I’d say that was on high side. I’d expect to pay around £60 to £65 for decent spokes and brass nipples.

Edit, miss calculated. About £75 sounds about right

Shop around!! In W Yorks I’ve paid £1 per spoke and £30 labour.

If folk are willing to pay that, how much less do you think the shop should charge? 😉

Only if it was a 72 spoke wheel 😉

I’ve just had a set of wheels built up with me supplying just the rims and hubs, spokes and build, £25 per end, by big Al at Wheelcraft in Clachan of Campsite.

Local shop charged me £40 plus spokes and nipples when I did the same re hub and rim. So assuming £40 for spokes and nipples (based on 1.08 for dt swiss spokes and 30p per nipple for brass prolock) then yes it does seem expensive, albeit I do know of another local shop that charges £60 to build a wheel which would be more in line with your price.

You don’t need a spoke key to dismantle it just a pair of pliers/snips.

Thank the lord for being able to build my own wheels, if £100 is the going rate. Bought 72 DT Revolutions for a pair of wheels last month for under £40, so £20 per wheel, from a shop , so they want £80 to swap ? Takes 5 mins with wire cutters to take the old hub out and 20 mins to lace up, that’s a lot of cost then to true and tension…..I have another pair of wheels to build soon, so if I had to pay that kind of money, I wouldn’t be able to spend money on bikes for bits alone, let alone labour.

It’s easy enough to use a calcultor and then buy your own spokes and nipples from somewhere like Spa Cycles. Lacing is straightforward even if you haven’t done it before. Then just get the shop to true them.

Did you say this to them? or ask them to break down the cost so you could see what the parts/labour charge was?

On the face of it it seems a little steep, but without info on the spokes/nipples they plan to use (or that you requested?) and if there are any other particulars like currently seized alloy nipples to remove or hub service etc. it’s hard to judge.

As a ballpark I’d expect most shops to charge £25-£40 per wheel labour for a build, so add spokes + nipples to that as a starting point.

with spokes @ £30 + nipples your £50 expectation leaves very little for their labour time, and factoring in the need to dismantle your wheel first then I think you might need to adjust your expectation.

Do you need to replace the spokes and nipples? Personally I would try lacing it up with the existing spokes+nipples if not too old. I’ve done this before on my own builds and its been fine.
Difference is 2mm shorter for Flow rims, not perfect, but I doubt the extra spoke length will poke through and you’ll find out if there is enough thread.

Swapping rims is the easiest way to learn as you just need to tape the new rim to old and swap spokes one side at a time (left/right), do the side nearest new rim first. Tension them evenly, counting number of turns. Can always take your finished wheel to a shop to true up completely.

Revolution spokes 56p each?

In what decade? Not this one.

In what decade? Not this one.

Try Bike-discount 😉

£34.93 for 72 in silver plus a few quid carriage. No brainer…….

I just paid £25 for 70 dt Swiss comp spokes and brass nipples Inc del from rose

Out of interest which shop is it ?

IIRC I paid £120 for 2 wheels with DT Comp Races at Icycles, first class build.

Is it possible there’s a bit of “own parts tax” here? When a shop loses the markup they’d have made on parts, sometimes they’ll quietly add it back on somewhere else.

or £20 for the bearings (assuming the hope kit) eg: as per here on CRC

so even saying £30 for spokes and nips + £10 for tape + above = £60, which leaves £39 labour to dismantle old wheel, build new and fit bearings.

Seems bang on to me.