i need a fresh set of wheels for my roadie, for general day to day training use not racing, more or less whats worth looking for these days in terms of rims/hubs/spokes etc?

last set i built were more cx focused (i built them for the 3 peaks) but ended up on the roadbike and still ride great; ultegra hubs, mavic cpx33 rims and dt db spokes. i was also about 5stone heavier then!

i don’t want to spend heaps, more than likely i’ll go clinchers, not massively fussed about super low weights, quite fancy some hope hubs or maybe hunt around for some deals (new or used) on dura ace hubs, but really looking for suggestions especially on spokes, spoke count (quite like the ideal of a radial laced front as i’ve never built one), rims etc (mavic open pro, something more aero… how about chinese carbon 50mm?).

all the cool kids these days are rocking H plus Son ‘archetypes’…

Iv always found it considerably cheaper (not to mention less time consuming) to buy a wheel rather than make one.

I only rebuild when replacing a buggered rim; or want something weird like the 26in Alfine I made last year.

all the cool kids these days are rocking H plus Son ‘archetypes’…

Built some recently on ultegra hubs. 32h. DT Comp spokes. Radial front, 2x rear. Nice wheels for the winter trainer. Not light, but not too heavy either.

I built some Open Pros onto Hope disc hubs for my winter trainer. Came out really nice.

Rims were £20 from Halfords in a sale, spokes from Rose bikes, hubs from my son 🙂

Next road set I will be putting some Stans Alpha 340s onto whatever hubs I can get cheap 😛

thanks, being a sucker for black i do like those h plus son rims. and my bike is all black too. hmmm!

I built some velocity A23 a few years ago, quite disapointed by them. Not a lot of miles but a lot of wear and the graphics have faded badly. Back to Mavic next time.

Having said that, just built some Archytypes for a disc cross bike, the grey versions looks really good built up, a lot darker than i expected.

I bought some Chinese carbon 50mm section, disc specific wheels from Light Bicycle last year. Cracking set of wheels – super true, reasonably light (1450g for the pair), economical (c.£400 delivered) and they looked the mutts nuts.

I’ve just sold them(today) as they were a little ‘lively’ for me with the wind etc we get up here in The Lakes. I have however replaced them with another pair from Light Bicycle – this time carbon, disc specific again but 35mm deep. Again,they turned up within 3 weeks, super true and look great in matt against the matt frame finish.

if your budget is in the region of £400 then I would have no issue with recommending Chinese carbon.

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There are limitations for carbon rims.This was my LB front rim.TBH It was going down a sustained 15%+ decent (which I should have avoided) and I would have got away with it if it was’nt for the bin lorry at the bottom!!
It’s not an LB thing.I’ve seen similar with Easton,Zipp and even a Mavic CC40 (which have an ali inner rim).

If you’re running 23c’s and rim brakes the Mavic Open Pro is still gold gold standard, mental strong for how light they are, esp when built up with a full 32 spokes.

If you’re on discs or are running 28c+ then Archetypes are probably the way to go. Until Mavic pull their finger out and bring out a nice light disc rim for 25-30c road tyres.

Hubwise, DT Swiss are awesome and the 240’s are proper light but if you’re on a bit of a budget you can’t go far wrong with Hopes.

apart from the bloody awful noise.