Hand built wheels?

[Goose5]

I have read that some prefer hand built wheels over factory wheels. I was in Colorado Cyclist yesterday talking wheelsets with one young salesman. I bought a bike back in May and I am considering upgrades. Starting with wheels. When I bought the bike it was weighed and it came in at 19 and a quarter pounds. So, I need a wheelset that will at the very least take off a 1/2 pound over the Mavic Aksium set I have now.

Can this be achieved with Colorado Cyclists inventory of hand built wheels?

The salesman brought out a custom set from the back. DT Swiss rims with Dura Ace hubs and weight them without skewers. 1800 grams. I am shooting for 1500 to 1600 gram range. I am 50 years old, six foot even, and weigh 186 pound. And I don't intend to race.

 

[dabac]

Upgradeitis can be very costly, and unless the parts you are replacing are actually broken, the place where there will be a significant improvement is in your head - particularly for the amounts that you are talking about.

The main reason some prefer prefer handbuilt wheels is that a good manual builder can achieve a more even spoke tension across the wheel than what you get with many of the machine built wheels. In the short run, this doesn't matter much, but it does improve wheel longevity.

Then of course there are always some who prefer another combo of rim/spokes/hubs than what's commercially available, for whatever reasons.

 

[alienator]

Why 1/2 lb? Your Aksiums are decent wheels, so you might want to give some consideration to riding them a bit more.

If you are intent on getting new wheels, custom wheels have quite a few advantages:

1. As mentioned above, hand built wheels tend to have more even tension and more appropriate tension than machine built wheels.
2. A customer builder can build the wheel so it's better suited to you and the kind of riding you do. Specifically this means having the appropriate spoke count and lacing pattern best suited for you. The boutique wheel market (i.e., factory built wheels) isn't overflowing with numerous spoke count options.
3. You and your builder can choose the rim, hub, and spokes to again meet your needs.
4. It's easy to work with your custom builder if you have issues during use of the wheels, and those custom wheel builders can perform repairs quite often much more quickly that factories can.

It's a doodle for a custom builder to build a 1500-1600g wheel set at a great price that is at least as durable as a factory set if not more durable.

 

[dhk2]

If you don't intend to race, why worry about weight of your wheels? I recently had to replace worn-out wheels, and got a set of DT Swiss climbing wheels. At 1450 grams, they are over 200 grams lighter than the old Circuits that lasted me 30K miles.

They are great riding, smooth wheels, but the difference in climbing really isn't noticeable. Of course, 1/2 lb is less than 1/2 a bottle of drink, or less than 0.25% of my total body/bike weight. In a 20 min climb at low speeds, the wheels should be saving 3 seconds. If I was losing race positions by less than a bike length, that savings would be important. But when my skinny buddies are up ahead by 3-5 minutes on that climb, somehow 3 seconds just doesn't mean a lot!

Suggest you ride your current wheels until they wear out, then get a well-built set of wheels suited to where and how you ride. Weight is just weight, and doesn't really indicate anything about the quality, strength or durability of the wheels you're investing in.

 

[Goose5]

Originally Posted by alienator .

Why 1/2 lb? Your Aksiums are decent wheels, so you might want to give some consideration to riding them a bit more.

It's a doodle for a custom builder to build a 1500-1600g wheel set at a great price that is at least as durable as a factory set if not more durable.

I bought a Cannondale Synapse 4. Off the show room floor with the Aksiums, Gossemer crank, and my 20 year old look pedals. The guy weighed the bike when I bought it. 19.25 pounds with my old pedals. I was a bit disapointed because everything I have read about this bike puts it in the mid 17 pound range. Weight Weenies puts the Aksiums at over 1900 grams. My old pedals (1992 model) at 436 grams. The total upgrades I am considering doing include wheels. Right now Rolf Prima Aspin's are leading. I do intend to shave off a little over another pound by replacing the crank with Sram Red and Speedplay pedals.

But if custom wheels can come in light enough I would be nuts not to consider those as well.

 

[An old Guy]

Originally Posted by Goose5 .

I have read that some prefer hand built wheels over factory wheels. I was in Colorado Cyclist yesterday talking wheelsets with one young salesman. I bought a bike back in May and I am considering upgrades. Starting with wheels. When I bought the bike it was weighed and it came in at 19 and a quarter pounds. So, I need a wheelset that will at the very least take off a 1/2 pound over the Mavic Aksium set I have now.

Can this be achieved with Colorado Cyclists inventory of hand built wheels?

The salesman brought out a custom set from the back. DT Swiss rims with Dura Ace hubs and weight them without skewers. 1800 grams. I am shooting for 1500 to 1600 gram range. I am 50 years old, six foot even, and weigh 186 pound. And I don't intend to race.

Loss 3 pounds of body weight. Much cheaper than new wheels and much more benefit.

Some of my rear wheels are hand built - they have PowerTap hubs and those do not come with machine built wheels. The rest of my rear wheels and my front wheels are cheap machine built wheels - Shimano hubs and Mavic OpenPro rims.

I have not used a spoke wrench for several years (20K miles). Machine built wheels are good enough for most riders.

 

[Goose5]

Originally Posted by An old Guy .



Loss 3 pounds of body weight. Much cheaper than new wheels and much more benefit.

Working on that as well. I started riding regularly again about 2 years ago. I was at 207 then. Given my advanced age I don't know how much more I can shave off. My other hobby is homebrew so that doesn't help.

 

[grandamn]

Lol losing the weight is the easiest and cheapest way to go. I liked that reply. I'm currently in the middle of building my own wheels. I got some really nice carbon rims form China for $270.00. After the spokes and hubs I should have a $1,200 wheelset for around $600 maybe $700. That's with the LBS building them. I even saw a set of Fulcrum decals for the wheels for $15 but I don't like to fake the funk.

Before any flaring both my LBS and I have inspected these rim and they are of great quality. Well worth the $270.00.