This is the “her” pair of a his-and-hers wheelset upgrade. Stan’s Podium MMX rims are extremely light and this pair was custom powdercoated in white to make them a bit more girly. Blue spoke nipples and blue decals add some extra colour to the wheels.
DT Swiss Revolution spokes are used on all four corners to keep the weight down to a staggering 1314 grams.
These certainly are a unique pair of wheels!
This is the “his” pair of a his-and-hers wheelset upgrade. Sebastian wanted some new wheels for his Stumpjumper 29er. The Arch rim fit the bill perfectly and I used a combination of Revolution and Competition spokes to get the correct amount of lateral stiffness. Nipples are a mix of brass and aluminium to ensure light weight and great durability.
The black spokes, black nipples, and black rims look stealth.
Rupert sent me two used Record hubs to be laced to new Ambrisio Excelight rims. One hub is the last-generation Record with the silver polished shell, arguably the best looking Campagnolo road hubs to be made, and now as rare as hen’s teeth.
The second hub is a colour I hadn’t seen before – Rupert tells me this hub came from a commemorative Record groupset a few years ago when freewheel hubs were still commonplace.
I laced both hubs using DT Swiss Revolution spokes. The newer hub uses aluminium nipples to save some weight, the older hub will be used as a daily-driver so I used brass nipples.
These hubs are now ready for another decade (or so) of riding.
I originally built this pair of Ultegra hubs onto a pair of Alex R450 rims quite a few year ago on Invoice 0099. The hubs are still in good shape but after a significant impact the rims had seen better days and were re-laced on Invoice 2171.
The 28 hole front and 32 hole rear were re-laced onto DT Swiss RR1.2 / 585 rims. These are the same rim but DT Swiss changed their name half way though the production run so the decals are different.
Spokes are DT Swiss Competition and brass nipples are used for durability.
Sarge wanted a pair of modern high performance wheels for a custom titanium Baum which is on the way. When I visited Baum in Geelong last year I came away very impressed with their paint and finishing so to build a pair of wheels which will sit on such a fantastic bike was truly enjoyable.
Sarge wanted a very simple, understated look. We chose DT Swiss 240s hubs which are the benchmark for a simple, high quality, long-lasting hub. I custom polished the hubs to match the raw titanium Baum. Polishing these hubs takes a long time and is a messy, grimy job (and one which I don’t enjoy doing) however the end result is simply stunning.
Spokes are DT Swiss Aerolite with a combination of brass and aluminium spoke nipples.
The rims are the excellent Velocity A23 which ride beautifully and look stunning.
This pair of wheels for Niner Bikes was built at the same time as the Flow wheels but for a very different purpose.
This pair of wheels is going onto the super light Air9 carbon hardtail.
We used Arch rims because for singlespeed use the extra stiffness of the Arch (over a Crest) pays dividends. To keep the weight down I used Revolution spokes on the widely spaced singlespeed rear hub, and on the non-disk side of the front wheel. Stiffer (and heavier) Competition spokes help add some stiffness to the front wheel – super important on singlespeeds where most climbing is done out of the saddle at low cadence and often with wide bars.
Spoke nipples are red aluminium to match the red Pro2 hubs.
I’m really proud to do all the wheel building for Niner Bikes and I think that the quality of my wheels match the excellent Niner range.
This pair of the new Pro2 EVO hubs is going onto the 120mm travel Rip9 freeride bike. Laced with DT Swiss Competition spokes and the sturdy Flow rims this wheelset will perform very well and should last nearly forever.
One of the great things about a Rohloff hub is that they just simply don’t wear out.
I re-laced this used Rohloff onto a white Arch rim with black DT Swiss Competition spokes and brass nipples.
Mike matched the rear hub to a new Hope Pro2 EVO 20mm thru-axle front hub.
One of the key elements of building a Rohloff hub is that the large flange diameter means the spokes enter the rim at a very steep angle. Some spoke are better than other at coping with these angles, and while I’ve felt this difference I’d never measured it before. So out of curiosity I did this quick test:
An old rim was clamped to the bench on top of a sheet of A3 paper. This particular rim is an old American Classic CR350 which should be representative of most rims.
I used a big ol’ hunk of aluminium square bar to hook the spoke’s end and keep it straight.
Using a sharp pencil I scribed a line along the paper.
Then using a protractor did my best to measure the angles.
Ladies and Gentleman: your podium
1st: Wheelsmith with 19 degrees included angle.
2nd: DT Swiss with 15 degrees
3rd: Sapim with 14 degrees
Not a perfect scientific test but it backs up what I felt from using each of these nipples.
I love red and white wheelsets – they always come out looking great.
Franck needed a pair of durable wheels for his riding in Wanaka. Stan’s Arch rims fit the bill perfectly and I laced them with DT Swiss Competition spokes to a pair of bright red Hope Pro2 hubs.
The front hub is QR15 and the rear is a 10mm bolt-up – essentially the same axle system used in their awesome singlespeed / trials hubs.
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