me it's not worth it. I say either buy off-the-rack or pay someone to build them for you. Yes, I'm sure someone will say, "But you can always build several more for yourself or other people and make money..." but is that actually going to happen? Seriously?

I don't think it's a wheelbuilding "smugness" here....it's a tough skill to master and, in my opinion, one of the most difficult jobs in bicycle mechanics. You're proud when you build a set of badass wheels, and happy to have saved the money it would have cost to have an LBS do it, even though in the end you're paying a premium price on parts. I would liken bicycle wheel truing to getting that perfectly tuned drumset; it's like an artform and it takes more a lot more than one time to get it down.

Not to mention, anyone can build a decent set of wheels using only a spoke wrench, a flathead screwdriver, some light oil, the stays of your bike for truing, and Sheldon Brown's website.

My first set of wheels was for a dirt jumper and they've been the lowest maintenance set, although this can probably be attributed to the 24" hoop and the 2.5" tire scrubbing out a lot of the minor hops that would be huge on a 700c road wheel.

Sorry about the smug remark. It's just that the DIY army can be a bit overwhelming at times on this board. That forces the non-mechanically inclined into situations.

I built my first set of wheels using Mavic A319 rims, poor IRO low-flange bargain basement hubs, and wheelsmith double butted spokes and though it was an awesome experience, looking back I would have just bought a complete wheelset.

Mostly because it was extremely time consuming, much more expensive than I thought it would be and I'm pretty sure the tension has always been wrong; I still don't feel 100% safe on them (even though they are cross 3, 32H). But they have lasted for 1000+ miles so I think I did a fairly alright job.

Dude no joke, this forum will definitely do that to people...it's like you have to come in here with your fists up every time you post a thread.

And Zachee, as long as you have good spoke tension and your wheels aren't creaking/popping under force and staying true, I'd say you did a pretty damn good job. Any LBS can put a tensiometer on the spokes and check for sure, but most guys will just pluck the spokes or squeeze them together to determine if there's enough tension.

Yea I squeeze spokes together to determine tension. Been meaning to get an LBS to put a tensiometer to them... I know this is not the thread, but I have had spokes creak and pop before under tension. Is this a warning that they are too tight or too loose?

Too loose.

I had a front wheel give me all sorts of commotion when I'd really mash, and it was one of my first sets of handbuilt wheels, so I wasn't sure about what was good tension.

The LBS spent a good 10 minutes walking around the rim and pulling more tension into it, and it stopped the creaks and made my bike feel like I added 10psi in the front tire. You can also put some light oil at the crosses and at the nipples.

Yea I was afraid they were too loose, but I'm always scared of tightening them too much and having them explode or something. It only pops sometimes when I first get on my bike, but I will still probably tighten all the nipple a quarter of a rotation. Also gonna do the oil thing.

You probably did this when you built the wheel, but make sure the spokes are stress relieved at the flanges too; you know, just make sure they sit flush against the flange.

Here's what sheldon has to say ab tensioning:

There are three ways to check tension. One is by how hard it is to turn the spoke wrench. If it starts to get hard enough that you have to start worrying about rounding off the nipple with the spoke wrench, you are approaching the maximum. Fifteen years ago, this would be the limiting factor, and you would just try to get the wheel as tight as you could without stripping nipples. Modern, high quality, spokes and nipples have more precisely machined threads, however, and now there is actually a possibility of getting them too tight, causing rim failure.

The second way of judging spoke tension is by plucking the spokes where they cross and judging the musical pitch they make. If your shop doesn't have a piano, and you don't have perfect pitch, you can compare it with a known good wheel that uses the same gauge of spokes. This will get you into the ballpark. Before I started using a spoke tensiometer, I used to keep a cassette in my toolbox on which I had recorded my piano playing an F#, a good average reference tone for stainless spokes of usual length. (For more details on this method, see John Allen's article: Check Spoke Tension by Ear.)

The third, and best way is with a spoke tensiometer. Every well equipped shop should have one. Average freewheel-side tension should be up to shop standards for the type of spokes and rim being used. More important is that it be even. Don't worry about the left side tension on rear wheels. If the freewheel side is correctly tensioned, and the wheel is correctly dished, the left side will be quite a bit looser. You should still check the left side for uniformity of tension.