If anybody anywhere near Farnborough, Hants, wants a wheel building, my price is £30 per wheel incl DT Swiss, SS, DB, black, spokes and standard brass nipples. (Supply your own hubs and rims)
There's a few of my wheels out there doing fine. My own personal pair have been tested in the Alps.
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sorry i were wrong, £25 per wheel 
did you get anywhere any cheaper? I'm going to need a pair building next month and don't have teh patience to do it myself yet!
I've moved over to Sapim on price, built my last set of 819s with them, they seem nice, I'll certainly use them again. But, agreed, spoke price is making me think twice about the point of building my own wheels now, I don't mind paying for quality parts, but when you can buy a built wheel on CRC for less than the parts, it's starts to make less sense.
34 spokes on a Pro III. BUt you may have to buy a pack of 72 
Build price seems OK for the time put in.
Why don't you get some other hubs that arn't straight pull or use other straight pull spokes like above or ask Merlin to build tehm cheaper?
but when you can buy a built wheel on CRC for less than the parts, it's starts to make less sense.
That's very true. You have to scour the land for cheap parts.
I pivked up a pait of wheels that needed attention with Hope Pro2 front & DT Swiss rear hubs and Sun SOS rims...... For £40!
I checked the front over and use it as it is, the rear I keep as a spare with new hub bearings (Flatspot on rim)
I then found a new, 36h Hope XC rear hub (My favorite Hope hub) for £60, and bought another SOS rim and PG spokes for under £40
I've ended up with a pair of beefy Hope hubbed wheels for £120-ish and a spare rear, just in case...
It CAN be done! 
SH wheels can often be f**ked though - bearings gone, seized spokes.
SH wheels can often be f**ked though - bearings gone, seized spokes.
I've had a few used wheels, and only had the odd siezed spoke. Bearing are a lot cheaper than a new hub, too.
As an aside, I recently got involved with a project teaching disadventaged kids bike mechanics and repair. The bikes are supplied via the police and various other sources, and are a bit shabby to say the least. But that's the point - Fix them!
I had to quickly true the wheels on an ancient Raleigh Max last time, and was expecting the worst, but, no, every spoke nipple turned perfectly....
Mine has quoted 60£ for building a pair of wheels and he will also provide black revolution spokes for both. 50£ if I go for silver ones.
I don't think you have to look too hard for wheel building bargains. I've just built On One track hubs on Rigida Flyer rims (Parker International) with Sapim Race DB spokes (Spa Cycles) for £93. The cheapest factory set was at least £50 more and would probably have been poorly built.
Buy all the bits from me (rim, hub and Halo spokes at 35p each) and i build wheels for £15. Bring in your own rim/hub, and it's £25. Anyone charging £35+ to build a wheel is either too slow, or profiteering.
I do charge an additional £10 to dismantle a wheel though, to re-use the hub.
Anyone charging £10 to to dismantle a wheel to re-use the hub is either too slow, or profiteering.
Agreed, takes 5 minutes.
Pedalon had dt db silver spokes on offer the other day when I bought some. Circa £45 for 72.
Build + DT comp spokes usually works out at around £30 a wheel at various LBS I use (last build was about 9 months ago £100 for Mavic 317, DT comp and build for a pair of wheeels on my hubs.
jeese you got some expensive prices, local bike shop is £20 wheel build inc dt swiss spokes. Even do a free tune up after first few rides
You can't really build a wheel without them though... 
Just got a wheel (very well) built for £15, took them a pile of bits. Did a much better job than I could have done.
DT Aerolite. Now THAT'S an expensive spoke. Thankfully I've not gone for the white ones!
I'm getting a rear built for my commuter for about 15quid ish labour and the same 15 quid for plain gauge spokes, double butted spokes were in the 30quid region, thats about 45p for a plain gauge spoke and 94p for a butted.
however consider the quality of their building skills vs mine given that they would build/true one a week probably and I would do mine once every 3yrs (and the cost impact of buying a truing stand..)
Personally i wouldn't rebuild with used spokes but some do. DB spokes do stretch & over time have a memory so will remain at the stretched length. This means that getting the correct tension again is almost impossible.
However, if the wheel is handbuilt & is only say upto 6 months old & needs a new rim, depending on use/condition then yes i may well reuse them.
You guys need to remember that building the perfect wheel takes practice & time, years for the best. There are many on here that i am sure can build wheels but are they as good as someone who has been doing them for years? Nope.
I had a guy come to us straight out of an ACT wheelbuilding course & i'm not sure what they tought him. He may aswell have built the wheel from spaghetti!
Spokes are expensive but then you have to take into account all the different buttings, lengths, colours etc & the shop can only buy them in 72's or 100's normally. They have to allow for a box of spokes to sit there for months before they are needed again.
As for labour, most shops will charge you £40-£50 for an hours workshop time/service, most wheels take 40mins on average so £20-£25 labour isn't too bad really. A lot of shops will even lose the labour if you buy the rim/hub/spokes from them.
They are there to make a living & stock all the pretty stuff you want to perv over. They have to pay for it some how. People need to support the LBS before its too late & they have gone, i'd love to see your Dell Laptop build an urgent wheel at 4pm the day before a big weekends riding!
J
DB spokes do stretch & over time have a memory so will remain at the stretched length. This means that getting the correct tension again is almost impossible.
Nonsense, I've rebuilt many wheels professionally in this way without problem.
Spokes are expensive but then you have to take into account all the different buttings, lengths, colours etc & the shop can only buy them in 72's or 100's normally. They have to allow for a box of spokes to sit there for months before they are needed again.
Although you could buy a box of 100 spokes at retail for less than the 68 quid that this guy is being charged, let alone trade.
People need to support the LBS before its too late & they have gone, i'd love to see your Dell Laptop build an urgent wheel at 4pm the day before a big weekends riding!
That's great in theory, but in practice 9 times out of 10, the quickest way to get any bike stuff more complicated than an inner tube is to buy it online off Chain Reaction. Especially for people who work, so often can't get to bike shops when they're open.
Joe
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