Factory wheels v handbuilts

Steelride

I find the ride on my carbon frame harsh and buzzy. Its got Campag Shamal Ultra wheels, 16/21 spokes @ 1395g (campag data). I have been finding some people talking of better ride quality on say 28 spoke handbuilt wheels. I really like the frame but would like to improve the ride quality. Your views and experiences welcome.

tenor

Low profile rims generally give a more confortable ride.
Of the factory options, Campagnolo Neutrons and Proton are considered comfortable as well as laterally stiff. Handbuilts are easy to specify as you just give the wheelbuilder your requirements. Mavic Open Pro rim with 32 spokes seems to be the usual benchmark, but handbuilts are only as good as the builder so speak with the likes of Paul Hewitt and Harry Rowlands and see what they recommend.

Monty Dog

Shamals, Fulcrum 1s and Ksyriums are proably the stiffest and therefore the harshest riding wheels you can find - the use of fat aluminium spokes doesn't help matters. In the first instance, have you tried 25mm tyres? The combination of a bigger air pocket and the ability to run lower pressures can make a significant change to the handling and feel of a bike. Neutrons have a great reputation in terms of durability and strength for a shallow-rimmed wheel.

dennisn

Am I wrong here or aren't "factory" wheels in reality "hand builts"? Seems I have seen a picture or two from the DA wheel factory and it had a lot of people in it touching wheels
in various stages of the build process. I've got to believe that other manufacturer's
do pretty much the same. Most wheels are built by people, with their hands. The exception being cheap wheels. Is there really any difference someone in a factory
setting hand building a wheel or the local shop guy building one? Possibly better
quality control, but built by hand is still built by hand.

Dennis Noward

softlad

I think 'factory' can be a misleading term in that sense. Some are built by machine, but Eastons, for instance - while being in effect 'factory' wheels - are all handbuilt by humans...

Monty Dog

FWIW many factory-built wheels use sophisticated tension measurement and balancing techniques typically unavailable to a hand-builder e.g. Easton use an acoustic technique to gain right tension due to the 'pitch' of a plucked spoke. Because of the ability to more acurately match components, there is less need to over-engineer part i.e. few spokes with more even tension or carefully machined rims / hubs. It would be extremely difficult to 'handbuild' a wheel as stiff or as light as a Shamal from off-the-shelf components e.g. the choice of sub-400g rims is pretty limited.

Steelride

Thanks for all the replies.

I want to avoid using 25mm tyres as I don't want to increase rolling resistance. If 28 or 32 spoke wheels will definitely give a better ride then it would be a worthwhile investment. However, if the difference is only marginal then I probably wouldn't bother.

I was thinking of DT 1.1 rims with Tune hubs - anybody got a similar setup?

Wappygixer

I have a set of wheels with DT 1.1 rims in double eyelet 32 spoke.
Pretty good rims, good braking effect and quite robust.
My new wheels though have Ambrosio Excellight rims which are a bit lighter and look very nice too.
The other thing to consider is which spoke?
Spokes can make a difference to feel to.If your not to heavy then Laser are a nice light spoke, if you have some spare cash though CX ray are probably the best, very strong, very light and aero.
I've got these on my new wheels to but not ridden them yet as they are still being built.

acorn_user

What tyres are you currently using? Some 23mm tyres are really stiff, whereas others are more supple. You could try running open tubulars such as Deda RS Corsa, Veloflex, Gommitalia or Challenge Criteriums to get a more comfortable ride without going to a wider casing. You should always try tyres first as they really affect the ride and are cheaper than new wheels atmo.

maddog 2

Have a look at the Ambrosio rims, and IRD have many fans too.

I've run ceramic OPs on Tune hubs and they were fine. The tune hubs are light and well made but quite delicate, especially the alu freehub.

I'm in the market for some new handbuilts and currently on the list are:

rims: Ambrosio, IRD and maybe ceramic OPs again

spokes: CXray or DT aerolites

hubs: DT 240s are expensive at the moment so maybe Hope Pro3 or DA7900 or even Ambrosio, except they're a tad heavy