SF, going to have to disagree a bit with you. Most LBSes, IME, do not have skilled wheel builders. They rarely even have someone competent enough to fix an out of true wheel.

OP, at your weight, you should be fine on just about any rear wheel. You're not at the extreme end of weight. You should be able to purchase a Shimano or DT Swiss rear wheel for less than $200.

:thumb:

That is extremely helpful, Kimmo! I had assumed that the disc to rotor aligment would be different. Also I wasn't sure about rotor thickness and braking surface width.

If so that is especially good, because I am about due for new rotors anyway. Plus, based on what I see for sale, most disc brake road wheels are center lock.

So any 160mm rotor center lock wheel and rotor (for example Shimano 160mm) is compatible with my current 160mm TRP Spyre cable calipers?

I just went through the same process with my bike. Rear wheel cracks at the spokes. Looked all over the internet and just was not sure they would fit. I finally ordered a set through Hunt Wheels. I just sent them the year and model of my bike and they build to fit. Came with skewers and even adaptors to use my 6 bolt rotors on the center lock wheels. (I upgraded to center lock rotors anyways)

I missed the part about needing disc rotors in your first post. Sorry!

I agree with you about a lot of shops don't have a great wheel builder. I hope his does. Even if it's a half decent one though I'd hope it would be better in the end than something from Amazon.

My experince with hired tradesmen in general has been way less than perfect. Bike shops have not been an exception. Most shops seem to have, at best, one mechanic who knows what they are doing. The rest are learners, hired at the lowest wage the labor pool will supply. For that reason, I would prefer to go with a factory made wheelset. But I have not eliminated the option of a local wheel builder.

Even still, talk to the mechanic at your LBS; even if you don't have confidence in their ability to build a wheel for you, they might have some insight into what a good wheel for your purposes would be like.

Or just post a thread in the mechanics subforum.

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.

Yeah, it's easier than you think. A rear wheel is a bit trickier, but the main thing is to know the half- dozen or so critical pointers, and then you can just use patience to make up for lack of experience.

In fact, I think its quite possible for someone building their first wheel to do a better job than an experienced builder, since you most likely won't be paying for more than an hour's work; he'll get it to 95% good and call that good enough, while you can keep tweaking away till it's 98% or better. Good idea to have some spare nipples on hand, though.

I like having nipples around.

An overbuilt option (probably not too lightweight):
https://www.merlincycles.com/hope-20...00c-95184.html

At last, a wheel that fits. But, as mentioned in my OP, I'm looking for a US based seller.

Forty some years ago, I tried truing my dirt bike wheels. It was no disaster, but didn't turn out particularly well.

Today there is YouTube and written forums, and decades of experience has improved my general DIY skills. But wheel building is a time sink that I don’t want to enter, at least not now.

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.

Good luck! It sounds like a good wheel if they get the tension right. You never know, I had a guy build a rear wheel for my mountain bike a couple months ago and it has been great. The guy is a friend of my LBS, I think I'll be asking him to build any wheels I might need in the future.