I finally finished my first wheel build. I used Suzue Basic hubs on MA3 rims with DT 14/15/14 butted spokes. The first wheel I laced I was a little off on seeing the hub label through the valve hole, but by the back wheel I had worked it out. These wheels are for me around town fixie and are so much nice than the old wheels (ghetto loctite freewheel stuff, bad news). I decided to put a 1 tooth bigger cog on the back and now I need a half link, so if anyone can tell me the best place to get one (other than LBS, naturally I'll be trying them first), that'd be great.

You can get the ugly half-links that have a cotter pin at any hardware store.

And congrats on the first build.

How'd the tension/truing go? I can lace wheels, but I've always been scared to do any tensioning.

Cool pic through the valve hole. Is that for dishing purposes?

The new wheels look excellent. Just remember to repack the bearings before you ride 'em (Suzue Basics are notorious for how poorly they're greased from the factory).

Tension and truing went fine... at least I think. I just went by feel and I used a wheel I already had to get a sense of tension. I've tensioned a wheel before, but never laced it before these wheels. I bent the rim on a mtb wheel a while back and when I replaced it I just taped the new rim to the old rim and moved the spokes over. The wheel is still true 2 years later, so I think I'll be ok. I already repacked the Suzues. I knew they were cheap hubs, so I did a search on here to find out all I could. As a result I repacked them when I got them, and went with a Dura Ace cog and lockring. I've heard DA is the best on the cheap threads. The pic through the valve hole is just showing off. I was pretty pleased to get the hub label lined up so well with the valve hole.

I just put the first ride in on the wheels. I found a shop in town and open today (Sunday) that had a half link, so I went to get it. The shop is on the other end of town and the ride was probably close to an hour round trip. The bike rides so much nicer with these wheels than with the old ones. It doesn't feel like a cheap ghetto bike anymore, it's great.