What do I need to know about wheels?

I’ve purchased relatively inexpensive wheels from November Cycles (pacenti rims I believe). They were definitely on the lighter side although not as light as some.

I have a set of Shimano R500 (basically Tiagra) wheels that came with my Cervelo that you can have. I think the rear freehub may not have a ton of life left, but they’re solid wheels. I won’t ever use them again because all my bikes are 11spd at this point and now they’re just clogging up my shed.

@jrenaut 169272 wrote:

So I don’t even know what I don’t know about wheels. But I know many of you know a lot and love talking about it, so I thought I’d give you the opportunity.

I do love thinking and talking about wheels! … But only tubeless, disc wheels. And only non-Shimano hubs.

But seriously, I’d just take TwoWheels up on his offer. If you were going to have some built yourself, I’d probably recommend considering the DT R460 rim laced to Hope hubs. It’s a solid rim, tubeless compatible, and very inexpensive. Or Shimano hubs, if you had good experience with those (I haven’t, but I know others like them). $400-500 is probably the lower end of a decent hand-built wheelset.

Here is a wheel set from Nashbar for $125* if you are willing to wait till 12/29:

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product2_10053_10052_603921_-1

They feature sealed hub bearings, aerodynamic rims, but have 36 spokes both for front and back, so it’s a bit heavy. There are lighter ones with 20 spokes, but they would require more frequent truing. If you can’t wait, here is another option for $180:

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product2_10053_10052_582917_-1

Last Tuesday I ordered parts from them in the early morning, and I received it on Sunday, so it takes 5 days to arrive with the free shipping option.

Edited to add: These wheels have 130mm frame spacing for rear wheels, which is for road bikes. If you have upright hybrid, then don’t order these, look for wheels with 135mm frame spacing. Front wheels always have 100mm spacing for road/Hybrid/MTB, with or without front shock.

I had to replace my wheels last year, the rims had run their course like yours. I went decidedly in the heavy duty camp. Kind of the opposite of the wheels Honz would be interested in Good build quality. I am not the lightest guy and carry a ton of shonky with me to work. Had to tighten up the rear wheel after a couple hundred miles, which is to be expected.

http://www.treefortbikes.com/product/333222404527/1542/Quality-Wheels-Value-XL.html

The cup and cone bearings on the cheaper shimano hubs are not silky smooth like cartridge bearings. But they are easy to service and last a long long time like Mr. Meatmotor says.

@peterw_diy 169305 wrote:

You do crack me up. For under $300 you can get hand-built wheels from Universal Cycles with Tiagra/Deore hubs, double butted DT spokes, and the ever popular and durable Velocity Dyad rims. Switch to the classic Sun CR-18 and straight gauge spokes and it’s under $200. I’ve been riding XT/Salsa Delgado Cross from them and have been very pleased – round, even, true, no touch ups needed, and they even lined up the label with the valve hole per what must be a Velominati rule. But then I don’t break stuff anywhere near as often as you.

I’ll concede that when I said “decent” I had something better in mind. But, yes, to be fair a Shimano hub + Dyad wheelset with double-butted spokes should last a long time, assuming that it’s a good build and you do whatever maintenance Shimano says you have to do for their hubs. It’ll be heavy, but Jon said he’d prefer that side of the triangle.

I wouldn’t think anything with straight-gauge spokes would be considered decent. (Or any of the budget Nashbar wheelsets.)

If you get wheels built by a reputable local builder, you’ll obviously pay more. Low-end November wheels are over $500. The Hunt gravel wheelset sounds like a solid value at ~$460.

@hozn 169311 wrote:

If you get wheels built by a reputable local builder, you’ll obviously pay more. Low-end November wheels are over $500. The Hunt gravel wheelset sounds like a solid value at ~$460.

Do you know anyone rocking Hunt? As far as I can tell they seem to use Novatec hubs and maybe the same OEM as Pacenti for some of the rims? I’ve been curious about some of their gravel wheel builds.