How do people make money from wheelbuilding?

Margins are pretty tight, is it just due to bulk buying/trade prices that shops are able to make money from wheelbuilding?

Pretty much, and if your good its a pretty quick job, I’ve seen motorbike shops build wheels in ~15 minutes. And presumably the shop is unlikely to be the cheepest place for hubs spokes and rims, so they must make a margin on one of those three.

You can build a pair in an hour, and I guess those building wheels for Hope etc are not the best paid.

Thats why hope hoops have been a success, mass built wheels with quality products to the LBS. Its cheaper and quicker for the LBS to buy in and sell than to build.

Hope hoops can be a bit hit and miss quality wise.

IMO its worth paying a bit extra for a well built wheel, but most shops do it quickly and badly.

Best bet is build it yourself, then you know its right

you can tell the difference between handbuilt wheels too. I’ve had some wheels built by Paul Hewitts of Leyland and they are superb, tension is perfect. I’ve had wheel built by mail order shops supposably handbuilt but have lost tension and generally have not been the strongest. The price for build form Hewitts was not cheap, but i wouldn’t hesitate in recomending them.

Mail order wheels are handbuilt too!

Or buy the cheapest “handbuilt” ones you can find then tension them properly yourself

spoke prices. buying a wheels worth of spokes makes it more expensive for the home builder to build wheels than buy them from a shop as they get bulk prices and buy a few boxes at a time.

davidtaylforth – Member

Or buy the cheapest “handbuilt” ones you can find then tension them properly yourself

Problem is that you have to dismantle them and fully rebuild them to get them right, if they haven’t been well built in the first place getting the tensions right is like chasing a pea around a plate with a fork (set of bombers).

Mail order wheels are handbuilt too!

I realse that thank you, i was meaning that there is a differnce between wheelbuilders, mail order people most likely go for the volume market, building as many as they can, the wheels i had built at Hewitts had obviously had more time spent on them.

Problem is that you have to dismantle them and fully rebuild them to get them right, if they haven’t been well built in the first place getting the tensions right is like chasing a pea around a plate with a fork (set of bombers).

No you don’t – just loosen them all off and go from there. No need to completely de-lace the wheel and it’s the lacing that takes time for me.

Hope hoops can be a bit hit and miss quality wise.

really? well we have had nothing but excellent products shipped to us with no problems.

can’t think of anyone ever telling us they think they have a ‘miss’ set either.

They really are rather good.

MSP – Member

Problem is that you have to dismantle them and fully rebuild them to get them right, if they haven’t been well built in the first place getting the tensions right is like chasing a pea around a plate with a fork (set of bombers).

Utter tosh. Only in extreme circumstances would you even need to loosen them.

fwiw Merlin wheels are usually very well built, despite costing less than the separate parts. I have a CRC built wheel which despite rumours of being built by a machine is still well solid after 2 years, and that would have been about £20 more if i had ordered the exact same parts from them myself. It still turned up the morning after I ordered it too!

Conversely, getting your LBS to rebuild a wheel is well pricey, this is where I end up doing mine and my mates’ wheels at home.

Harry Rowland is a very good wheel builder and worth paying a tad more because of that I think.

Selling some of his wheels btw 😉

By being good! If Chaz ( http://www.revolution-wheels.net ) builds us a wheel its stays good. He also rebuild a pair of Superstar Co with tied and soldered spokes, very light and very stiff in the right places. But usually we buy the cheapest Merlin or CRC and retention them ourselves

Can I be the first to say Wheelpro? Never anything but excellent wheels from Roger.