WHEELS

WHY HAND BUILT WHEELS?

Factory wheels are usually machine made with a degree of hand finishing, however, truly hand built wheels have the following advantages: –

  • Ability to create unique & beautiful wheels
  • Precisely tailored to your intended use, physique & budget
  • Better accuracy and more precise spoke tension is possible with hand-building vs machine
  • More time and care invested per wheel compared to large scale commercial production
  • You will know the who built your wheels
  • No unique proprietary parts – spokes will always be available, hubs can be re-used
  • You support a local business!

MY WHEEL BUILDING SERVICE

I started building wheels back in 2010 when I was taught by industry stalwarts Teresa and Alf Webb, who’s experience in wheel building and the bike industry goes back many years. Since then I have honed my art through many wheels built and studying work of the likes of Roger Musson, Bill Mould and Ric Hjertberg.

I build to a target accuracy of at least 0.25mm lateral trueness, 0.5mm radial trueness, 0.5mm dish and spoke tension balance of +/- 10% or better which I measure with a very accurate digital tensiometer. Final results are dependent on the quality and tolerance of the rims, however.

I can supply rims, hubs and spokes, or I will build with rims and hubs you source yourself, giving you access to an infinite selection and best pricing. I can help guide you through the selection of components and deciding on spoke counts and lacing patterns to come up with a design that suits your intended use, physique and budget and also something that looks awesome if that’s important to you.

I also carry out wheel repairs or rebuilds with replacement rims, hubs or spokes and hub servicing/bearing replacement.

WHEEL COMPONENTS

I can supply hubs from DT Swiss, Shimano, Campagnolo & Miche and rims from DT Swiss and Mavic.

Other great brands available online include Hope, White Industries, Industry Nine, Chris King, Bitex and Novatech

Spokes and nipples, including many colours, can be provided from Sapim, DT Swiss, Pillar and Alpina

You can order good value, quality carbon rims direct from Light Bicycle