What are your priorities for training wheels? Tough, reliable and serviceable or relatively light, low spoke count wheels that you can use all year round? Does ease of finding replacement parts come into play or are you happy to buy into a proprietary system of spokes and hubs that might not be available in a few years time? Will you be likely to wear out the rim’s braking surface and want to re-rim before the hubs are done, or are you more likely to upgrade the whole lot by that time?

To me a training wheel would be sturdy, easy to service and tough. Therefore I’d specify a few more spokes front and rear and a rim that balances toughness and weight. It also of course depends on your own weight and riding style.
Choosing say a 28 or 32 hole rear wheel over a 24 hole one seems sensible to me although it is currently quite unfashionable. A training wheel sits in between a racing wheel and a touring wheel in my mind.

If I built myself a wheel from shimano hubs, say 105, and a widely used rim like the Dt swiss RR585, Kinlin xr-31 or H+son archetype with sapim or DT double butted spokes then I am very confident I am going to be able to find the same or a very close equivalent in 2-5 years time for any of the bits. Those combinations would probably be slightly above your budget including the building cost but not miles over.

The asymmetric rims are offset by 2 or 3mm. The flange offset varies depending on the hub.

I think the previous post from bigyan is on the money. You don’t have a wheel builder issue, you have a rim issue. I’d have a discussion with a couple of builders and see what rim they recommend. Probably, as bigyan said, an asymmetric rim with a robust spoke bed and maybe nipple washers too.

Are cheap Carbon wheels robust?

Did you decide on a rim?

Does the current version come with mudguards? If not I would highly recommend them.

Use mine daily for flat commuting. Can’t find anything better for the money really. Bit lardy and the front fork is not particularly compliant on my 2014 model. I changed to a dynamo front hub and xt rear with singlespeed cassette kit.

I’d be quite tempted by the cotic road rat too. Maybe someone can offer a direct comparison of the two.

What hub is it? I’m not aware of a hubgear that will accept bladed spokes.

Or are you going to modify the spoke holes to get the bladed spokes through?

Presumably he means ovalised or “aero” spokes (eg Sapim cxray) which will fit just fine rather than the older wide blade spokes which required filing.

I do seven miles and find that manageable during the winter, although I do wuss out if it’s pouring when I leave in the morning. It helps that it is only marginally quicker to drive it.
At my pace and traffic 13 miles would be about a fifty to sixty minute ride.

Remove all the decals would be better.

It makes you wonder how Lion bellworks make a bell in the UK for only £18.95. Compare also the Japanese crane bells.

I think that $/£50 for any bell is taking the piss. What exactly was their innovation? Some sympathy for then being ripped off but the pricing leaves them particularly open to it.

The superstar components and velosolo spacers offer finer chainline adjustment than the 2 piece kits. A wide foot sprocket is useful if you have an aluminium freehub. A taller tooth chainring is a nice addition too as presumably you’ll have some risk of derailment on the pump track although mitigated by having a tensioner. I like a nice bushed chain such as the KMC B1 or B1 narrow for singlespeeding too.

A WI eno eccentric hub is the other option if you wanted to avoid a tensioner, not cheap though.

Is it for single speed or 1x?

Don’t buy into Mavic’s planned obsolescence system.

£1k Carbon wheels for commuting is both a bit of a waste and poorly suited to the purpose.

Length is easy to measure assuming you have a ruler. Thread size can be determined by checking if they’ll fit a bottle tube boss which is M5. The key should be 4mm according to m5 spec.

Length is easy to measure assuming you have a ruler. Thread size can be determined by checking if they’ll fit a bottle tube boss which is M5.

Sell the ksyriums too and buy some proper wheels, since you didn’t ask :)

Sell both buy these or similar for training

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s178p3192/SPA-CYCLES-Handbuilt-Wheelset-Shimano-Ultegra-with-H-Plus-SON-rims

Pulling the ‘wings’ of the nib up and outwards increases ink flow by fractionally opening the nib slot. Pushing them in decreases flow by the same mechanism. Expect to get slightly inky thumbs and only gentle pull or push is required. It’s easy to reverse if the nib becomes too wet.

If the nib is slightly catching it is likely that the tines are not well aligned and this can also cause problems with starting. Inspect the nib from front on and you should be able to see that one tine is slightly above the other. A slight push on the errant tine is usually sufficient to correct it.

Also check the nib is well aligned with the feed. You could try a ‘wetter’ ink, I think waterman and diamine are considered to be free flowing.

It’s always worth doing a flush with a mild detergent and soap and rinse on a new pen that is having some issues with flow.

The Freehub ratchet itself is best lubricated with a relatively fluid grease, DT and Shimano both sell a specific thinner grease for them. A less viscous semi-fluid grease is preferable rather than the thicker NLGI 2 which is typically used in hubs, headsets and BBs.

Thicker grease can cause the ratchet pawls to stick, particularly in cooler weather.There’s little benefit in packing a free hub, a little extra should suffice it you care too. But pointless to cause a problem when it’s more likely than not that the original lube will last for many years.

The main axle bearings on a front or rear hub on the other hand benefit from a surplus of lubricant, especially in wet conditions. Some people go so far as to fill the whole hub body with grease and others put a grease nipple in the centre so they can purge the furthest outboard grease and any contaminants out periodically.

The cheapness sucks you into a lifetime of greater frictional losses. At least ten times greater than dual ball bearings.

This bushing in pedals fad must be stopped!

Had a set of wellgo SPD types in the past before I knew better.

Why buy that crap with a DU bushing when you can buy a proper Shimano ball bearing SPD pedals like the m324, a530 or especially the new eh500.

I think buying this would have been simpler http://www.velosolo.co.uk/axle.html

I suppose if you heat an alloy crank with a steel insert you risk the crank eye expanding around the insert whilst the steel insert and axle remain stuck together. Similarly, heat might weaken the glue in a carbon crank releasing the insert. Cold spray on the axle should be safer.

A concern is that too much brute force damages the threaded insert in the crank. Therefore in addition to the force applied we can reduce the force needed through using penetrating lubricants and the judicious application of heat or cold. I would immerse the end of the crank in a thin oil for a day or two, then blast the pedal axle with cold spray and unscrew using a long lever with some impact applied if necessary. Pedals unscrew opposite from the direction of travel and pedaling.