Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

I’ve been a fan of mountain bike tubeless systems since day 1 and I’ve run tubeless on every bike I could including my 20″ bmx. This rim is Stan’s first road-specific rim, the Alpha340, which I wrote about last month.

I laced these super light rims up to a pair of DT Swiss 240s hubs in custom white using DT Swiss Aerolite and Competition spokes. I used the bladed Aerolite spokes on the front wheel and non-driveside of the rear wheel for light weight and good aerodynamics. On the driveside of the rear wheel I used the heavier Competition spokes to add some lateral stiffness to the rear wheel.

Even with a sensible 24h front / 28h rear and using brass nipples on the rear driveside this wheelset tipped the scales at only 1347 grams.

I’ve been riding these wheels for the past few weeks with a pair of normal (non-tubeless) GP4000s’ and inner tubes to see what they ride like, now that I’m used to them I’ll mount the 25c Hutchinson Intensive RoadTubeless tyres and see what the tubeless combo is like.

These are demo wheels so if you’re interested in trying road tubeless for yourself drop me a line.

Gerard found this 16 spoke front wheel too flexible so he approached me about what could be done to increase the lateral stiffness.

For budgetary reasons a new hub wasn’t feasable but I managed to increase the lateral stiffness by just shy of 20% by using a stiffer spoke (DT Swiss Champion rather than Competition) and moving the spoke’s elbows to the outside of the hub flange.

The result is a minimal (21 gram) gain in weight and a good improvement in stiffness.

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.

I’ll be out of the workshop until March 31st.

Erin and I are flying into Melbourne, driving along the coast to Adelaide, and then jetting back to Melbourne in time for the Formula 1.

I’ll be visiting the guys at Baum Cycles and I hope to catch up with Ewen Gellie as well as make my own wine blend at Penfolds in the Barossa Valley.  I bribed DB to let me use his Ritchey BreakAway so I’ll have a bike with me and I hope to get in a few kms.

I will have phone and email while I’m away but I might be slower to respond than usual as I’m not sure each place we’re staying has wifi.

Cheers,

Tristan

These wheels are once again proof that a good quality hub, when looked after, will last a long, long time.  Mark asked me to rebuild his Shimano hubs from his touring bike and we selected the Salsa Delgado as the ideal rim for 35mm tyres and bumpy road.

The spokes are double-butted DT Swiss Competition and are laced with brass nipples.

All-in-all these are a classic pair of wheels which will last another couple of hundred thousand km.

This is a new tyre from Veloflex of Italy – the successor to the ‘Black’ model.  The Corsa uses the same classic file-tread pattern, a Kevlar puncture layer, and a very supple, handmade, 320tpi casing.

As far as I’m concerned these are the pinnacle of road clinchers.  If you run them at ‘normal’ pressure the ride quality, feel, and traction of these tyres is better than anything else I’ve ridden – they’re simply a joy to ride.  Resist the urge to pump them up to 145psi and instead run them the same as your regular tyres – for some reason NZers love to over-inflate their tyres which doesn’t make any sense based on how rough the roads are here!

The tyres are claimed at 180g but, as anyone who has purchased any ‘handmade in Italy’ product knows, Italian scales tend to measure a bit lighter than those based in other countries :-)  True weight averages around 200g.

Of course there must be some downsides: tyre wear isn’t great (I generally get 3000km out of a rear, and 4-5000km from a front) and their puncture resistance is nowhere near, say, a GP4000s so running over a Tui bottle isn’t a great idea.

If you’re looking for a tyre to put on your ‘Sunday’ wheels give these a go.  I’ve got them in stock at $100/each – email or call to order.

Bryce from Cycletech dropped off three of the new 26″ Crest rims for a couple of builds: One pair for Jack’s Pro2 7 speed XC wheels and another for Helen’s upcoming rebuild.

The Crest is basically a new version of the 355 rim with Stan’s updated “Bead Socket Technology” – the external width is the same but the inner width is 2mm wider on the new rim.

Two of the rims were 346 grams, the other was 347 grams – claimed weight is 340 grams. I measured the ERD of all three rims at 543mm.

I’m back from holiday and in the workshop.

I’ve got a couple of really cool wheelsets (like brown King road hubs with white / black spokes)  to build over the next few weeks so I’m excited to be back.

I didn’t do much riding while I was away but I did spend some time in one of these aqua-trikes :-D

I’ll be out of the workshop from December 24th until January 11th and I won’t have email contact during this time.

I’ll be heading through Gisbourne to Te Kaha where I stayed last year riding around the East Cape, then to the Coromandel for a few days of exploring at Hot Water Beach and back through Te Urewera National Park stopping off to see my parents for a few days in Napier.

I’ll be sun-tanned and ready to build wheels upon my return :-)

Have a great Christmas,

Tristan