wheel build

martinperry

Another wheel question for the experts
Sorry!
I am 90kg 6ft4 and reasonably powerful. Doing chiltern 100 and coast to coast this year so thinking of an upgrade to my current Aksiums
Pretty sure I'm going down the hand built route. My spec wishlist at present is Archetypes, Cxray spokes with alloy nipples and ultegra hubs (32 hole)
Any criticisms, suggestions especially around hubs? Weight is something I would like to keep down as much as possible, within financial reason!!
Finally, I fancy building up myself. I would need / like tuition on this
I've found this http://www.cambridgewheelbuilding.co.uk/ which is pretty convenient, and will let me supply my own bits - Any other suggestions / reccomendations?
Thanks

milanino-branca

Roger Musson www.wheelpro.co.uk
Well worth visiting this site. I find building my own wheels very enjoyable and suggest you try yourself. With a little patience it is possible to build a good set of wheels yourself.

hypster

At 90kg you are 5kg heavier than me at the same height so I reckon the spec you are looking at it spot on. Don't get hung up on saving a few grams on your wheels though, you honestly won't notice it. You would be much better off losing one kilogram off your body and you probably wouldn't notice that difference either.

Archetype rim is quite stiff and should build up into a nice wheel on the Ultegra hubs. I have 105 on one of the sets of wheels I built and I really like them. Use brass nipples instead of aluminium.

I wouldn't bother with the CX-Ray spokes though. They are unnecessarily expensive and won't add anything to your wheels except a little bit of bling (which is a matter of opinion). 64 CX-Ray spokes will cost in the region of £150. Personally, I would rather spend the money upgrading to Dura Ace hubs and use Sapim Race spokes all round.

If you must save a bit of weight (which again I think you will find marginal) you could use Sapim Laser on the front and non drive side and Sapim Race on the drive side.

You could contact The Cycle Clinic as well as he will be able to offer good advice and build whatever components you end up choosing.

If you want to have a go yourself then you will have quite a bit of expense on a truing stand and assorted tools to facilitate this. The advice to get Roger Musson's book is good and that was how I taught myself to build wheels.

cycleclinic

Cx-rays on a 32 spoke wheel it won't make it aero. I would do that wheelset with Lasers front and NDS and Race DS rear. You would probably be alright on Laser all round but note the probably. Some would use Race on the rear only it only add 20g. Brass nipples make sense on a this build as alloy nippless will only make it 45g lighter. This is not a lightweight wheelset why try and save 45g. The choice of rims and hubs is fine though.

1 day wheel building course. You cannot learn to build wheels in 1 day. Learn to lace and true (sort off) in one day is possible but not tension, stress relieve and dish as well.

I attended a course a while back 4 days it was it did teach me to lace, true an it sort of taught me to tension, stress relieve e.t.c. a few month later I tried building my first set of wheels to ride. It took me all day or was it two but in the end they are as good as any wheel I build now, it just took an age to get it right. In fact they have never been touched in over 8000 miles and on my wife's commuter now. I suppose the course taught me enough so I knew what the end result needed to be but getting there I had to figure out for myself. That's what a course does show you the end result, the rest is up to you.

Still it is worth giving it a go but don't waste your money on a 1 day course.