rj987652003

I really want to learn how to make my own wheels and I am also willing to put in the time to learn the finer points.....so I can do it right.

However, It almost seems that it is cheaper just to buy new wheels complete rather than in separate parts (hubs, spokes, rims). Is this true or am I just shopping in the wrong place.

Best place to buy wheels?

Best place to buy wheel components? I think Ebay may actually be a good place to buy new spokes unlike other things.

55/Rad

A good wheel builder will charge $30-45 per wheel to actually assemble them. It certainly will take a good while to get competent, much less good, at building them yourself.

Buying them in parts and getting them assembled is one way to go but I would recommend just working with a good wheel builder the whole way through. Somebody like Dave at Speed Dream. He'll take the time to match components specifically to your needs and riding goals.

Pre-builts are also fine if you know exactly what you want.

55/Rad

Flaneur

build yourself some cheap winter wheels- practice makes perfect.

For serious use, the money spent on a premier builder's skill is an investment- even more so if he'll (she'll) let you watch and make the coffee...........

halfspeed

Sadly, it's usually cheaper to buy complete wheels. Once you move from machine made wheels to custom wheels, the prices get closer, but you'll usually still end up behind. You don't have access to wholesale prices for parts, wheel builders do.

I build wheels when I want something a little unusual and I can get a good deal on my parts. I recently put new 27" rims on 105 hubs for a project bike.

There's certainly value in learning to build wheels even if you don't do it that often. If you have multiple bikes, you can save a fair amount of money over time by not having to pay the LBS to true them. There's no better way to get good at truing wheels than to build a few.

Retro Grouch 

The answer to this one is easy. It's cheaper to buy already assembled wheels. It's more satisfying and fun to build your own. The bean counters all buy preassembled wheels because that's the sensible thing to do. The artists among us all build our own just because. Which group are you in?

Retro Grouch 

What would the presidential candidates do?

John Kerry would buy the prebuilts, then he'd retension them himself, then he'd send them back to the manufacturer in France to get their OK, then he'd .....

George W. would go it alone and build his own. They'd be all wrong and come out square, but he'd figure that since he's the one who built them, they must be right and everyone else in the world's are wrong. He'd ride on them anyway and insist that his multiple falls were an indication of how excellent his wheels are.

Dick Chaney, being the sensible business man, would do the sensible thing and buy the prebuilts. To save money, he'd delete 15% of the spokes so they'd only have 27.3 spokes each. Of course, he'd outsource the rideing to somebody from India because he had other interests.

John Edwards, being a trial lawyer, would buy the cheapest prebuilt wheelset that he could find, then he'd sue the manufacturer because they didn't have all of the features of the most expensive wheelset.

Ralph Nadar can't come up with enough support for a whole wheelset of his own, so he'll just grab a couple of spokes out of Kerry's.

Retro Grouch 

Man! That's some of my best stuff and it's just sliding down to the end of the page and nobody's viewing it.