Wheel musings #2

So, what about hand-built wheels? Hand-built hoops used to come standard on reasonable quality bicycles. If you bought a bike fitted with a Shimano 105 group you usually got wheels built with 105 hubs, double-butted spokes and rims from companies like Mavic, Sun, Wolber, Ambrosio and many others. Sometimes the wheels were built by hand and sometimes by machine but whichever way they were done you could be sure that if you broke a spoke, any bike shop could replace it because they were standard spokes and all shops carried spares. Groupset hubs also typically ran for years with little or no maintenance and when they eventually got grungy your local shop could repack them with fresh grease and new ball-bearings, which were also pretty standard. 

So much for the good old days. Now your 105-equipped new bike is likely to come with wheels which might look flashy but usually aren't anywhere near the quality of the wheels described above. In any case, manufacturers assume that one of the first upgrades a buyer is likely to make will be the wheels so the standard wheels are frequently made with heavier or inferior materials and they wear out or break in a year or two. You then go back to the bike shop and they talk you into a set of $2,000+ wheels which are a different story altogether. Now you have wheels which are stiffer, lighter and might even be more robust than the original versions but your wallet is a whole lot lighter as well.

By now I think you may have figured out that I like hand-built custom wheels so perhaps I should provide some justification. First of all, you can choose hubs from Shimano, Campagnolo, DT Swiss, Chris King or a few other makers to suit your budget. Secondly, you can choose VERY good quality spokes, double or even triple-butted which are strong and fatigue-resistant. Finally, you can select really good and lightweight alloy rims which keep the rotating weight at the outer edge of the wheel as low as possible and thus improve handling and acceleration. You can also decide if you want the same number of spokes in the front and rear wheels or if you want fewer in the front. Front wheels only take about 30% of the load and aren't subject to the same drive forces generated by your legs on the rear wheel through the gears and chain. Talk to your wheelbuilder about lacing patterns although for most purposes three-cross delivers the best performance. To top it off, your hand built wheels will probably be lighter than most similarly priced factory wheels.

Aesthetics are a personal thing for sure and most people these days seem to prefer the industrial, brute-force look of factory wheels. For me, it's the shimmer of stainless spokes in the early sunlight of a Sunday morning that sets the tone for a great ride.