Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

The Alchemy ELF and ORC are wide-flanged hubs which build into very stiff wheels. The front hub is a very light 65 grams, the rear 225 grams. These hubs are very high quality and are machined in Boulder, Colorado.

I laced these hubs to silver XR-270 rims using bladed Sapim CX-Ray spokes and silver alloy nipples.  The CX-Ray spokes are very light and their bladed profile helps to reduce aerodynamic drag.

The result is a 1399 gram pair of racing and training wheels with a classic-yet-modern look.

Fiona sent down this PowerTap mountain bike hub to be rebuilt into a better quality rim and have a matching front wheel built.

I used the Stan’s Alpine rims which are well suited to training and race use and are a few grams lighter than the Crest’s. For the front hub we used the Stan’s ZTR which is upgradable to 15mm at a later date should she want to change suspension forks.

The spokes are a combination of DT Swiss Competition and Revolution to ensure that the wheels are suitably stiff and are durable enough for training.

For racing Fiona has a pair of very light ZTR Race wheels which I built for her a few years ago and which she used to set the woman’s record at the Karipoti. To ensure these two pairs of wheels could be easily interchanged I used some special tools to accurately measure the position of the cassette and disc rotors. I then used the lathe to make some adjustments to the Center Lock adapters on the race wheels to line the rotors up. They’re now within 0.05mm so there won’t be any need to re-tune the gears or re-adjust the brakes between wheelsets.

This EA70 had cracked where the spokes enter the rim at a couple of holes.  The factory EA70 rims are not currently available (and are very expensive for what they are) so I rebuilt the wheel using an XR-270.

The factory spokes were actually too long and protruded from the top of each nipple by about 1.5mm.  When I compared the two rims the ERD of the Kinlin rim was slightly larger so I knew I’d be able to use the XR-270 as a replacement.

I rebuilt the wheel using the original spokes as they were in good shape but with new spoke nipples – silver brass on the driveside and black aluminium on the non driveside.

The XR-270 is visually very similar to the original EA70 rim so once on the bike only a very keen eye will be able to spot the change.

For rebuilt jobs I always take close-up photos before I remove the old spokes – this way I can see which way the wheel was laced and any small details which might be handy when re-lacing.

Mike needed to replace his Shimano R500 wheels – they’d done way too many km and the bearings were shot and the spoke tensions were all over the show.

This pair of wheels is strong enough for 400km / week of training yet light enough for club racing and other events where Mike doesn’t want to use tubulars.

The hubs are custom white Novatec units with two spokes at each valve also done in white.  The rims are the excellent Kinlin XR-270 with white decals and Mike’s surname written in script.

This was an interesting repair of an Ambriosio WS23 rear wheel which was breaking spokes – the rim uses paired spokes, yet at the hub the holes are evenly spaced.  This means that rather than all the spokes on one side of the wheel being the same length, this wheel needs the leading and trailing spokes to be of slightly different lengths yielding 4 different lengths of spoke for the single wheel.

Once I’d calculated the spoke lengths and taken care to get each length of spoke laced in the correct spot the wheel was surprisingly easy to tension and true.

The end result is a wheel which is probably truer than when it left the factory, and with high quality spokes and a great build quality which means it won’t break spokes again.

Anthony needed a pair of road wheels which would be stiff enough for his 95kg and not break spokes like his current wheelsets.

The White Ind H2 and H3 hubs are a great starting point for a wheelset like this: The rear hub has very wide flange spacing which builds into a stiff wheel, and the steel rear axle and 5 bearing design adds some durability. The freehub body is titanium meaning that the cassette cogs do not dig into it like an aluminium freehub body. Despite the steel axle and extra bearing the rear hub is only 253 grams so they still build up into a light pair of wheels.

With a focus on durability I used 28 spokes on the front wheel and 32 on the rear wheel, and used DT Swiss Competition spokes all-around. The front spokes nipples are aluminium, the rear are brass.

The rims are Kinlin XR-270 which are very well suited to this task.

All-up the wheels weigh 1664 grams so they’re around the same weigh as Ksyrium SL’s yet these have much more lateral stiffness and will last for years.

Ed’s off to France next year to ride Paris-Brest-Paris and he needed a durable pair of wheels. I rebuilt his Ultegra hubs which had been laced to a very heavy pair of CXP-30 rims to a shiny new pair of Mavic Open Pros.

The hubs were both 32 hole so I used the very light DT Swiss Revolution spokes on the front wheel to reduce the wheel’s stiffness and weight and improve the ‘feel.’ On the rear I used the stiffer Competition spokes. I used brass nipples all-around for a little extra durability.

It’s nice to rebuild a used pair of hubs and give them a new lease on life!

I find repairing ‘factory’ wheels to be very fascinating – you can tell a lot about how a wheel was built, why it was designed the way it was, and even guess at some of the processes which built it.

This Reynolds, like many of them, constantly loosened spokes on the rear non-driveside which would cause the wheel to go out of true. I loosened off the tension on each spoke and gradually rebuilt the wheel to full tension and trued it. Nothing I did is rocket surgery but the end result is a wheel which will stay true for many years to come and won’t shake it’s own spokes loose.

This rear wheel is for Tim at Freeload - he’s got a pair of singlespeed wheels I built for him and wanted a matching rear wheel with a standard 9 / 10 speed hub.

The Arch 29er rims are super durable and will stand up to loaded touring and a bit of extra weight strapped to a Freeload.

The spokes are silver double-butted DT Swiss Competition and black brass nipples.

Like all of the Stan’s wheels I build this one was delivered with the yellow tubeless tape and a tubeless valve ready for either tubes or tubeless use.

I recently gave Andy the use of the Stan’s tubeless road wheels to compare to his existing Wheelworks wheels and the other wheelsets he’s owned and ridden.  Andy is a Wellington-based rider who has competed at the top levels of NZ cycling including the Tour of Southland, Tour of Wellington and National Champs.  He’s very fit, extremely strong, and averages 400-500km / week this time of year.

Tubeless road wheels review

It’s fair to say I was a bit sceptical on the road tubeless concept before I tried it. The benefits that tubeless offers to MTB riders, the ability to run tyres at low pressure without the risk of pinch flats, didn’t seem to be particularly applicable on the road. Even NZ’s roads aren’t rough enough to cause pinch flats on road tyres! Once I found out the tubeless tyre comes at a weight premium to a standard clincher (330g for the Hutchinson training tyres on the road tubeless versus apx. 280g for a light clincher/tube combo), thus mitigating any rotating weight advantage that removing a tube offered, I was even less convinced.

All of this changed pretty quickly though.

Even on my first ride on them, a 20 minute roll home, I could tell there was something about these wheels. Further riding confirmed my initial instincts.

First off, the wheels are super comfortable. Running the 25mm tyres at 90psi makes for an unbelievably comfortable riding experience. On the newly surfaced but unbelievably rough Miramar peninsular road I glided over the bumps smoothly. When using a more traditional wheel set I would find myself bumping and bouncing over the surface. When you’re doing a long ride this additional comfort is a big plus.

More impressively though, in addition to being comfortable, the lower pressure paradoxically makes the wheels easier to spin on rough surfaces. Rather than having to use energy to propel the bike forward after it lost momentum bouncing around, the bike smoothly rolls over any bumps. This energy saving was really noticeable on rough surfaces. At times I found myself deliberately riding on rough surfaces just because I could. I especially enjoyed this when riding with others who were on traditional wheels. Even on smooth tarmac the wheels rolled well, perhaps not as well as 120psi tyres but not dramatically worse. Regardless, in Wellington most of the time the road isn’t tarmac so the benefit heavily outweighs this.

The rims (and total weight) of the tubeless wheels are very light which helps these wheels spin and accelerate quickly. I was very impressed here, especially given the weight of the tyre being used. Running a softer and wider tyre also helps with grip. Something much appreciated during Wellington’s cold and wet winter. These tyres certainly felt stable in corners. Something that I can’t always say about others I use.

In addition to training, I used the wheels for a race down to the Wainui coast and back. This stretch of road is pretty rough so was a good opportunity to test the wheels. I raced with the tyres at 90psi, significantly lower than I would normally. I was a bit worried that the (lack of) pressure might be more noticeable in a race but the wheels performed admirably, rolling well and (as you would expect) smoothly on the rough surfaces. The wheels were plenty stiff enough for my 70(ish) kg frame under the accelerations, attacks and sprints that the race demanded.

Overall, despite my initial reservations I was well impressed by the wheels. So much so that I am reluctant to give them back. I would love to try them out with Hutchinson’s racing tubeless tyre which would shave another 60 grams per wheel of rotating weight off the package. Without doubt this would make them spin and accelerate better without compromising comfort.

You really should try these for yourself.