Triguy

I thought I'd post my initial review of the wheel I got from prowheelbuilder.com that arrived today.

The specs for the wheel were:
DT Swiss RR450 rim
DT Comp Silver Spokes
DT Swiss Silver Alloy nipples
Velocity Standard Hub in Campagnolo

The estimated weight for the build was 869 grams, and the cost was about $175 shipped.

The wheel arrived and I could here a metal rattle in the box and the FedEx guy ran like mad when he gave it to me. I was worried. It turns out that the skewer was in the valve hole so it wouldn't shake around the box. The packaging could have been better(just some hub caps and a little paper) but the wheel made it in one piece.

The wheel was strait and true out of the box. The spoke tensions by hand felt pretty equal. The hub has a good buzz when freewheeling but not a machine gun click. The rim looks well finished except for a spoke hole or two which looked off center in the rim bed.

On the scale it was 876 grams.

I installed a Conti gp 4000 which was a bit tight but I've had worse.

All in all, right now I'm happy. The wheel was about half the price of a Ksyrium Elite, and the same weight. At 28 Comp spokes, and a 445 gram rim it should hold up well I think. We'll see what the long term durability of the Velocity hub is like but so far it looks like a decent hub.

The greatest part is the fact that I'm now running a Campagnolo setup as opposed to my previous Shimergo(campy shifters on Shimano 8 speed). That setup was decent, but the shifting on this is much improved on the work stand.

Triguy

One thing I forgot is that it shipped about 10 days later than the estimate on the website. Just short of a month from order to my door.

pmt

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Triguy

Ahh yes, my digital camera, as well as my triathlon bike were taken from my home by some thieving scum earlier this week. When I update after some good riding hopefully my camera is replaced and I can post some pictures.

spinwax

Richard and Burt that build the wheels there are pretty squared away. They do a very good job. I am not surprised it took a little longer than it should have. THey are absolutely slammed every day. I have been by the shop when they literally have 30-50 wheels boxed up and shipping at one time. It is pretty wild.

Good luck with the new wheel and enjoy.

MooCow

Congrats on your new wheel.

I have had nothing but top notch quality and service from prowheelbuilder.com (not to be confused with wheelbuilder.com). The wheels they built me last year using IRD (aka Kinlin) 30mm rims, King hubs, and Sapim spokes are my everything wheel - racing, training, etc. They roll fantastic and are very stiff. With those hubs and 28 spokes the pair weighed in at 1600g, which isn't record-setting but they perform so well I can race and train on them year round.

On service - I damaged my rear wheel in a crit earlier this year. I was lucky enough not to go down but several riders around me did, including one guy who swerved into me and jammed his pedal into my spokes. (no wheel is strong enough to take a direct pedal between the spokes at 25mph). I sent the damaged wheel back to them, and they had it fixed as good as new and back into my hands the following week. If they are busy and backlogged it's more likely due to demand for their service, and not bad service (that's my guess).

Don't know anything about the Velocity hubs. DT makes a decent rim though (shame on you for not choosing DT hubs, since that's what they are known for, but of course that's understandable if you had a tight budget on the build). You will more than likely get some good performance/life out of it.

tortugaflats

just got my velocity deep v from them 2 weeks ago. took a couple of weeks longer also. i called and spoke to richard. shimano hub was backordered and they are also in the process of moving to a larger facility. wheel arrived same as above. still true after 400 miles. overall happy with my purchase.

grahny

I've been riding a prowheelbuilder wheelset (deep v, WI H2, sapim cx-ray, 28F/32R) for just over 2 years now, thousands of miles (10-15,000mi), every condition (they're my only road wheels). I still haven't had to true/tension them from out of the box. When I got them it took 28 days from order to door.