BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Best option is to find an already built wheel unless you have experience building wheels... if you want the wheel rebuilt, go talk to a nearby shop and see what a rebuild would cost. Check out velomine, they have some decently priced wheels via mail-order from IL. Open Pro and A23 are two completely different animals, not sure what you are looking for given the examples.

I'm interested in using this as an excuse to start building wheels, but I definitely get the recommendation to buy a new wheelset. That's probably my smartest move. Could you elaborate a bit more on the differences on the Open Pro and A23? I've seen them mentioned for this type of build on other boards, which is what made me think that they were somewhat similar. They both seem to be based around a box section with the Open Pro being a bit taller and wider.

And by building wheels, I mean repairing and building wheels for myself so I can learn to upgrade and repair when needed.

I don't think it's that hard to replace a rim, which is what you're trying to do, right? You have to find a rim with the same ERD as the rim you're replacing, which will limit your choice. So, what is the rim you're replacing? Once you have the rim, you basically line up the old wheel with the new rim, transfer the spokes one by one, and then tighten and true the wheel. It's not as hard as building a wheel.

That's essentially what I'm thinking of doing. I'm currently running on the Velo Orange PBP 700c rims. I like them, but they are a bit heavy. Although if there is a recommendation for a lighter rim that will do what I need it to do (but has a different ERD), then I'm up for getting new spokes cut and doing a full on wheel build.

If you want to learn the art of wheel building, there's a class on Aug 23 at Free Ride. It's a three part class that will meet for 2 hours each Saturday.

That's awesome. I'll have to check that out.

FWIW. Barnett's bike institue also has a sample chapter from their training manual on wheel truing available. Nice score for a demo chapter, I think it's the complete wheelbuilding section. it's a bit terse and assumes you have a lot of tools but has a lot of tips and pretty detailed instructions. https://www.bbinstitute.com/dl/dx_demo_chapter_17.pdf For some lighter reading... some sheldon brown is handy http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html If you don't have a great truing stand at home, you can always go to kraynicks and use his I think.

Probably be a good idea to start with the class for this project. I did some research on rims and there's not a good fit that I can find, unless you keep the same rim. So you might want to try using a different ERD and that requires a certain amount of skill, sounds like.

I'm thinking the class is the way I may head as well. I've been truing my wheels for a while on my own but never gone through the process of selecting and matching the components (obviously) so it seems like a good place to start. Thanks for all the input everyone.

For a first time wheel-builder, I'd avoid Velocity. Please note that I'm not a regular wheel-builder, I've only built up a handful of wheels, so my collected knowledge is based primarily on what I've read online (I've never built a Velocity rim). So, disclaimer stated, Velocity has a reputation for a poor finish that might create for an annoying experience due to rough drillings, loose metal, etc. I'd personally rather pay someone else to build up a Velocity rim, based on what I've heard about them; while I'm confident in my ability to build up a well made and finished rim, I'm hesitant to touch something that professional wheel-builders like to complain about. Open pro vs. A23. A23 is part of the newer trend of wide road rims, Open pro is an older and narrower design and not part of the current trend. Open Pro's also get a lot of online hate suggesting that Mavic's quality control isn't what it used to be. A23 is a simple design without eyelets while the Open Pro is double-eyelet and double-wall, which means a very strong rim with the load shared between both wall layers. A23 depends on a thicker wall to make the rim more durable... I think the Velocity approach, in general, shaves weight versus an eyeleted rim (it also shaves manufacturing cost, not that their prices reflect this). The main benefit of an eyelet is that it joins the two walls when doubled. The main benefit of an eyelet when used only on the outer wall is that the spoke moves more freely (eyelet acting as a bushing). The benefit of a freely moving spoke is that it's easier to tension (less spoke twisting, reduced need to stress-relief). As for just replacing the rims, don't count on being able to reuse the spokes (besides, you want to replace the spokes with butted spokes if you are trying to shave grams). From what I've seen, advertised ERD is often wrong... so you don't know what you have until it's in your hands, in which case, two rims advertised as the same ERD may be off a few millimeters. That can go either way, too long a spoke in a double wall rim and you have a little bit of room (so long as it's not long enough to puncture the tube, you can go as long as you like, although you aren't saving any weight with that approach); too short, is too short to reach. But, granted you have two equal rims, you could reuse spokes... I just wouldn't count on it without measuring yourself. If you want a classy rim like the VO, you may want to look at the H+Son TB14 which is part of the current trend of wide rims. I'm not sure how its weight compares to the VO without looking it up.

That's great information. Thanks so much for taking the time to to write that. I'm thinking that more info is definitely needed on my end. Thanks again.

http://fairwheelbikes.com/c/forums/topic/2013-rim-roundup/