masi61

Call me nuts but my mind is always creating virtual custom wheel builds ultimate take to my LBS wheelbuilder.

He has always been a proponent of tubular tires, sort of an old school roadie type guy.

I’m cool with that, though tubies for me don’t get in the weekly riding queue.

So, I have seen the You Tube video about the man & his son who are still manufacturing wooden tubular rims. They are available in different wood finishes & spoke holes.

So I have a classic yet modern road disc titanium compact frame that can be built up with 700c disc wheels & take tires up to 28mm.

My crazy mind would have me sourcing some 36 spoke through axle disc hubs, maybe in polished silver or some crazy anodized color like orange. I would have them laced to the wooden tubular 36 hole rims with some lightweight DT Swiss butted stainless spokes then maybe spec’d with tan sidewall 28mm Veloflex tubulars.

My thinking is that since they would be 36 spoke and not rim brake, the rims should be plenty strong for ordinary use. And of course the style points would make me a legend (in my own mind of course).

This is just 1 such “design exercise” that I seem to lose sleep over now that I am 60 & drink too much of the French press coffee for my own good.

What pipe dream retro themed yet modern-ly relevant builds like this are you contemplating? Or better yet, what do you already have in the build pipeline almost ready for road testing?

seagrade 

To thine own self be cool.

I've long thought Italian wooden tubular rims were inexplicably cool and would provide a sublime ride quality. I've occasionally thought about tracking some down to find out for sure but never quite got around to it, and in any case was far less enthused about testing the efficacy of single-pivot sidepull brakes on varnished wood braking surfaces.

The idea has been reinvigorated in my mind with the advent of disc brakes. Cool in my wandering mind would be 28 front/32 rear wooden rims on polished silver large flange hubs with silver mechanical disc brakes connected to Campagnolo Cobalto aero levers. Needless to say tied and soldered and some sort of handmade 30mm tubulars all under clear skies.

I say go for it.

L134 

Not far off from what I've got. I've got over 2,500 of ordinary city riding on them without issues. I love them!

BradH

I get it. I've got an '88 Schwinn Circuit that needs paint. I've been considering painting it an early '70s Varsity color and slapping some Varsity decals on it. Add polished components & rims with another homebrewed set of 11 speed dt shifters.

repechage

Many, most modern 130 mm wheels rely on pretty high spoke tension on the drive side rear.
36 is good but build the front first, if going disc brakes even the front will require some dish.

a bit concerned on the rear.
many Mod wheel builders use a tension gauge. If so, review that after the front build to decide.

one could always take a carbon or aluminum rim to a painter who can create the "woodgrain" finish as seen on some Model A vehicle interiors. Always impressed when I see that.

Bianchigirll 

I seriously considered wooden rims for my Hetchins but in the end went with polished silver. Still like the idea though.

don’t forget about other easy to be creative in wheel building. It’s not something really noticeable but I have a nice pair of wheels with “Crow’s Foot” lacing pattern.

seagrade 

A great story for those not familiar with it...

https://wheelfanatyk.com/blogs/blog/...1ed51957&_ss=r

(no affiliation with the associated business. well not since last century at least)

USAZorro

I think the idea is very cool.

As someone who also has a number of wild ideas, I do have a suggestion though - one triggered by repechage's comment. Research the tensions that would be needed to build the wheels you want, and then also research the limitations of the rims you have in mind. If I went through all the effort that it sounds like this will involve, I'd be devastated if the rims began to fail while I'm truing the wheel, or possibly worse, one of the first times I went for a ride on them.

If you're able to do this, we will expect pictures.

DiabloScott

Wooden rims would be about the coolest thing I could imagine from a retro POV.

I wanted something unique also, and built up my tubular rims with half black and half silver spokes - with the pulling spokes black and the pushing spokes silver - it's kind of a neat effect, only people who have built wheels even notice and they think it's pretty cool, and it shows that these aren't some off-the-shelf wheels bought from an on-line retailer. You can kind of see the effect here - that is you can kind of "not" see the black spokes. I ride these all the time (modern hubs and rims) - if I had wooden rims they'd just be for special events.

iab

Yes. Truing wood wheels is like dealing with a rubber band. My sets are built with flip flop hubs so no dish. Tension on them is low, raise it, they get wonky. A 130 dish I would imagine nearly zero tension on the nondrive side. I see it as high risk. But if you can use the parts if it doesn't work out, then you have only wasted time.

Jeff Wills

Hi, Nuts!

So the frame is built for through-axle hubs? Kids these days...

I like weird wheels and I cannot lie... so I went shopping for parts.

Chris King hubs are available in orange anodized in a zillion different configurations: R45D Centerlock Rear – Chris King Precision Components. A potential issue is that 36 hole isn't listed. I bet you could get them if you asked real nice.
(Chris King is having an open house this weekend if you want to pursue this: Open House 2022! – Chris King Precision Components)

For additional bling, Hope makes disk rotors with an orange center section: Universal Cycles -- Hope Road Floating 2 Piece Centerlock Brake Rotor

The wood rims are off-the-scale kinky. I agree that tension imbalance may ruin this particular dream, but you got to try! I presume that your wheelbuilder knows that these rims require extra-long nipples to work with the thickness of the rim.

A possible workaround for the rims: a bit more than ten years ago, Velocity Deep-V rims were available with a wood-grain finish. I'm unsure how they accomplished this, but they were kewl. They were pricey then and pricier now. I found a pair of wheels on Ebay... yikes: NOS Wood Bicycle WHEELS Velocity Deep V Rims Tires Vintage TOC Prewar Track Bike | eBay

It's a nice dream- keep us informed if you go through with it.

Mr. Spadoni 

at a retro event a few years ago in Colorado, there was a guy with “wooden” rims. He had had taken wood used for furniture lamination and glued it to the rims. It seemed to hold up pretty well even in some rough conditions. With a disc brakes, seems like this process would work pretty well.

masi61

Jeff Wills - thanks for the info on the Chris King open house, if I was nearby I would love to go. I appreciate the photos of the “mango” Chris King centerlock hub, the orange Hope rotor and the wood grain rims. Helps to see these photos to visualize and plan…. I do notice that the Chris King R45D Centerlock rear hub alone retails for $534!

Luckily I already have a set of Industry 9 Torch 6 bolt 10 speed mountain hubs that were going to go with orange anodized Velocity Aileron aluminum disc rims (that I had previously special ordered….




I think they are 28 x 28 front to rear on the spoke drilling. I could run these with some 28mm open tubulars with latex tubes or may just build them up to run 28 mm road tubeless.

masi61

Thanks for the reality check on this. I really liked the story about the wooden rims but in actual practice if I followed through with a build I could see where “wonky” was a potential outcome of going down the rabbit hole.

L134 

Oh, don't give up! I think I read every article on wood wheels I could find on the wheelfanatyk site and just went for it. I built my own with straight gauge and I don't have a tensiometer - just used my gut keeping them a tad looser than what I usually do. I was careful in where I rode them the first few times out but, fairly quickly, started riding them pretty much anywhere I would ride any road wheel. They've been wet, they've seen the rough pavement and even a little dirt, I'm always in traffic with rim brakes sometimes unable to avoid rough stuff on the side and they have held up just fine. I have not detected any signs of deterioration of finish or integrity. The cork pads wear quickly but if you have disk wheels that is irrelevant except that you won't even have to worry about the true as much as I do (as I remember, wheelfanatyk basically said get over that anyway). My rear wheel is built on a 130mm, 9 speed Ultegra hub (which I think Wheelfanatyk advised against) and I ride it on any road around here without hesitation (and I don't think San Diego is known for great roads). I do true the wheels more often but consider that part of the fun of them. I ride them with the 28mm Veloflex you want and the ride is wonderful. I weigh 170lbs. I don't think you'll be going down some wonky rabbit hole with impractical, fragile wheels.

eeuuugh

Love this idea. It's worth noting that rear disc-brake hubs dish more easily than non disc-brake hubs, since the NDS is offset for the rotor. Tension imbalance in the front wheel is an issue, though. Maybe you can find a set of hi/lo hubs, I have no idea what's available. Or a set of asymmetrically drilled wooden rims

Macguyver909

My thoughts on the wooden wheels would be that they are stronger than the first impression would be. The rim itself is in compression,and wood is fairly resistant to crushing. The spokes may try to pull through the wood at the rim, but a washer under the spoke nipple would fix this. If they held up BITD on cobblestones, and cowpaths, they ought to do OK now. I have also seen some wooden composite wheels that have a layer of carbon fiber in them, that is covered up once a tire is on the rim. (Italian manufacture) cerchioghisallo.shop The price's seem reasonable to me since Velocity Quill rims are $140 ish per rim.