Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

Chris King hubs are simply awesome:  Top shelf quality, durability and price.  It’s great to see a pair of hubs getting well used and standing up to the test of time.

These v-brake hubs were due for a rebuild and saving some weight was a great option so I rebuilt the hubs onto Stan’s ZTR 355 rims with a v-brake track.

Spokes at DT Swiss Revolution on the front and non-driveside rear.  The driveside rear spokes are the stiffer, heavier Competition spokes.  Aluminium nipples on the front wheel and brass on the rear save a few grams and helped these wheel come in at a very respectable 1440 grams.

This is a great pair of ‘everyday’ wheels for all-around road use.

The front hub is an Alchemy ELF laced 20h and the rear is a 28h DT Swiss 240s.  Rims are Kinlin XR-270 and spokes are DT Swiss Revolution.

I used black aluminum nipples on the front and rear non-driveside and used black brass nipples on the driveside where the spoke tension is higher and problems with seized nipples tend to occur over time.

At 1419 grams this is a great weight for a wheelset so durable and versatile and while a pair of wheels like this is not cheap they’re great value compared to the ‘factory’ sets.

I love the new decals – especially in red!

This Campagnolo front hub is a few years old but both it and the Mavic Mach2 CD tubular road rim were in good shape.  The old bladed spokes and seized aluminium nipples were not so lucky though so it was time for a rebuild.  The rear rim had been rebuilt at some point with an Ultegra cassette hub and the Sapim spokes and nipples were still in good shape although a bit low on tension.

I re-tensioned and trued the rear wheel and completely rebuilt the front.

After cleaning the old tubular glue I used DT Swiss Revolution spokes and DT Swiss aluminium nipples.  The hub cleaned up really well which is a testament to the quality of those old Campag bits.  I often wonder if modern components will be around 15 years from now and still be in serviceable and usable condition.

It was really interesting having these wheels in the workshop at the same time as Jarrod’s: Both wheelsets use the exact same components and will ride the same, however from a visual point of view they’re on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The front hub is an Alchemy ELF, the rear a Ligero SLW – both black with white decals.  Spokes are white DT Swiss Aerolite’s and rims are Kinlin XR-270’s.

The white spokes are not cheap but they look great and these wheels should match Serge’s Look 595 really well.

Wheel weights are 609g front, 817g rear for a total of 1426 grams.

I really love building wheelsets like this:  They’re light, stiff, durable, and compared to the offerings from Campy and Mavic, offer great value.  But them I’m a bit biased, aren’t I :-)

These are ’sunny Sunday’ wheels for Neil:  Alloy clinchers which will be used for races, events, and the odd bunchride when the weather looks good.

The front rim is the light weight Kinlin XR-200 and it’s held to an Alchemy ELF front hub with 24 Aerolite bladed spokes.  The rear wheel uses the stiffer XR-270 laced to a Ligero SLW hub.  The SLW is based around a White Ind H2 but is designed for a triplet lacing pattern.  We used 16 DT Swiss Competition spokes on the driveside to increase stiffness and 8 Aerolite’s on the non-driveside.

Total weight was 1397 grams.

I’ve always had a passion for steel bikes and how they are made.  When I was 14 my next door neighbor was building an airplane in his garage – He’d lend me his tubing catalogs and I’d spend hours selecting which 4130 tubes I’d use on frames I’d designed in the margin of my maths notebook, cross-referencing the diameters and wall thicknesses with the Ritchey catalog.  Now I spend hours in front of my laptop looking at frame builders flickr photos.  I love how bikes are made – the obsessive thought which goes into their details and design, and the hours and hours spent fabricating and mitring tubes.   My current favorite is Engin Cycles – his machine shop is hugely impressive, I love his constant use of collets instead of jawed chucks, and he does a great job of commentating his work.

Engin Cycles machining a crownrace

Also check out these guys:

ameade1 – some great unusual bikes

cicli polito – nahbs best in show

bohemian bicycles

Richard Sachs – Does this guy need an introduction?

Engin Cycles – Best workshop EVA

JP Weigle – Old School

Shand Cycles – Has the same Myford lathe as me

Vertigo Cycles – Amazing attention to detail

Matt asked if I could build a wheelset which was stiffer than his pair of American Classic Mag300’s while keeping close to the same weight.  I knew that increasing the lateral stiffness would be no problem but the weight would be a real challenge as the magnesium rims on the Mag300’s are really light.

We settled on a pair of Tune hubs – the Mig 70 front and Mag180 rear.  We could have saved a few grams with a lighter front hub but the Tune uses large, durable bearings and that red colour was too fantastic to pass up for Matt :-)

The rims are the very light Kinlin XR-200’s; one rim was 388g, the other 391g.  Despite this staggering weight these rims are reasonably stiff and I’m finding them to be very durable.

Spokes are DT Swiss Aerolite.  The front wheel is laced 24h with the spoke heads on the inside of the flanges to increase lateral stiffness.  The rear is laced 28×2 both sides.

All up the front wheel was 584g, the rear 715g for a total of 1299 grams.  Enjoy the photos – my favorite bits are the glossy red hubs :-)

These are, to my eyes, the nicest looking pair of wheels I’ve built.

Rims are Kinlin XR-270’s.  The front wheel is laced 20h radial to an Alchemy ELF, the rear is 24h triplet to a Ligero SLW.  Spokes and nipples from from Sapim in Belgium.  Everything is polished silver with some white decals on the rims and hubs and the wheels look just stunning.

Beautiful, just beautiful.