Buy wheels or Build wheels?

[mudmucker]

Ok. I have a fistful of questions here. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my wheelset. I “think” I want a lightweight climbing wheel. I usually ride anywhere between 25 to 60 miles per ride, and I have a lot of hills, lower grades around 6-8% with 10-12% grades spiked in there.

1. I haven’t looked around too much yet and I’m not clear on which wheels out there are suitable for what kind of riding. The Ksyrium ES certainly looks good but I won’t spend that kind of money. Then there are the more reasonably priced but still expensive Ksyrium Elites which I like (I’ll pay up to $500). Aren’t these more aerodynamic wheels though – although they may give a nice ride they don’t really seem suitable for an area with a lot of hills?

Any of you have experience or comments on these wheels. I’ve read the thread here http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...t=build+wheels
Any other recommendations to start with?

2. Well, then, I could also get some custom wheels built. Any time I hear the word “custom” I hear the cash register getting louder. Then in a post from the thread above, says how this person got some custom wheels built for much less than retail values and got exactly what she wanted. For any of you MA gals reading this – any recommendations of good wheel builders near North Central MA? I haven’t visited my favorite LBS yet to ask (which is GearWorks Cyclery in Fitchburg). I think most of the MA TE folks are mostly around the Metro-West area. I’ll certainly travel east if I need to.

3. Then, I’ve been playing around with the idea of building my own. I would be totally clueless about it. I do stuff like that a lot; teach myself something that I know nothing about. The journey is half the fun and I’d certainly learn a lot. I’ve only slightly done a bit of research on this. I’ve visited a couple of online sites including Sheldon’s. Is there a favorite site or book that someone might recommend? Is this something where I should take a class (which could potentially cost a fifth to 25% of the wheelset)? Some of the web sites on building are pretty detailed and informative. I would certainly have to be careful on choosing the appropriate parts for the kind of material for the kind of wheel and what kind of lacing pattern for the kind of ride I want and do. I haven't even come up with succinct questions to ask yet.

For people with experience, is there a more favored reputable manufacturer out there? If I buy parts, should I stay with the same vendor/manufacturer or does it matter if I mix it up?

BUT:

Is the kind of wheel I want too tech-y for a beginner? Are there enough checks and balances in the procedure to be confident the wheel is built correctly and is safe? Would I have to bring it somewhere to get my work checked (which sort of defeats the purpose)?

Is this really cost effective? I’d have to invest in some tools; trueing stand, tensiometer, a dish stick (?). This in combination with the materials I’d need to purchase – well, it may exceed the cost of a purchased wheelset.

4. Lastly, I usually put on 5 or 6 lbs during the winter. I easily whittle this off down to a "suitable for me" riding weight when the season opens up. I also usually incorporate hill interval riding (hills everywhere, I can’t avoid it) for those evenings in the summer when I only have an hour to ride. Maybe, I just drop those 6 lbs, do my intervals and bam, there’s my new lightweight set of climbing wheels that I “think” I want.

[mimitabby]

Read Peter White's website at www.peterwhitecycles.com/

[Kathi]

http://www.serotta.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16731

Here's the discussion that I had on the Serotta Forum about handbuilt wheels for my new Serotta. It was because of the feedback from this thread that I decided to have Jeremy build my wheels.

A little background, my LBS built me 2 sets of Mavic Open Pros with 36 spokes. Waayyy overbuilt for a 105lb rider. Because of my experience with my local LBS and doing a little research I wanted a wheelbuilder that was sensitive to my needs, which Jeremy was.

The cost of the wheels came out lower than the pre-built Elans that my LBS recommended to me.

The lacing on the wheels is standard so if I need them trued anyone can do it. Jeremy also installed the Veloplugs as mentioned on the other thread. He is the distributor for tune hubs so I can go back to him if I have a problem with the hub.

On the thread there is another wheelbuilder who has a very good reputation with the Serotta forum members. I believe he is in the east.

I absolutely love these wheels.

Also, I recommend you post your questions on the Serotta forum. It is a very knowledgeable group.

[DebW]

I've been building wheels since the 70s. Learned when I worked in a shop and there was no such thing as pre-built or factor-made wheels. If a customer bent a rim, we simply cut out the spokes and relaced it with a new rim. A lacing pattern is easy to learn from a book. Tensioning and dishing properly is something that's learned from experience. I'd definitely suggest a
tensionometer if you decide to build your own with little experience. And you'd need a truing stand and dish tool. Not sure how cost effective it would be for a single set of wheels (cheap truing stands are fine if you have a dish tool also). I think it's doable for a beginner if you're willing to spend time studying the method. If you're close to Wayland, MA I'd be willing to help you out.

This wheelbuilding book is available for downloading for a small cost and is quite good.

[roadfix]

Although not cost effective, I would build my own set of wheels when I need to lace up a particular hub/rim combo.....which is usually the case when I find a nice set of hubs or rims on Ebay, for instance. Otherwise, I buy machine laced wheelsets on special and retension them myself after putting like a couple of hundred miles on them. Cost wise, you can't beat some of these Shimano based machine built wheelsets you find on special, mostly through on-line dealers. I don't find anything wrong with them.

[Kathi]

I went with handbuilt because I wanted a wheelset that would give me a compliant ride, was lightweight and built appropriately for a 105 lb rider. Besides, I was building my dream bike and I wanted the nicest wheels I could get. The set weighs 1185 grams.

My SO has Shimano 7700 wheels on his IF, he does not like them and just received his new wheelset from Jeremy. He was able to demo the Krysiums and liked them but chose to go with handbuilt instead.

I use 650c wheels and I read somewhere that a 650c wheelset built the same as a 700c wheelset was 25% stiffer. So I didn't trust that I could get a wheelset from a company that would meet my small persons needs. Even Lennard Zinn agreed that I should use a wheelbuilder instead of a stock wheel!