Originally Posted by
big john
I agree that there are people who build wheels who don't do a good job, I should know, but in my opinion a hand built wheel done by a good builder will be superior to a machine built (factory built) wheel in many cases. My best luck with wheels has always been hand built by local builders.
If you'd like to try it yourself get a book called "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brandt.
Okay, I finally made a decision today.
I’m going with the wheel builder option. A new DT Swiss R 460 rim with all new spokes mated to my current hub. I’m having it done at a small three person shop, but they have been around for a while. It is going to be approximately $55 for the rim, $55 for spokes, and $50 for labor.
The DT Swiss rim is warrantied for 2 years, but no actual warranty on the wheel build. Shop owner said “case by case basis”, which to me translates to zero.
Won’t be ready until Friday the 11th, they had to order the rim.
Another shop I tried came up with a nice Mavic rim paired with a Shimano hub and freewheel, for around $300. They didn’t do wheel builds. They had no warranty info, which I found off putting.
With the wheel build being half the price of a new rear wheel complete, it was a fairly easy decision.