That's it, I've had enough...

[3narf]

Fair enough, it was buckled when I found the bike at the scrappy, but I had it trued for £7 and it was OK for 500+ miles.

Then a spoke went, so I had it replaced and trued again (£10) but this time it's only done 175 miles and another one has gone (with one that had obviously been replaced recently, that's three that have gone, all on the non-drive side! I wonder why that is?).

Anyway, I'm going to buy some bits and build me some wheels. I could undoubtedly buy some ready-made ones cheaper, but they will have a decent spec, even if they do take me hours and hours to do!

 

[Alan Whicker]

What amazes me about wheels is the difference in price between 26" MTB hoops and 700c ones. Why is that?

 

[Davidc]

If you sort yourself out and learn to build/ rebuild your own you'll be in pocket, based on like for like quality. Probably you'll never reach the standards of a first class wheelbuilder but if you're practical your wheels should be better than mass produced machine built ones after a few tries.

At present I don't practise what I'm preaching but I'm on the lookout for 2 sets of redundant forks to build a wheel jig so I can get back into it again. I'm not happy with the value for money from commercial ones.

 

[3narf]

What amazes me about wheels is the difference in price between 26" MTB hoops and 700c ones. Why is that?

Are 26" ones cheaper? Maybe it's economy of scale...

 

[3narf]

How many broken spokes is it possible to ride with?

I suppose it depends if they are adjacent ones...

 

[bauldbairn]

I'm going to buy some bits and build me some wheels. I could undoubtedly buy some ready-made ones cheaper, but they will have a decent spec, even if they do take me hours and hours to do!

Good Luck - keep us(CCers) up to date with your progress.


I'd love to do it but feel neither bike deserves / needs handbuilt wheels yet - I quite fancy the wheel building course EBC do, just to be on the safe side. -



What components are you going for????

 

[ColinJ]

How many broken spokes is it possible to ride with?

I suppose it depends if they are adjacent ones...

And how many you had to start with, and how rigid your rims are.

I broke one spoke on my 24-spoke rear Mavic Aksium on a forum ride to Blackpool last autumn and the wheel went so out of true that I had to take my mudguard off. I also had to loosen my back brake as far as it would go and take one of the blocks out!


Steve H broke a spoke on a more recent forum ride and he managed to complete the ride without any problems. I think his was a 32-spoke wheel.

 

[3narf]

I've lost three now. Every time I ride the thing one breaks.

Looks like I'm gonna have to buy some wheels off the peg, as I don't have time to acquire all the bits & learn how to build wheels before Friday...