Strada Handbuilt Wheels

starockets

I'm am looking to buy a set of handuilts but before I decide where to order them up from I was looking for any thoughts on "Strada Handbuilt Wheels" http://www.stradawheels.co.uk/

I have trawled the internet and cannot find out too much about them on independant sites.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

ugo.santalucia

You might get lucky, the guy often posts on this forum...

Although someone thinks the opposite, building a good solid set of wheels is not rocket science. I've built a dozen set and never had any negative feedback/problem with any of them. I know Strada have a State of the Art German truing stand that I can only dream of and they know how to use it... so I don't see any issue.

I'd say that the all point is whether they can give you the best possible advice about the wheels you really need for your kind of riding (rather than those you have already in your mind)

Good luck

Mad Roadie

starockets
very highly rated by the guys in Bikelab - but have had supplier problems of late . Last time I asked they only had ENVE rims which are good, but ££££

if you are in the market have you trawled the fleabay sites - like this?

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/new-e ... s/88326041

tigerben

I had a pair of wheels built for me at end of August - A23 rims in white with PMP hubs and Sapim race spokes. I went for 32 spokes / PMP hubs as I wanted the wheel to be as strong as possible as I am c. 95 kg and generally ride poor quaility roads.

Initial impressions of the wheels is very impressive - particularly the PMP hubs which are very silky. The A23 rim is wider than your normal rim (similar to the HED Ardennes wheels) and gives a noticably comfier ride than my previous wheels. On my average commute times the wheels have added a couple of mph - so improvement on my old wheels is quite noticeable.

In terms of dealing with Strada i found Jonathan straight forward to deal with and pretty responsive to queries and requests. Wheels took slightly longer to arrive than anticipated but i think that was a stock issue rather then Strada issue. When they did arrive they were very well packaged.

So yes a positive recommendation from me.

Bobbinogs

I have seen/had some very helpful/knowledgable posts from the chap but cannot attest to his wheelbuilding. Why not contact him and see what references he can provide?

starockets

Bobbinogs wrote:

I have seen/had some very helpful/knowledgable posts from the chap but cannot attest to his wheelbuilding. Why not contact him and see what references he can provide?

I was going to pop down to Brighton for the day and hopefully speak to him then.
I am also going to contact the usual wheel builders that are well thought of on these forums as well.

tigerben

They have a blog section on the www of happy customers

http://www.stradawheels.co.uk/blog/

I am not there yet - but will be as soon as I remember to take a picture of bike when in clean and presentable state!

Strada Wheels

Hello - I'm Jonathan from Strada. I did not ask for this thread to be started and I don't want to plug our services but I will respond to the comments here, it is good to see we are being talked about.

We did have issues with spoke supply over the summer as Sapim CX Ray bladed spokes were in huge demand from many large OEM users. We are taking steps to remedy this by testing a new spoke supplier by building wheels using the new spokes with a race team on both road and soon mtb as well. We will continue to offer CX Rays of course and we keep a larger range of popular sizes in stock.

We will have a fresh supply of carbon in for the new season, again, we will be testing them before offering them to customers.

I don't want to start a huge discussion but there is a difference between someone being capable of putting a wheel together and a skilled mechanic building them week after week and understanding how different hubs, spokes, nipples and rims work together. We regularly achieve a 0.05mm accuracy on alloy road wheel builds on our wheel truing stand.

Thanks, Jonathan

ugo.santalucia

Strada Wheels wrote:

I don't want to start a huge discussion but there is a difference between someone being capable of putting a wheel together and a skilled mechanic building them week after week and understanding how different hubs, spokes, nipples and rims work together. We regularly achieve a 0.05mm accuracy on alloy road wheel builds on our wheel truing stand.

Thanks, Jonathan

I agree...
Still, I am quite proud that my amateurish built wheels survived Paris-Roubaix, RVV and the Eroica without need of truing. I wish I could achieve 0.05 mm accuracy, but I can't afford the 1K P&K Lie truing stand... I have to make do with 0.2 or thereabout and 0.5 for vertical...
Again, still better than most factory wheels I have seen. I was in a belgian bike shop last spring, just outside Oudenaarde, an impressive collection of wheels of different makes secured to a wall by the hub... just by spinning them, none of them was even remotely vertically true... :shock:

Coach H

starockets wrote:

I have trawled the internet and cannot find out too much about them on independant sites.

Brian Palmer at thewashingmachinepost has reviewed Strada wheels I think