Sixty Fiver

I do all my own wheels and have been running a few suicidal wheel sets on a couple of my bikes...these were NOS wheel sets that I did not have to build from scratch but rather, rebuilt.

One is built with Normandy high flange hubs, 1.6 (light) butted spokes and Weinmann hoops while the other is Sansin hubs, single gauge spokes and Araya hoops. Both sets are really light.

They've shared better than 8000 km of daily riding and commuting duties with the Sansin / Araya set doing most of the work and have been equally bombproof, have not required any more than a most minute trueing, and I expect them to take me at least another 8000 km.

A good wheel build is so important... I did these for lack of $$$ and when/if I get new wheels I'll either be building them from scratch or rebuilding off the shelf wheels to ensure things are right.

The wheels on my mtb are also standing up to day to day commuting and much harder riding...it's built on a Suzue hub with Araya RM20 hoops.

No Poachers

Do you live in Santa Cruz?

c0urt

I ride an open pro rear, because i ride an odd wheel size and i like the strength associated with it more than anything. not so much for trickness but just because i need something that can handle anything and stay true

lymbzero

What's the point of nice wheels on a fixie?

I once knew a guy (who shall remain nameless who started out riding fixed on a low end Quando hub with gritty 4$$ bearings that felt like sandy tar filled bushings. He kept complaining about speed.

That being said, with whatever wheel you choose: Let the hub be of decent quality, smooth. Sealed IMO.

There is nothing worse then buying cheapo-junky parts and regretting it latter.




PS: A bicycle can range from junk to a holy relic. IMHO: Aim towards the middle. Practically beautiful.

Sixty Fiver

Poor bearing quality is a killer... if my wheels won't spin like perpetual motion machines when the bike is on the stand then I'm not a happy camper.

abeyance

I really can't believe someone hasn't gone here yet.



Commentary on so many levels......

gearkraft

haha, I do this too. Sometimes I will even see how long I can get them to spin.

The lighter the better. Always.

Peedtm

I disagree. As I understand it (I've seen video,) The rim itself is pretty distorted as the machine starts out by putting near full tension on each spoke when it first assembles the wheel. This pulls the wheel into an oval (causing some mnor, but permanent distortion) before it's fully laced and the machine starts passing it through the sensors to true it. This means you'll have a very hard time getting both, even spoke tension and a round/true wheel.

parkerlewis

You will not gain any advantage by choosing a road front over a track HF front, other than saving money....looks crap, slightly weaker wheel build, and a tiny bit lighter.

MIN 

Tires will make a bigger difference than wheel choice, unless you ride fixed gear Zipps. But even then...

kringle

That really doesn't have to do with the hub so much, unless it's warped or deformed. I bought a crappy pair of Vuelta XRPs for my beater and threw on some Enduro Max bearings in there, it spins great.

I also re-tensioned and trued the wheels, now I can't tell a difference between them and the Mavic/Formula wheels I use, unless I'm using different tires on each.

mihlbach

I have hand corrected numerous machine built wheels and have always been able to achieve a wheel that "stands" (holds its tension and true) as reliably as a hand built wheel.

Hand correcting a machine built wheel lets you achieve even spoke tension and the right amount of spoke tension. As long as you have those, a slight wobble in the rim is not very important, in fact its practically unavoidable with perfectly even spoke tension, because no rim starts out as being perfectly round. Bike wheels don't usually rotate fast enough for a slight wobble to make any difference.

Peedtm

The difference is noticed in brake calibration.

edit: On topic, the difference is noticed in durability, ie Al metal fatigue

mihlbach

A front (road) hub can save you around 100 grams (and possibly more), which is a lot of weight for a single component. Road hubs can be cheaper and they come in a greater variety of spoke counts. Those are pretty substantial benefits for a single component. Its absurd to think that a road hub makes the wheel weak...a lot of factors determine the strength and durability of a wheel.

Kotts

Theoretically, good hubs have lower rolling resistance. However, the difference isn't something that you're likely to notice in terms of resistance (it's less difference than +-2 psi in your tires makes). What will be noticeably different is the "feel". Good hubs feel better, make the bike more fun to ride.

Kotts

mihlbach

Is this what you think, or is it based on your experience building, tensioning, and riding several wheelsets for thousands of miles? I really think you are exaggerating the differences here

Fatigue comes from riding undertensioned wheels. Its doesn't really matter if a machine or a human put the wheel together...as long as the spokes are properly tensioned and that tension is maintained, the wheel will hold its true and last a long time (assuming its not abused in other ways).

Peedtm

Work at a shop pt, so it's not all my own riding.

My first statement is regarding how close you can have the pads to the rim. Not too debatable.

My 2nd statement is open to debate, but as I have seen the process, have read a few write ups about it, and built wheels as well as assembled many new bikes (and corrected the tension/true,) I stand by my statement.

mihlbach

I don't understand...seems to me you are assuming that a machine built wheel can't be trued as accuractly as a hand built wheel, which is incorrect of course.


I ride and have ridden a combination of hand-built and machine built wheels. The machine built wheels are stress-relieved and trued by me, using the same methods I use when building custom wheels. They have lasted as long and as reliably as any wheel I have ever built by hand. Its true that machine built wheels are often made with lower grade components, while hand built wheels are most often made with higher grade components. Machine built wheels are also more likely to loose tension if they are not hand adjusted. Low quality components and lack of maintenance (mostly the later) explains why machine built wheels are inferior. But with equivalent parts, I maintain there is no significant difference between a hand built and machine built wheel, as long as the later is initially hand adjusted...that was my original point.

Serendipper 

Method Man says that no one actually uses expensive bean grinders to grind coffee.


True or false?

Peedtm

Pt 1: A wheel typically cannot (I don't like absolute statements) be trued/rounded perfectly if paying mind to spoke tension. This also depends on the accuracy of the original hoop, but I contend the machine building process permanently bends hoops into wobbly ovals,.

Pt. 2: See Pt 1.

I think we're coming to an impass and will have to agree to disagree. It just good knowing that I'm right.

Peedtm

Sometimes I call my crack rocks "coffee" and I only use the best to grind that **** up. So false?

Serendipper 

Crackheads grind rocks? That's wierd. But what is "standard" crackhead protocol? I actually don't want to know.

mander

I don't buy this, but I do like high end shimano hubs for their nice borazon treated cups and cones.

mihlbach

I doubt it...or at least its not as extreme as you seem to be claiming. Its certainly not enough to interfere with braking or render the wheel untruable.

Peedtm

I'm not claiming any of what you just attributed to me. What I am claiming is that you can't polish a turd.

99% of bikes have these wheels. They're obviously good enough. Just not good.