I bought some White 26er Stans Flow Rims for what I thought was a good price. If I combine this with even cheap superstar hubs and then buy some spokes and then pay someone to put them together it costs more than a set of hope hoops, which obviously come with decent hubs…

Flows – £85
Superstar Switch Hubs – £97
Spokes and nipples – £64
Optimistic build cost – £25

This adds up to £271 when hope hoops c/w hope pro2 hubs and flows can easily be had for less than £270

Is there any point to using my rims or should I just keep them as spares….?

Cost price plus markup innit?

(Rim * markup) + (spokes * markup) + (hub * markup) + labour = x

(Rim + spokes + hub) * markup = y

x > y

Full bike will be less than its components bought seperately.

Because a shop or company building wheels will buy in bulk and at trade prices, claim back the VAT etc, basically they can control their costs better, while you pay RRP or there abouts for every single part…

It’s the same as anything try buying a car and then compare that to the cost of buying every component aftermarket and assembling the thing yourself, a £16K Ford would probably cost £160K….

So, not much point in me buying myself some rims thens…??

Anyone want to buy some brand new white 26er Stans flow rims?

Yes.

TBH – if you’re not going to build the wheels yourself, or just getting an existing wheel rebuilt, then I’m struggling to see why you didn’t just look at the pre-built options to begin with.

maybe use this an an excuse to learn to build?

Buy all the bits as a full wheel and then build it properly yourself 🙂

Well Hold on there Cowboy, before you just flog your new rims…

Are your current hubs still any good?

If so there could be a “Cost benefit” to rebuilding your Current hubs with your posh new stans rims…

There’s no reason you HAVE to have a whole new wheel…

TBH – if you’re not going to build the wheels yourself, or just getting an existing wheel rebuilt, then I’m struggling to see why you didn’t just look at the pre-built options to begin with.

Seeing the flow rims at £85 was too tempting… I bought them before adding up the rest of the costs…

Elf, is that a yes you want to buy them?

Well Hold on there Cowboy, before you just flog your new rims…

Are your current hubs still any good?

If so there could be a “Cost benefit” to rebuilding your Current hubs with your posh new stans rims…

There’s no reason you HAVE to have a whole new wheel..

Yes my current hubs are fine, but so are the flow rims that are laced to them…

I was trying to get a spare set of wheels

What I really can’t understand is why it is that if you buy the individual parts of a computer and put it together yourself it’s cheaper than buying a ready assembled model.

Why is it then that buying the individual parts for a bike and putting it together yourself would result in a bike that cost many times what it would to buy the complete bike.

What is the difference between the two industries that I am missing?

Hmmm,

could you stand to go really cheap on the hubs? could you stomach (Gulp) Deore PG spokes and a DIY build for instance as it’s only the “B-Team” wheelset…

Or could you just not bring yourself to sully a set of flows with such non-blingy hubs…

As for comparing computers and bike wheels well they are very different markets aren’t they, computer parts are manufactured and sold in huge quantities compared to bike parts, also their assembly requires nothing like as much skill as building a wheel any boss-eyed fool can put a Card in a PCI slot, but building/truing a wheel requires a bit more experience, finesse and time…

Surely the skill required to make a wheel should make it cheaper to buy the parts and make it yourself compared to buying a pre-built wheelset.

I get the bulk buying of parts argument but it just seems like they’re taking the piss when it comes to individual component pricing.

Its also to do with handling cost, imagine the difference in logistics and organisation in handling a) a whole bike, b) all of its component parts – maybe 100 pieces.

Honestly the demand for consumer electronics and PCs globally is so much higher than that for bicycle parts the COGs for a PCB some resistors and processors is relatively much lower simply due to demand and competition between suppliers driving prices down.

If you think about the number and types of manufacturig processes involved in making a rim or hub they arguably require more energy, heavier more costly plant equipment, longer cycle times and to top it all off there is nothing like the same level of demand for the end product all of this has an effect on COGs and hence course markup…

When you really consider it, it’s a wonder that you can actually buy a basic wheel for about ~£50 really the variety of materials and processes involved in delivering the components plus the labour costs for assembly…

Perception of “value” is relative to understanding manufacture (IMO)…

With wheels I think it would be harder to handle fully built wheels compared to individual parts. Hubs and spokes can be stacked in boxes while rims can be taped together. You end up with less space and a less fragile package.

Even a whole bike would be easier to handle if it was made up of component parts. It could also be packed down into a much smaller space.

Surely most of the energy and cost comes from making the individual parts, not from actually putting them together.

Warehousing I suppose is also a factor, your comparing FMCG with Premium bike parts and, yet again these 2 markets diverge in a big way…

A set of Flow rims ( relatively bulky) purchased from a shop will sit in a box in storage and then in a shop or being oggled (but not purchased) for months, all the time effectively being “Inefficiently” stored and incurring costs for the seller…

Warehousing is probably one area where money can be saved on assembly of a complete build wheelset; either by employing a basic JIT stock control system and planning production/supply months in advance around forcast demand, or simply buying in suitable bulk to get bigger discounts and making sure you use every square foot of your warehouse as effectively as possible…

The piece parts you buy from a shop will never come through the most efficient supply chain possible as they basically slow moving, luxury consumer goods hence never the best value…

Basically everything has a cost that will be passed on to you;

Storage, handling, manufacturing, assembly these can be offset sufficiently through bulk Qty that a complete assembled product costs less than the DIY assembly of aftermarket piece parts would do…

If you want to build yourself you can 64 double butted spokes from Rose bikes for £25

hope’s price for their hoops is based on the hub and profit on the hub. they are giving you the rim/spokes/build for cost price. they sell lots of wheels, keep their expensive cnc machine running 24-7 and still make a profit.

Spokes and nipples – £64

Well there’s where one of your issues with pricing your custom build. Can get spokes a lot cheaper than that.

If no one else is, I am interested in the rims….

david.simoneATntlworld.com

As for comparing computers and bike wheels well they are very different markets aren’t they, computer parts are manufactured and sold in huge quantities compared to bike parts, also their assembly requires nothing like as much skill as building a wheel any boss-eyed fool can put a Card in a PCI slot, but building/truing a wheel requires a bit more experience, finesse and time…

Surely that would make built PC’s even cheeper as theres nothign to build?

I think the reason is one of perception, building wheels is percieved to be a skill (and it is) so is a PC, but your more likley to leanr to build a wheel as most cyclist s are mechanicaly minded?

Whereas the computer is seen as a product you just buy off a shelf and expect to work.

I’d guess a lot of the price difference between building and buying a complete pc is down to the support costs. Saying that I don’t think I’ve ever actually saved money building my own pc’s, just got the exact spec I wanted. I’d guess that built wheels generally don’t have numpties messing them up and then asking the manufacturer for support.

if you have a spare rim, and you think you can build, (especially rebuild from an identical rim) why would you need spare wheels?

Might need a half dozen spokes and nipples, just in case…

Why have spare wheels? Cos you use your bike everyday and you can switch out wheels in case of unforeseen issues.. I have several nice sets.. Evans did me a nice build for £80 inc SAPIM DB spokes F and R.

Well there’s where one of your issues with pricing your custom build. Can get spokes a lot cheaper than that.

Please guide me to a better price…

Hmmm,

could you stand to go really cheap on the hubs? could you stomach (Gulp) Deore PG spokes and a DIY build for instance as it’s only the “B-Team” wheelset…

NOPE, deore hubs are poo

Please guide me to a better price…

Oh come on, it’s hardly difficult. One option has already been mentioned, but did you even try looking at the standard mail-order places?