Buildiing a set of alloy wheels

rouleur23

Hi
I did a wheel building course in 2011 and built some MTB wheels that have still stood the test of time. I would like to build a set of road wheels and would ideally like them to weigh in at 1300gr (or under) but am not familiar with decent components re the road.
If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be appreciated.

Thanks
R23

Bobbinogs

Yes, the right direction is the "Handbuilts" thread at the top of the page...

singleton

That thread should keep you busy until Christmas.

mrb123

Have a look at the DCR website. A wealth of information on there about component choices.
http://dcrwheels.co.uk/custom-wheelsets/which-rim/
http://dcrwheels.co.uk/products/hubs/road-hubs/

ugo.santalucia

There is a thread about handbuilts.

My feeling is that if you want to be under 1300 g with alloy rims, they will be shoot wheels. There aren't enough decent components on the market to meet that requirement, not even if you go in the very high end ones

Basically you are starting with the wrong foot

best to move to the other thread

cycleclinic

There is only one combination of components that will work.

Stans alpha 340 rims 24F/28R or Ryde pulse sprint but the latter is not available in those drillings any more.

You will need sapim race spokes for the rear to make the wheel stiff enough and lasers on the front will be o.k.

That means if alloy nipples are used your hubs in 24H/28H drilling must weigh no more than 225g which means Extralite or Tune. So there you go it is doable but it will be expensive and have a weight limit of around 80kg.

bold seagull

MrB123 wrote:

Have a look at the DCR website. A wealth of information on there about component choices.
http://dcrwheels.co.uk/custom-wheelsets/which-rim/
http://dcrwheels.co.uk/products/hubs/road-hubs/

About to take the plunge on a set of these with his own DCR hubs and Rims, D-light spokes. Based in Lewes, around these parts he has a fantastic reputation for his builds.

964cup

thecycleclinic wrote:

There is only one combination of components that will work.

Stans alpha 340 rims 24F/28R or Ryde pulse sprint but the latter is not available in those drillings any more.

You will need sapim race spokes for the rear to make the wheel stiff enough and lasers on the front will be o.k.

That means if alloy nipples are used your hubs in 24H/28H drilling must weigh no more than 225g which means Extralite or Tune. So there you go it is doable but it will be expensive and have a weight limit of around 80kg.

I built a few sets of Alpha 340 on Novatec SB-SL hubs, 20/24 with Sapim D-Light. Came out around 1360g from memory. My set held up fine under me (80kg) for several 000 km (the rims and some of the spokes are now doing similar duty on my fixed wheel, the hubs have been rebuilt onto some Chinese 38mm carbon rims). Another set saw a 78kg clubmate through LBL amongst other tough rides. However the parts may be hard to come by these days and they have some peculiarities, notably that if you run the rims tubeless you have to retension them after you fit the tyres as the rim compresses so much.

mrb123

bold seagull wrote:

MrB123 wrote:

Have a look at the DCR website. A wealth of information on there about component choices.
http://dcrwheels.co.uk/custom-wheelsets/which-rim/
http://dcrwheels.co.uk/products/hubs/road-hubs/

About to take the plunge on a set of these with his own DCR hubs and Rims, D-light spokes. Based in Lewes, around these parts he has a fantastic reputation for his builds.

Thus far my DCR hubs have flawless over 3-4000 miles of use. They are light, cheap and pretty much zero maintenance. What's not to like?

ugo.santalucia

MrB123 wrote:

Thus far my DCR hubs have flawless over 3-4000 miles of use.

It's not much though, is it?

ugo.santalucia

They look like Bitex hubs to me. In 2012 I was offered 100 pairs of them with personalised logo for 40 USD a pair from Bitex (at the time that was 25 quid or so*). I decided not to buy them, which was a good choice as the following year everything became 11 speed and I would have been left with lots of 10 speed only hubs. The 11 speed ones have a better freehub than the 10 speed had, which was frankly dreadful and kept together with an elastic band acting as pawls spring, literally! A bit like Novatec, they are OK hubs and if you are prepared to buy from abroad, you can even source spares... in the UK they have no distribution channel. In the long run, they never last as long as Hope or high end Shimano/Campagnolo and you more or less get what you pay for

* Interestingly at the time STRADA were selling their own branded Bitex hubs for £ 125 a pair :shock:

bold seagull

ugo.santalucia wrote:

They look like Bitex hubs to me. In 2012 I was offered 100 pairs of them with personalised logo for 40 USD a pair from Bitex (at the time that was 25 quid or so*). I decided not to buy them, which was a good choice as the following year everything became 11 speed and I would have been left with lots of 10 speed only hubs. The 11 speed ones have a better freehub than the 10 speed had, which was frankly dreadful and kept together with an elastic band acting as pawls spring, literally! A bit like Novatec, they are OK hubs and if you are prepared to buy from abroad, you can even source spares... in the UK they have no distribution channel. In the long run, they never last as long as Hope or high end Shimano/Campagnolo and you more or less get what you pay for

* Interestingly at the time STRADA were selling their own branded Bitex hubs for £ 125 a pair :shock:

Based on the Bitex hub according to DCR.
http://dcrwheels.co.uk/custom-wheelsets/the-best-hubs-in-the-world/

mrb123

ugo.santalucia wrote:

MrB123 wrote:

Thus far my DCR hubs have flawless over 3-4000 miles of use.

It's not much though, is it?

It is what it is. If they fall apart at some point in the future I will of course report back.