Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

I’ll be out of the workshop over the weekend as I’m heading up to Auckland for the Solo Race of Six Friends which should be a lot of fun.  I’ll be updating the Wheelworks Racing Facebook page.

It’s been a busy week and I’m behind on a few email replies but I should get through those today – my apologies if you’ve emailed and haven’t heard back from me yet.

I’ll be back Tuesday morning.  Have a great weekend!

The DT Swiss 340 hubs are a slightly heavier, less-finished version of the awesome 240. The freehub body and ratchet rings are the same as the 240 – the best feature of these hubsets. The DT 370 on the other hand uses a heavier, less robust standard pawl mechanism.

I rebuilt these used hubs onto a pair of Crest 29er rims. On the front wheel I used DT Swiss Competition spokes on the disk side and the lighter Revolution spokes on the non-disk. Both sides use aluminium nipples.

On the rear wheel I used the stiffer Competitions and heavier brass nipples on the driveside and lighter Revolutions and aluminium nipples on the non-driveside.

This pair of carbon tubulars is a bit of the old, bit of the new. The light weight 50mm carbon rim build up very stiff and can be used with quite a low spoke count – very modern.

The custom polished DT Swiss hubs and silver Aerolite spokes give a classic appearance which is very unique on this style of wheel. I used silver decals on the rim to match the silver spokes and hubs.

Some special spoke nipples are a small detail which are hidden in the rims and go a low way toward reducing the chance of spoke breakage.

I’ve just glued a pair of Continental Competition tubulars and these wheels will be ready for racing tomorrow afternoon.

Another day, another Peter and another Powertap.

This 24 hole PowerTap SL had already been re-laced to a Velocity A23 rim. Whomever built it had done a pretty poor job – spoke lengths were way too short (have a look at the photo with ~4mm of thread exposed from the nipple!), spoke tensions were very uneven, and the hub had been laced using a different pattern to its original. When a hub is laced the spokes indent the hub flange with use – when rebuilding a used hub you always want to lay the new spokes into the groves left by the old ones. Using a different lacing pattern turns the old indented groves into stress risers and greatly increases the chances of a cracked hub flange.

Peter liked the feel of the 23mm wide A23 but the rim had cracked around a few spokes.  Keeping the above issues in mind I imagine this is more an issue of build quality rather than a shortcoming of the Velocity rim.  Regardless, I suggested the slightly heavier, stiffer Hed C2 rim which will feel very similar to the A23 but should be more durable.

DT Swiss Competition spokes and black brass nipples tie the wheel together.

I love seeing the wheels I build getting put to good use. Daniel sent some photos of his steel Look with a brand-new 7700 DuraAce groupset and the wheels I built for it. What a stunner!

This American Classic built rear wheel had seen better days – a couple of the non-name spokes had broken and been repaired but generally once spokes start to break they will continue.

I rebuilt the PowerTap SL wireless rear hub onto a new Kinlin XR-270 rim. The XR-270 is much stiffer than the AMC 420 which it replaces so there shouldn’t be any more brakepad-rub.

DT Swiss Competition spokes and black brass nipples tie the wheel together.

It’s funny how patterns form with work – often I’ll go a whole week building nothing but mountain bike wheels, then a solid week of road wheels the next. The last 5 wheels and the next 2 are all rebuilds of damaged rims.

I built this pair of wheels for Brent almost a year ago but a nasty crash demolished the front Crest rim. When he ordered the wheels Brent was tossing up whether to use the Crest or Arch – he chose to save a few grams and use the Crest but this time when he sent the hub down and I rebuilt it into a stiffer, more durable Arch rim.

Spokes are new double-butted DT Swiss Competitions with aluminium nipples. I taped the Arch rim and Brent will use the tubeless valve he got with the original wheels.

Unfortunately crashes happen. The front wheel I built last April for Miles had taken a knock and needed a bit of work.

I keep records of each wheel I build based on the number engraved into the rim. This info tells me what spoke lengths were used, the type of grease used on the spoke threads, and a whole lot more detail which helps if a wheel ever comes back for service.

I replaced the rim which had a flat-spot from the impact. Two spokes were slightly damaged – it looks like a pedal had clipped them.

I rebuilt the wheel using the same hub and spokes, replacing just the two that were damaged. New aluminium spoke nipples were used as I don’t like re-using spoke nipples.

The wheel is back to being less than one-tenth of a millimeter away from perfectly true and on it’s way to Auckland.

Kah wanted to drop some weight from the wheels on his Yeti.

His DT Swiss 240s hubs were in great shape so I rebuilt them to a lighter Stan’s Crest rim using lighter spokes and nipples.  I used Revolution spokes on the front and rear non-driveside and stiffer Competition spokes on the rear driveside.  Each of the Revolution is threaded to an aluminium nipple and the Competitions are attached to a brass nipple.

I also fitted the 36 point DT Swiss ratchet rings to the rear hub which save 11 grams and quick engagement of the hub.

A 481 gram weight drop is fantastic with a finished weight of only 1430 grams.

Elina Ussher is doing more pure mountain bike racing in addition to her adventure racing, and is building up a super light new race bike. These 1307 gram wheels will further decrease the weight.

I used Stan’s Podium MMX rims in a custom Arctic White to give the wheels a bit of bling.

Stan’s ZTR hubs and DT Swiss Revolution spokes keep the weight down. Stan’s light weight aluminium rotors reduce the weight even more.