This is my first time posting here, but all of my research has shown me that the people on this forum are the best resourses there is.

Any way, I am working on my first ever single speed conversion. I bought an old Bianchi Sport SS (maroon frame) and just started ripping it apart, I got the drive train removed but ran into some problems with the rear wheel.

I need some help on choosing the best wheels for the job. I thought about using the original 10-speed wheel set but its really heavy and in really bad shape. I believe the spacing is 130mm, but could be 126mm and I don't know if I can use a 120mm that seems to be the standard track set or if I need to find something that fits exactly. I'm totally new at this so go easy on me, but I need help to get this thing ridable.

It's most likely 130mm rear spacing and you won't have any trouble adding a 5mm axle spacer on each side of a new wheel to make it fit correctly. Here's a good place to start looking at wheels:

https://www.velomine.com/index.php?ma...84ahb48jlfmmh3

there are also 130mm SS/track wheels available this way no janking around with spacers and u can usually run the front chainring in the outboard position which looks better than inboard with a 120 hub

I wouldn't really consider adding couple of axle spacers to be any kind of extreme "janking" but yeah, either/or.

scrod what are your favorite wheelsets with 'deep' rims? I know carleton and others have trashed the h+son, but the Leader crew seems to use them and am wondering where you stand on those and similar?

I asked a similar question a couple days ago, everyone was pretty helpful. probably the most useful thing i learned was The IRO Cold Fusion Rims are very good, and are probably the same as the Velocity Fusions and they're only $15. https://www.irocycle.com/irocoldfusionrims.aspx



If you get those with Formula Hubs and some decent spokes (of which I know nothing about, but hope to learn) then take the components to your local bike store and have them build the wheelset. it'll be cheaper and stronger than what you'd get for twice the money.

Formula Hubs
https://www.benscycle.net/index.php?m...8&currency=USD

yeah I enjoy my formula hubs, the h+son use soma, which I'm assuming are pretty similar just with a more well known name to jack up the price. If there's an upgrade that makes sense from velocity (from a financial pov) is basically what I'm looking for. I'm willing to sacrifice the extra weight for a deeper rim as (I'm keeping the rest of this build fairly light, with the exception of brooks saddle).

but you bring up something I'm also curious about, what could I expect to pay for a wheelset build if I did order them individually? seems like a nice way to get some nice hubs on a deep rim, of which all I really see around are foer, velocity and h+son in that price range (excluding origin8 and weinmann). are there mavic or iro rims out there that go 40+? I also like the idea of the h plus son set having a machine front rim, but still in black, incase I ever ran a brake.

I have no issues at all with my Formation Face but my favorite "deep" rim is still the good ol' Velocity Deep V. I know it's blasphemy but I'm a big guy and not really into super light wheels.

After having both velocity and H+son, I definitely prefer H+son rims. They are just overall a higher quality, lighter, just as strong, and really seem to put a lot more effort as a company into R&D as well as innovation.

man that's like the exact opposite of what Carleton said.

The problem with most off-the-shelf Velocity Deep V wheelsets is that they're built with far too many heavy straight-gauge spokes. A Deep V with a lower spoke count laced to a good hub with nice double-butted spokes is a great wheel any day.

re: spoke count. would you say 32/32 is good? or would you recommend less in the front more in the back ie 36/28...?

On a deep v 28 / 28 3x builds a fine wheelset. 28 hole lower cost hubs like all city or velocity (all the same) might be tricky to find as 32&36 are more popular and readily available.

https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...5_10000_202455

80 for both wheels... it is fixed though but you can swap it out and insert a freewheel. They have others but that's the cheapest.

You get what you pay for. Zerolites are okay rims but those hubs are crap.

I see what you are saying. Why wouldn't you just save up for a good set of CPX22's or Deep V's? Then noobs wouldn't have to worry about re-packing their hubs every other day.

Or just buy IRO hubs while at their site and because they are $20

I'm looking at having Ben's Cycles build me up a wheelset. I'm assuming it's worth the $25 or whatever it is jump to get the double butted spokes vs single? I don't think they offer triple. I'm a bigger rider if that makes any difference and tried reading up on it at sheldon brown, but there seemed to be advantages to both.

also does anyone have any experience using veloplugs instead of rimtape?