The Chainlink

I am offering wheel building services. Bring any hub and wheel combos (as long as the number of spokes holes is the same) then tell me what type of spokes you want. I determine the spoke length and build the wheels. Builds offered are as follows:

Basic build: the spoke threads are preped, the nipples seats are preped with antiseeze. Then the wheels are built and trued to within +/- .25mm of lateral and radial true (for used rims tolerances may be greater). Spokes are also pre seated and stressed. All spokes are tensioned within +\- 15% of the average for the wheel.

Premium build: same as the basic build but wheels are trued to within +/- .08mm of lateral and radial true and all spokes are tensioned to within +\- 10% of the average (again with used rims tolerances are greater). This tight tollerance of spoke tension combined with the pre seating of spokes mass the wheels extremely strong and maximizes the time in between wheel trues

I also offer upgades to grade 25 stainless bearings with Phil Wood grease for loose ball hubs.

Prices are as follows

Basic built wheel: $50 plus the cost of spokes
Basic built wheelset: $90 plus the cost of spokes
Premium built wheel: $100 plus the cost of spokes
Premium built wheelset: $175 plus the cost of spokes
Loose ball hub upgrade: $30
Loose ball hubset upgrade: $50

Please feel free to send me an email with any questions at WellSpokedWheels@gmail.com

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i've observed that wheel building is as much or even more so an art as it is a science. Wheel building is a lot like religion- as many beliefs about how and why to put a wheel together as there are about what is Truth.

Also, the prices mentioned here seem pretty much in line with what the market will bear.

just out of curiosity what shop do you work for, also what tolerances do you true and tension your wheels to?

notoriousDUG said:

Yes I am saying exactly that and here it is in writing  It has always been like that; I have built wheels with all or mostly customer provided parts before.  The only time the price of our wheel builds depends on the parts purchase is our winter wheel build specials where if you buy 2/3 of the parts with us it is only $25 to build the wheel and $35 if you bring in mostly your own parts.

If it is a used rim there may be some limitations put on the warranty for the wheel as we do not like to re-use rims unless they are in great shape and were high quality rims to start with.

If you were told anything else by somebody here it was WRONG and I would like to know who told you that.

I would not trust a shop who had a labor rate that varied depending on where parts came from.

I work at Rapid Transit north.  We only true by eye so probably within 1-2mm of true which I feel is fine for 9o% of the riders out there.

What shop do you manage?

$30 to build a wheel at The Bike Lane. 

I am the head mechanic at Beverly Bike and Ski on the south side but my wheel building is completely seperate from the shop we don't even do wheel builds in house.

So I guess I'm catering to the 10% of riders who actually care about quality. but it's good to know that you think that 90% of your customers don't deserve quality.

Nice backhanded insult a-hole.  Nothing says upstanding business like showing up on a message board with your first post being self promotion and insulting people.

Maybe we don't go as over the top as you do but the people who buy wheels here seem pretty happy with them and I really do not believe that your smaller variation is actually anything that will be felt by most folks.  Tires have more runout than 1-2mm and most will easily absorb that what with that being the whole point of having a pneumatic tire and all...  Same goes for lateral true, is that really something anyone is going to notice when they ride?  We sell a fair amount of hand built wheels that we stand behind  and our customers are happy with them...

If you are such a ace wheel builder why does your shop not offer hand built wheels?


Patrick Doherty said:

I am the head mechanic at Beverly Bike and Ski on the south side but my wheel building is completely seperate from the shop we don't even do wheel builds in house.

So I guess I'm catering to the 10% of riders who actually care about quality. but it's good to know that you think that 90% of your customers don't deserve quality.

Taking cheap shots at a mechanic at reputable bike shop in your own FS thread on The Chainlink seems to me a bad way to get clients. Just sayin'.

I seem to have been misunderstood, what I meant was that it is interesting that at rapid transit they think 90% of the customers are too incompetent to notice 2mm! of variation which is extremely bad, truing by eye I can get within .25mm of true. And what do you tension your wheels to? Do you use a tension meter?

As for why we don't build in house that is not my decision to make its the owners.

Welcome to The Chainlink Patrick.  

I never measure them; I was judging what can be seen by eye and I guessed 1-2mm so I may be wrong on that because you seem to think eyeballing it gets you .25mm so if that is the case we build to .25mm but I really don't think an eyeball can get you that close but you would know better because you have the ability to measure the lateral and radial runout with a gauge.

We tension our wheels to what ever the recommended tension for the rim/spoke/hub combo.  Of course we use a tension meter you cannot build a good wheel without one.

Stop putting words in my mouth about stuff.


Patrick Doherty said:

I seem to have been misunderstood, what I meant was that it is interesting that at rapid transit they think 90% of the customers are too incompetent to notice 2mm! of variation which is extremely bad, truing by eye I can get within .25mm of true. And what do you tension your wheels to? Do you use a tension meter?

As for why we don't build in house that is not my decision to make its the owners.

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