Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

The first item of the 2011 Wheelworks kit has arrived!

White bottle because it’s PRO

Red lid because red is faster. Don’t underestimate the importance of fast hydration.

$20 for two bottles shipped anywhere in NZ.  Email me your courier address to get things started.

This is the first public sighting of the new Wheelworks “W” logo…over the next month I’ll be transitioning to this updated design.  The old W has served me well for the past 4.5 years and it was time for a few tweaks – more on that in a later blog post.

This wheel is to replace a damaged front from a pair I built Hamish a few years ago.

The hub is a 65 gram Alchemy ELF. The rim is an XR-300 and the spokes are CX-Rays to match his existing rear wheel.

The ELF is a few grams lighter than the Tune Mig70 which it’s replacing.

Peter needed a pair of wheels for road training and events such as Taupo > Rotoura, as well as duathalons and triathalons.

I built this pair of wheels using the XR-270 rim which is strong and stiff enough for training yet light enough for racing.

We used DT Swiss 240s hubs which are amazingly durable and very light.

For the front wheel I used 24 DT Swiss Revolution spokes with aluminium nipples.  The 28 hole rear wheel’s left side uses Revolution spokes and aluminium nipples and the drive-side uses stiffer DT Swiss Competition spokes and brass nipples.  The 24/28 spoke count ensures there is plenty of durability for training as well as racing.

The decals are a custom sparkly silver which looks really good.

I love these all-silver wheelsets. This pair of 240s hubs took a long time to polish so they shine but the end result is a stunning pair of wheels.

Silver CX-Ray spokes are laced 20 hole front and 28 hole rear.  I used a 28 hole rear wheel because these will be daily-drivers and a few extra spokes adds a little long term insurance with a minimal weight penalty.

Silver XR-270 rims complete the 1449 gram build.

I’ve been lucky enough to build a few pair of wheels for Serge over the years – first a pair of white spoked wheels with a triplet Ligero rear hub, then a pair of red R45 hubs and Kinlin rims which went onto his Lynskey Helix.

This pair of wheels uses gold Chris King R45 hubs matched with gold Kinlin rims and gold spoke nipples. Spokes are silver DT Swiss Aerolites.

This is another of the new Shimano DH-S501 dynamo hubs and was also paired to a Rohloff rear wheel which I built a few weeks ago.

This wheel uses the excellent Salsa Delgado rim. The Salsa rims are great for everyday use and have a good balance of reasonable weight and great durability.

This is the new Shimano DH-S501 dynamo hub which produces 3W at 6 Volts. I built the rear Rohloff wheel for this bike a few weeks ago with a matching Semi 29er rim.

The Center Lock hub will accept a disc rotor which makes for a great supercommuter setup.

Tim’s a big fella and does HUGE kms on his bike while training for super-endurance rides. He’d gone through a few wheelsets and many spokes before we met and with this new wheelset all of those worries will be behind him.

I used the White Ind H2 front and H3 rear hubs for this wheelset. The White is a great hub for larger fellas as it has wide flange spacing which builds into a stiff wheel, a titanium freehub body which doesn’t marr from load on the cassette cogs, and a steel axle supporting 5 bearings. Remarkably at 255 grams it’s still a very light hub.

The rims are Kinlin XR-270 in a 24 hole front and 32 hole rear. All spokes are DT Swiss Competition with aluminium nipples on the front wheel and brass on the rear.

At 1626 grams these wheels weigh 400 less than some of the wheels Tim’s been destroying yet I’m confident he’ll get many years and thousands of kilometers of trouble-free use from them.

Fresh from the lathe – custom polished DT Swiss 240s hubs with black decals. These will be built into a pair of polished XR-270 rims using silver CX-Ray spokes.

Sorry for the lack of website updates lately – things have been flat-out and the update have suffered. I’ll be back on top of things later in the week and will catch up on some of the awesome wheels I’ve been building lately.