Hand built wheels (road) advice please

Hi – does anyone have any advice / experience of hand built wheels for road? I’ve got a couple of ‘factory’ options in mind (dura ace 9000 c24 or RS81), but am considering whether hand built would be a better option considering that I am much lighter than the average rider. But I don’t really know much about different rims, hubs etc. Any suggestions based on the following requirements:
– rider weight 46kg
– carbon – alloy hybrid (NOT carbon only as I want an alloy braking surface)
– light (ideally under 1400g, prefer less weight in the rim, but still want some durability)
– clinchers (not tubs), rim width suitable for 25c tyres.

Any advice / suggestions much appreciated (for factory as well as hand built). Plus any experiences / recommendations for wheel builders?

Thanks 🙂

Not for Road, but I have had a few sets of wheels from Merlin Cycles (handbuilt Hope stuff). Always good prices and excellent service.

Budget?
Deep or shallow profile?
Race wheels or just riding along?

I like hand built wheels. At your weight you can use very low spoke count and lightest spokes. I have dura ace hubs built up with Sapim race spokes and Mavic rims. They are a wonderful ride. If you must have alloy braking surface, your deep section options are very limited unless you have a full alloy rim.

Harry Rowland builds my wheels. Speak to him about your needs and you will get an excellent set of wheels to meet any need you might have.

Just Riding Along are who i generally recommend for wheel builds. They’ve got a nice selection of parts and do a very good build. I’ve also used them myself if i’ve not had time to build my own wheels (or can’t source the parts for a sensible price)

You might struggle to get a handbuilt wheel with a hybrid carbon/alloy rim. Most of the ones i’ve seen are either heavy (a carbon faired normal rim) or part of a shimano wheel. But at 46 kilos you should be able to go for some pretty light rims/low spoke count anyway. Maybe something like Stans ZTR Alphas on AC hubs?

Either way, i’d be having a chat with a couple or more wheel builders and see what they say, they’ll have a better handle on whats available, and suitable.

TiRed:

Shallow profile
Budget in the range of £400-£700
Use – long alpine climbs / descents (plus events like the Marmotte etc), along with 100+ mile mountain rides in Snowdonia. So looking for a mix of light weight, and good braking performance on long descents. Summer use only (I have “winter” wheels).

All – Thanks for the wheel builder recommendations, I’ll check them out.

You should be able to go lighter than 1400g given you weigh so little. You would need to be careful about stiffness. My thoughts.

I have some hunt wheels for sale in Newcastle 😉 4 season 28mm race but they are 1500g so a bit over what you wanted.

I used to own some RS80s. They were my climbing wheel of choice. Nice and comfortable too. Noticeable over standard wheels. Light, skewers are heavy so you can knock more off that weight going Ti skewers.

You will struggle to get below 1400g with an alloy factory wheel. If you don’t want a carbon rim I think you will struggle with anything deeper than a 28.

At the cheap end you could spec some superstar wheels.

Then look at the following people/manufacturers:

Strada
Harry Rowland
Just riding along
DCR wheels
Spokesman
Cero
Wheelsmith

If you just want strong, light and value then you would be looking at a standard cartridge hub from the likes of novatech, 20F 24R good spokes and a standard light rim from someone like Kinlin. Most wheel builders will be able to advise based on what they stock and know. There are things to balance based on your budget and requirements.

I used Superstars but running tubs – struggled to find anything under the 1450g mark from anyone including custom builders regardless of tub/clincher configuration without it getting the other side of £800.
The ones I have are 1340g (actual weighed).

https://www.cycledivision.co.uk/products/wheels/cero-ar30-alloy-clincher-wheelset-6279

http://www.stradawheels.co.uk/product/sportif-wheels/

There is a bit of a ceiling at 1400g on alloy wheel sets based on what is available rim, spoke, hub wise. You can go lower but the costs become astronomical very quickly. You don’t save much weight in the two options above but do spend an awful lot more money.

You could look at expensive hubs but even then it is only the likes of tune that will get you really low weights.

IF you are really keen to save weight then Ti skewers can same lots over shimano. Light rim tape or Velo plugs. But my choice would be to take something mid range at 1400g so it is well built and then keep the money or spend it elsewhere on the bike.

That was the decision I took jonba – sub £300 on the wheels, Ti skewers from the same place and tubs.
made losing weight elsewhere far more comfortable 😆

Have a look at the Rolf Prima Elan’s, at the upper end of your budget; just a case of finding some in this country. Still have an ancient pair of Sestrieres going strong on my 2001 ‘summer bike’.

I’m 100kg, so can confirm these wheels are stiff enough. :-p

Novatec hubs (288g)
Stans Alpha rims, these were the original ones, later ones were beefed up slightly but they’ve been fine (425g)
Dt Revolution spokes (28 + 24) and brass nipples

Total weight 1275g

Could be a lot lighter (24 + 20 spoke, alloy nipples)

No issues, although I only use them in the dry as Stans braking surfaces aren’t overly durable.

At 46Kg you are outside the normal parameters that wheels are built for. Speaking to wheelbuilders to find out what they can put together would be my choice as you don’t need the strength in a wheel that the average rider does.

Edit: tinas example above is the sort of thing I’d expect but you could probably push it further with less spokes (well, four less) to get those last few grams off

IF you do go with novatec hubs get the freehub with the anti bite guard strip of steel. I’ve gone through at least 3 hubs on different wheels where the cassette has gouged the freehub

I know you said hand built, and I do love hand built, and I do build my own… but you can get a pair of Mavic Ksyrium Pro Exalith clinchers in budget. I’d be tempted based on the alpine pass requirement as one thing Mavic seem to do really well is braking surfaces!

I have a few lightweight sets built up on the shelf H plus son archetypes and DT Swiss R460 rims round various light hubs Aivee, bitex all laced with DT Swiss revolution spokes drop me a mail if you want to know more or just have questions dude.

Archetype make super wheels, love mine, but no idea how you’d build it light seeing as your starting point is at least 940g of rims! 😉

Edit.. I seem to recall mine being over a kilo for a pair of rims on the kitchen scales. Braking surface isn’t the grippiest either.

You save the weight on hubs and spokes 😉

You save the weight on hubs and spokes

🙂

Hubs, spokes and nips for under 400g?

Thing is with the Archetype your starting point is already 200g heavier than a Stan’s Alpha.

Still a great training rim though. Do like mine but they are about 1850g for the pair.

Didn’t rate my Stans rims. I would suggest something more durable and just get a lighter seatpost or something……

Looks like Velocity have a new lgiht weight rim available. http://www.velocityusa.com/product/rims/quill-622

Or Pacentis.

This guy should be able to build them for you. http://thecycleclinic.co.uk/

He’s a member on here.

Extralite hubs will be within your budget aswell.

http://www.handcraftedwheels.co.uk/news/super-sale-now-on/

Very helpful

Last years offer but for STWers I’ll still offer it till the end of this month just mention STW in any emails 😉

Hi – does anyone have any advice / experience of hand built wheels for road?

Yes, I had a set built for about £250 weighing 1500g. Open Pro CD, 32 DT Rev spokes, alloy nipples, Ambrosio Zenith hubs. They’ve been very strong, and I weigh 75kg. Given your weight and budget you could easily go lighter. One recommendation is to not use alloy nipples unless they are dry weather only – mine corroded so I replaced them with brass. The small weight saving is not worth it IMO.

BTW, I used those wheels on La Marmotte and they were absolutely fine. I saw lots of riders with carbon wheels suffering blowouts.

My most recent set were built by Spokesman and I highly recommend them.

You are best to save the weight on the rims and tyres/tubes rather than hubs..rotational mass and all that. Why not ring one of the better wheel builders and have a chat ? I recently used an outfit near Stockport called Wills Wheels. Got sound sensible advice and he built me a pair with ultegra hubs, open pro something or other rims and top class spokes.
I’d never met or used them before but was given their details and rang for a chat to begin with…he asked about bikes usage, my weight etc then used his )presumably vast) experience to advise.
0161 432 4936

Great stuff! Thanks very much everyone, really useful advice 🙂

I’ll start looking in to it in a bit more detail, and contact some of the above mentioned wheel builders.

Quick query – a few folks have mentioned ti QR skewers. I’ve had a quick look and they seem to vary in price from £15 to £60 – any advice on how to decide?

You are best to save the weight on the rims and tyres/tubes rather than hubs..rotational mass and all that.

Not really. Rotational mass is overhyped, and has little benefit if you’re just using the wheels for bike rides. I’d say better to save weight at the hubs/anywhere else and have rims that’ll be reliable.

Quick query – a few folks have mentioned ti QR skewers. I’ve had a quick look and they seem to vary in price from £15 to £60 – any advice on how to decide?

Don’t bother. Probably the worst place to try and scrimp. Shimano skewers are solid and reliable. Buy a lighter seatpost/stem/saddle etc. with the money saved

Quick query – a few folks have mentioned ti QR skewers. I’ve had a quick look and they seem to vary in price from £15 to £60 – any advice on how to decide?

Avoid the £15 ones from ebay/china, I bought a pair and they had plastic seats where they should be brass!

KCNC and MtZoom are perfectly upto the task even on my MTB’s, (again, I’m 100kg, if there was an issue I’d find it!)

Shimano arguably make the best QR’s, but they are 3x heavier than the lightest ones, so it’s still a decent weight saving, even if it isn’t anywhere near as good as saving 100g off the rims. There’s not many places on a bike you can shed 100g for £20, and it’s marginal gains, find five lots of similar weight savings and suddenly the bike is a whole lb lighter.

I’ve had Ti ones from ebay – they were £15. I put them on my CX bike, did the 3 peaks and lived.Have a set doing fine on my road bike for ages.

But given you can get some from wiggle for £20 I’d do that.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-titanium-quick-release-skewer-set/

I agree shimano make good QR and for my slot dropout inbred, mountain bikes etc. they are my choice but a road bike doesn’t need something that heavy duty.

Worth looking at tubes. I’m a hill climbing weight weenie and I know that Michelin A2 road tubes are lighter than schwalbe. Worth paying a bit more for some decent tyres and tubes too if you are spending money on wheels. Something like conti GP4000s II or the schwalbe “one”.

I have some hunt wheels for sale in Newcastle 4 season 28mm race but they are 1500g so a bit over what you wanted.

More info please.. email in my profile.

You can go light without having to go carbon (I didn’t want carbon in the mountains)
SO built American Classic RD205 rr, Micro 58 front onto the original Alpha 340 rims (when they were close to 340g) & they came in at 1274g for the pair without skewers. 2x front & rear.

Thanks folks 🙂 I’m getting a bit better idea of various options now. If anyone has any wheel builders that they would particularly recommend, let me know.

Ta 🙂

There’s one in this thread 😉

I agree shimano make good QR and for my slot dropout inbred, mountain bikes etc. they are my choice but a road bike doesn’t need something that heavy duty.

My ex-gf wasn’t able to exert enough leverage using her expensive superlight external-cam skewers to actually keep the wheels in the bike (if I gave the front wheel a good whack I could knock it out of the forks). We swapped her road bikes to Shimano, problem solved. Well worth the extra mass sometimes!

Worth looking at tubes. I’m a hill climbing weight weenie and I know that Michelin A2 road tubes are lighter than schwalbe. Worth paying a bit more for some decent tyres and tubes too if you are spending money on wheels. Something like conti GP4000s II or the schwalbe “one”.

or go latex. Much nicer feel and often less rolling resistance

Get these and see if you can swap the rods to some off a Ti pair

http://www.halowheels.com/products/part/HUHAQEH

I had a set of general pupose road wheels made by Harry Rowland about 10 years ago and they are still true (despite Devon country roads best efforts) and smooth running. In fact the front Ambrosia frewheeled for 10 minutes in the workstand before I got bored timing it and I love the way I can hold the valve at 3 o’clock at the front and under it’s weight the wheel will pendulum back and forth for minutes before it settles at the bottom (I really need to get a life).

What I really liked is that he asked a lot of questions about my weight, the bike and intended use before taking my order. Reasonable price too.

http://www.harryrowland.co.uk/