Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

The Alchemy ELF is a great front hub – it’s combination of wide flanges and light weight mean that it can be laced into very stiff, light wheels.

I paired the ELF with the excelent DT Swiss 240s rear hub.  The 240 has the best freehub body mechanism on the market and is extremely durable.

The spokes are bladed DT Swiss Aerolites laced 20 hole radial on the front wheel and 28 hole 2-cross on the rear wheel.  Spokes nipples are DT Swiss aluminium.

The hub and rim decals are red because that’s the fastest colour :-)

Unfortunately this is the second time I’ve built this wheel for Jeff…a car door was opened on him which did a lot of damage to the bike.  Luckily Jeff came out reasonably well.

The Dual Duty is a 700c rim designed for touring, cyclocross or 29er mountain bikes.  It’s a versatile and well-priced rim and laced to this Hope Pro2 hub it should last a long time…minus being hit by car doors.

Spokes are double-butted DT Swiss Competitions and brass spokes nipples are used for long term durability.

The new Chris King R45 hubs are a work of art.  They take all the good attributes of the old Classic hubs and make them more road-specific.  The freehub body has 45 engagement points rather than 72 to cut down on freehub body drag, and the new freehub body has been designed so that a Campagnolo version can be produced in the future.

The flange geometry is great.  The driveside flange on the rear hub has been pushed outwards (a good thing) and the non-driveside flange sits in a good position for the balance of stiffness and spoke tension.

At 102 grams the front hub is ‘heavy’ compared with some other alternatives but the rear hub is very competitive at 215 grams.

And the best thing about Chris King hubs?  That lovely noise and the great selection of colours.

I built these hubs to a pair of Kinlin XR-270 rims using bladed DT Swiss Aerolite spokes.  I have red Wheelsmith nipples which are a near-perfect match for the red hubs.

At 1444 grams this is a great pair of wheels.

These road and touring wheels are build around the White Ind H2 front hub and H3 rear.  The H3 uses a steel axle, titanium freehub body, and 5 bearings which makes it a very durable hub.  The flange geometry is very good and it builds into a very stiff rear wheel.

The rims for this build are the DT Swiss R465 double-eyelet clincher previously known as the RR1.1.  This is a great alternative to the Mavic Open Pro and is very high quality.

Both wheels are laced 32×3 with DT Swiss Competition double-butted spokes and black brass nipples.

Despite the high spoke count and durable parts these wheels weigh 1744 grams actual weigh – I find it amazing that low spoke-count ‘factory’ wheels of this price are 100-300 grams heavier with much worse durability.

This front wheel is a training wheel for Wes’ wife.  I used a 28 hole DT Swiss RR1.1 rim with single eyelets and laced it to a Velocity sealed bearing front hub.  These hubs are Taiwanese made but are very good quality and use good quality bearings.

I used DT Swiss Competition spokes and matching black brass nipples.  The rim decal is a nice sky-blue.

The DT Swiss rims always build up well and this one was no exception.

The Hope Pro2 is a great mountain bike hub and with more road and cyclocross bikes using disc brakes and 135mm spacing this hub makes great sense for a lot of other applications.

For Hayden I matched 36 hole Pro2 hubs to a pair of Salsa Delgado touring rims which have a rim-brake surface.  One of Hayden’s bikes has discs, the other rim brakes so this way he’s got both bases covered.

Spokes are double-butted DT Swiss Competitions laced three-cross front and rear.  Spoke nipples are DT Swiss brass.

These are not a light pair of wheels but they’re ready for commuting, off-road riding and loaded touring.

Mark sent this used PowerTap SL+ hub to be re-laced into a new wheel.   The hub was 32h but he wanted something quick enough to do a bit of racing on so we used the Kinlin XR-270 rim and bladed Aerolite spokes.

I also built a matching front wheel using a 24 hole DT Swiss 240s hub and the same excellent rim and spokes.  The ‘Radial’ version of the 240s hub has great flange stiffness and will result in a really solid, durable wheel.

At 1688 grams for the pair this wheelset is lighter than most ‘factory’ wheels AND it measure how hard you’re pushing on the pedals :-)

I love rebuilding used hubs – there is just something cool about giving a high quality hub a fresh lease of life with a new rim.  This old Record hub (complete with grease port and original quick release!) was in great shape and survived the impact with a car…the rim didn’t.

James wanted it rebuilt onto a black Open Pro to match the rear wheel.  We used DT Swiss Competition spokes and brass nipples – perfect for a training wheelset.

Record / Open Pro wheels are a bit cliche but they really do build up to be an excellent ‘fit and forget’ wheelset with good durability and reasonable weight.  Just watch out for cars :-)

Two mates from Auckland replacing the same wheelset, weighing the same and wanting the same wheel attributes…right down to decal colour!

These two wheelsets use the DT Swiss 240s hubs.  The Ultegra wheelsets these are replacing had become worn and no amount of servicing is able to bring worn bearing cups back to life.  The sealed bearing DT Swiss hubs will last for years because of their large bearings and when the bearings finally go south the hubs can be taken back to 100% performance simply by replacing them.

The rims are Kinlin XR-270s laced 24×0 front and 28×2 rear.  Spokes are bladed DT Swiss Aerolites and spoke nipples are black DT Swiss alloy.

These wheels will be a huge performance improvement over the previous Ultegra wheelsets and will last a long, long time.

The Velocity A23 rims are a 23mm wide clincher rim designed to open up the tyre and improve handling and comfort by increasing air volume in the tire, as well as improve aerodynamics.  Most clincher rims are 19 – 20mm which is narrower than a standard 23mm tyre.

Velocity arn’t the only people trying this wide rim concept:  HED have the Ardennes, C-4 have the VT-22 and the new Zipp 303 clincher and tubular are 23mm wide.  Stan’s also have a wide, tubeless-ready road and cyclocross rim in the works.

There has been quite a bit of online debate about whether a wide rim will do what is claimed so I wanted to build a pair for myself and for customers to try.

The Velocity rims are both below 430g which is light for such a wide rim.

I used red DT Swiss 240s hubs and laced the front wheel 24×2 using DT Swiss Revolution spokes and alloy nipples.  The rear wheel uses DT Swiss competition spokes on the driveside and Revolutions on the non-driveside.  As I was unsure about how stiff the rims would be considering their light weight so I opted for the stiffer Competition spokes on the driveside but I was impressed with the stiffness of the rims so in future I know what type of spoke will suit different riders.

The wheels built up really well and at 1467 grams are very light.  I’ve managed a few hundred km on them and they feel very nice on the road.  Road ‘feel’ is very good but the thing that impressed me the most was how well the wheels turn-in to a corner.  Gary had a quick ride and was impressed and the wheels are off to Hamish for a few weeks while I’m away.