Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

Here are some finished photos of James’ Le Roi which I stated assembling last week.

The stated seatpost size for this frame was 31.8mm, a strange measurement as the most common size is 31.6mm. With the seat collar removed it was very clear that a 31.6 post was too small so I looked at various options for a shim or 31.8 post. James found a 31.8 Thomson post at Capital Cycles but it was zero offset which was going to compromise bike-fit and it’s diameter was slightly too large for the frame so it became clear that it wasn’t going to work.

I made a shim from brass stock which fits under the collar and allows a 31.6 post to fit perfectly. The lip on the seat collar was too large which was causing the collar to clamp-down onto the post (not the frame) but a few minutes on the lathe reduced the lip to less than the thickness of the seattube. Without the collar correctly machined a 31.6 post would feel snug because of the friction against the collar but could potentially wreck havoc on the frame.  With the shim fitted there is almost no visual indication that it’s there and the performance will be great.

The rest of the build went together quite well and the final result is a very nice looking bike! The heavy Bianchi post will get traded for something a little lighter, and personally I’d love to see that horrible single-bolt Kore stem vanish :-)

7.6kg without pedals and cages (but with a heavy seatpost and stem)

James just purcahsed a Le Roi and has been hanging out for the build to be finished (as you can imagine.) Here are some pictures to keep him going until a 31.8mm post arrives….

It’s always nice to see the bikes which my wheels end up on. This is Serge’s 7.08kg Lynksey with a DuraAce groupset, Chris King headset, bottom bracket and hubs, and Thomson seatpost and stem.  I built the wheels back in May and they were still running to less than one-tenth of a millimetre of trueness.

Serge stayed the night in Wellington and we did a nice hilly ride on Saturday and after puncturing and missing the bunch ended up doing a nice easy 90km on Sunday.

I built some fixie wheels using the eccentric White Ind ENO hub for Ben a while back

Hey Tristan,

Found these on my camera today and thought you’d like to see how the wheel you built was used.

Its been brilliant by the way, gotta love simple ideas executed well.

Training effect of the fixie has been wicked too.. 4hrs round the Wairarapa on most weekends is a good honest ride esp if theres a good head wind.

Have yet to drag steve out on his fixie but then again the mtb is a bit more useful in town!

Cheers,

Ben

This is Chris’ new road bike; a BMC SLC01 Pro Machine with an Easton EA90 SLX fork.

The frame anrd fork were purchased from Capital Cycles and I built it up using Chris’ Chorus groupset and Wheelworks wheels. 7.14kg and ready for the Tour of Southland :-)

I’m busy with wheelbuilding these days so it was a bit of a treat to break out the tools and do a complete bike build.  The build went together really easily – no parts needed heavy modification or custom fabrication which are so often required to get the best out of high end bikes…although a straight-forward build makes life easier I really enjoy that side of things so I found it a bit of a ripoff :-)

The end result is a simply stunning bike!

I have years of pent-up desire to have a custom frame built for me but for various reasons (primarily revolving around NZ dollar exchange rates) I have never pulled the trigger, given my creditcard details and taken my place in a builder’s queue.

Mick did though, and after 9 months of waiting his amazing Llwellyn arrived from Darrell.  I was lucky enough to build the wheels and to help Mick sort out the groupset, parts, and solve the Thomson / 1″ steerer conundrum.

The bike is Molteni orange with polished dropout faces, seatstay bridge etc.  It’s perfect and I’m very, very jealous.