Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

Almost all modern hubs use sealed cartridge bearings  – only Shimano and the higher end Campy hubs use loose ball bearings.

Despite these hubs being common-place the tools required to correctly remove and replace the bearings are not.  To correctly install the new bearings they need to be gently pressed into place by their outside race – this prevents the force required to install the bearing from being transmitted though the balls and cages and damaging the new bearing before they’re even fitted.  Most bike shops try to accomplish this by using a socket which ‘closely’ matches the outer bearing race – I’ve seen a lot of high end hubs damaged by botched installations (and I have to confess to damaging a hub myself in my younger days!)

This tool is something I built to make sure cartridge bearings are installed correctly every time without any damage to the hub.  I  machine special press adaptors to suit each type of bearing on a lathe, and the center pin guides these adaptors and keeps them (and the bearings) square to the hub shell.   After applying a thin coat of Loctite 641 to help lubricate the bearing while installing I use a soft-faced hammer to gently tap the bearings into place.  Because the adaptors and bearings are held square to the hub there is no risk of damage to the new bearings or the hub.

I have bearing adapters to fit most of the common hubs I work on and if I encounter something a bit strange then I machine a new adapter to suit.

Some pics showing a Tune Mag180 rear hub.  The plastic box in the background keeps all the bearing adapters organized.

pics

The press tool's base clamped in the vise	The lower bearing adapter on the base
The freehub body resting on the lower adapter	The new bearing (coated in Loctite 641) and upper adapter in place
The driver fitted on top. The top of the driver is gently tapped with a soft-faced hammer	The bearing fitted
The hub sitting on the lower adapter	A different upper adapter fitted for the larger bearing on the driveside of the hub
The driveside bearing fitted	All done!

I love building these ZTR Race rims…there is something seriously cool about a rim with no warranty, special building instructions, a list of ‘incompatable’ hubs, and a rider weight limit :-D

290 gram alloy rims are amazing – this is lighter than most of the current carbon mountain bike rims and the lateral stiffness and durability of these rims is amazingly good.

This particular pair is laced to limited edition white DT Swiss 240s hubs with DT Swiss Aerolite spokes.  Wheelset weight is an amazing 1280 grams.

The front wheel is fitted with a 160mm Shimano XTR rotor and the rear uses a 140mm model to save a few more grams.

This hub is seriously old – apparently around 20 years ago it was laced to a Mavic track tubular and used on the front of Mike’s cyclocross bike.  The 371g rim wasn’t the stiffest thing in the world (I wonder why?!?) and the lack of a decent brake surface plus two decades of riding meant it was time for a rebuild.

By using the stiffer XR-300 rim and CX-Ray spokes we added about 50g to the wheel’s weight but have made a huge improvement in lateral stiffness.

Although the hub shell was a bit tarnished the Phil bearings were in amazing shape and still smooth.  The old Campy quick release was a touch rusty but still opened and closed well…I wonder if today’s components will last as well?

Here is another great pair of Stan’s ZTR Olympic rims, this time laced to Shimano’s excellent XTR hubs.  This year’s XTR hubs have a quicker engagement freehub body and larger diameter axles.  This same design is carried down to XT but without the titanium freehub body which this hub uses.

The Stan’s ZTR Olympic rims have the newer decal style.  Personally I think these decals look more modern but the red colour will smudge slightly if you use turpentine – I use turps to clean the bed of the rim before applying the air tight yellow tape so I need to be careful not to get any on the decals.

Spokes for this build are DT Swiss Revolution for the front and rear non-driveside and stiffer DT Swiss Competitions on the rear driveside.  The Revolution spokes use alloy nipples and the Competitions have brass to add a bit of durability to the driveside.

I really love these White Ind eccentric hubs – it’s a great way of converting a normal road frame to be used with a fixed gear or single speed.  The quality of all White Ind products is really high but the pricetag on these hubs is quite reasonable .

This hub is laced 32×3 to a Mavic Open Pro rim with double butted DT Swiss Competition spokes and brass nipples.  The perfect winter wheel :-)

Nice to see a pair of Wheelworks wheels being used creatively.

Good use for a pair of wheels if you ask me :-)

Thanks to Jeff for the pic.

Stan’s ZTR Olympic rims usually come in at around 345g but lately I’ve had a few come in at between 333 and 335 grams…this particular rim was 335 grams and laced to the 145g Tune King hub the complete wheel laced up at 630g – not quite as light as Marco’s but still pretty damn light!

I love the effort Tune put into making their products lighter – the non disc side of the hub has been releaved to save a few grams, and the back-side of the disc tabs are machined to save a few more.

All the Stan’s rims I sell include the yellow spoke tape and a tubeless valvestem…this allows the wheel to be used either with an inner tube or run tubeless.

These 45mm rims are a reasonably new addition to the Edge lineup, splitting the 38mm and 68mm models.  Edge offer all of their rims in three variants: 1.xx 2.xx and a clincher.

The 1.xx is the lightest of the bunch – they use a different layup and less material to make a lighter rim.  The 2.xx is heavier and stiff, well suited to heavier riders or abusive riding like cyclocross.  The clincher is the heaviest of the bunch but (duh) fits clincher tyres.

For this pair both of the 1.45 rims were below 300 grams and laced to the Alchemy Elf front hub and Ligero SLW rear the pair came in at exactly 1100 grams.  Spokes are Sapim CX-Rays and nipples are Pillar internal.

I got this email from Patrick the day after he collected them :-)

Didn’t take long for them to hit the road J

Once I got past riding overly carefully and worrying about every little noise (that all sound so much louder with the carbon rims) and the clicky freehub, was very nice. Felt very stiff cornering, accelerating and hitting bumps but seem to smooth out the rough chip seal – not sure whether to credit that to the rims or the tubs.

Although I wasn’t at anything like top effort I still did two consecutive climbs up makara hill just under my PB. Probably more to do with having had a couple of days off than the wheels but was good whatever the reason. Descending was great too – again was taking it a bit easy but felt very precise through the corners and the brakes felt excellent.

In celebration of me getting older (and hopefully wiser) I’m having a beer at the top of the Akatarawa’s.  What better way to spend a Friday evening than doing a 160km night ride? :-p

The plan is to leave the office in the Wellington CBD at 6pm.  We should hit the top of the Aka’s by 8:30pm and have time for a beer before dropping into Waikanae and heading back to the CBD.  All going well it will be a nice clear night so hopefully minimal lighting will be required up the Aka’s.  If it’s pouring with rain we’ll push back to Saturday night.

Here are the rules:

1. You must have a beer to drink at the top.  Unlike the locals we will not be leaving the empties up there so be prepared to take it with you to Waikanae.
2. You must have front and rear lights with enough battery power to last 6 hours.  There are no streetlights for most of the trip and there will be traffic.
3. You must have suitable clothing.  It will be cold and could rain so a jacket is required.

When: Friday May 8th, 6pm

Rain date: Saturday May 9th, 6pm

Where: The office in Wellington – let me know if you need directions

Please RSVP  tristan@wheelworks.co.nz :-)

The Kinlin XR-270 is well suited as a low spokecount rim but it’s excellent stiffness and durability also make it well suited for training wheels.  Nick needed a pair of daily-use wheels which would last forever and not blow the budget – he already had the Ultegra hubs so I laced them onto a pair of XR-270 rims with Sapim Laser spokes.

Normally for someone Nick’s size I would have used a lower spoke count for these rims (even as training wheels) but the Ultegra’s don’t go any lower than 28/28 so I made the 28 front, 32 rear spoke count work by using the lightest possible spokes to reduce the wheel’s stiffness and improve on ‘feel.’  Sapim Lasers are a similar spoke to the DT Swiss Revolution: 2.0mm at the head and thread and double-butted to 1.5mm in the center section.  They’re difficult to build with, especially on the rear driveside, because they wind-up a lot under tension, but once correctly built they will last a very long time.  With no desire to save weight we used brass spoke nipples to add to the durability.

Ultegra hubs are a great do-all hubset: They’re not especially light but they last very well and are easily servicable.

Total wheelset weight was 1724g – about the same as a mid-level pair of Ksyriums but with a lower pricetag and much greater durability.