Originally Posted by 63rickert

The Shuz Tung machinery does not look that fast. Lots of steps still done purely by hand. But it will work with hands that have no skill. That is the only purpose. It is about total respect for capex and zero respect for humans.

A skilled wheelbuilder doing production work - series of wheels all to same spec - should build a wheel in about fifteen minutes. I will name names if anyone cares. Full custom wheels take 20 minutes. Capex on a hand build wheel shop is trivial. It would take a market for huge volumes of wheels for the machine built wheel to make any sense. Sure, Giant and Trek will want these. Most others should work with humans. But that would mean respecting humans.

Even in the promo video Shuz Tung has a more manual setup for high end wheels. Accuracy of 0.1mm is presented as some sort of big deal. Hand built wheels hit that mark every time if the rim itself is accurate.

One of my favorite wheels was built by Oscar Wastyn in 1959. Did not have huge miles when I got it but plainly had been used. Prewar FB hub, 32 hole. Unknown spokes about 1.9/1.4mm butted with a uniform layer of protective rust. Fiamme Red Label rim, a rim that all over at C&V will claim is Kleenex. So far about 10,000 miles in my custody. Have not done a thing to that wheel and it is dead straight, perfectly centered, absolutely uniformly tensioned.