Seeking wheel advice

[cmj7gh]

Happy Friday! I recently relieved DKel of his old Wolverine frame, and now I’m deep in the weeds of researching how to turn that frame into a full bike that I can take on gravel, on overnight trips on the towpath, and to the occasional cross race.

I’ve spent a while talking to the (super helpful) folks at Bikenetic and I think I’m going to end up outfitting it with a SRAM Rival 1×11 drivetrain, and I have almost everything figured out except for the wheels.

They recommended going with some pre-built 29er wheels, but they estimated the set of wheels + tires comes out to ~$850, which would put me over my budget.

I’m thinking about trying to start out with a cheap wheelset that will get me rolling and leave some of my budget left over to buy a framebag or something, with the expectation that I’ll upgrade the wheels soon-ish down the line. I don’t know much about wheels, so I’m a bit in over my head here. I do know that the frame takes quick release wheels and disc brakes, and that the 11-speed cassette requires a special driver. Any advice where I could start looking?

I also like DIY projects and have done a bit of research on building my own wheels. The youtube videos make it look tedious but easy, but it requires some special tools – is that even worth considering as an option to save some money?

Thanks for the help!

Topic

[EasyRider]

I agree, boutique hubs aren’t really a bang-for-the-buck upgrade for a rough stuff bike like a Soma Wolverine. But I’d love to have shiny Phil Woods on a singlespeed or fixed gear bike. Yessir.

I didn’t want to go off topic in my response to the OP, but part of why I asked about what tires would be used is that given a limited budget, I’d rather ride inexpensive, durable wheels and and the nicest tires I can afford, or find. It seems like backwards logic, since tires must be replaced regularly, and a well-cared for wheelset can last for a decade or more. But my experience is that cheapo crummy tires will bring a nice new wheelset down to their level.

[Mario20136]

@hozn 156391 wrote:

I don’t understand people buying Chris King / Phil Woods / etc. hubs, honestly. At least with Tune, you’re saving some weight … but $2/gram is pretty expensive weight. But, yeah, I know you can walk into a store and spend $800 on a set of alloy wheels, but that is crazy use of money to me.

I agree with you. I also think it’s somewhat frivolous to an extent. I ride close to about 6k/year and I know I go through chains, cassettes,
brake pads (lots of pads), couple bottom brackets, washing/cleaning the bike, commuter gear, and dishing/truing wheels like crazy. However, I do spend my money wisely on nutritional meals in lieu buying expensive alloy/carbon wheels. I guess to each his own.

Happy Riding.

[anomad]

I finally retired a pair of RSX hubs this summer I had used continually since 1998. Got my monies worth out of those…

[ctankcycles]

Ha well you’re talking to a guy who has an appreciation for expensive hubs and bottle cages so…

I actually bought a couple Arundel Dave-O cages when they first came out around 2000 and they’re still going strong. Quality product made in the USA that lasts. Which I think the same can be said for many of the hub manufacturers I mentioned. I completely agree that King or something comparable makes little sense on a Wolverine build. But if I’m dropping a large sum on a high end bike then I don’t think hubs in this range are an unreasonable expenditure. I’ve had a set of King Classics since 1998 with many 10s of thousands of miles on the original bearings and still roll smooth with yearly rebuilds.

The question is do you have a $60 bell to go with your $60 cages?

[hozn]

@ctankcycles 156410 wrote:

The question is do you have a $60 bell to go with your $60 cages?

Ha, yes I do. though I bought my Spurcycle back on Kickstarter when it was a more “reasonable” $45 for the black one.

I would probably buy one of the Crane if faced with that choice today, but the Spurcycle is a great bell, though.

And to be fair, I have had some really bad wheel experiences. Especially factory wheels or cheap eBay “hand-built” (domestic) options. Broken spokes, detensioning during rides, etc. So I definitely think going cheap is not wise. But then there is Honda vs Porsche and so far I am happy with Honda wheels.

[Harry Meatmotor]

Speaking as a mechanic, I’d say the biggest question you need to answer with regards to boutique hubs is how many times do you want to rebuild them? I’ve trashed shimano 105 hubs and rebuilt them mostly yearly and no matter what they’re still a bit grumbly. I’ve replaced bearings in Bitex and Novatec hubs, and yes, they’ll spin smooth, but only for a season (or less, in the rain/CX). I’ve rebuilt enough CKing hubs to know that if the owner got 20k miles out of them over 5+ years, I can resurrect them for another 20k miles and they’ll be spinning as smooth as the day they came off the production line. The machining tolerances and quality of materials you’re paying for make a difference when the total milage gets into the multiple tens-of-thousands.

That being said, the Bitex and Novatecs offer incredible value for the dollar. I run them on everything but my commuter bike.

[ctankcycles]

@hozn 156412 wrote:

Ha, yes I do. though I bought my Spurcycle back on Kickstarter when it was a more “reasonable” $45 for the black one.

I would probably buy one of the Crane if faced with that choice today, but the Spurcycle is a great bell, though.

And to be fair, I have had some really bad wheel experiences. Especially factory wheels or cheap eBay “hand-built” (domestic) options. Broken spokes, detensioning during rides, etc. So I definitely think going cheap is not wise. But then there is Honda vs Porsche and so far I am happy with Honda wheels.

I’m not a fan of factory wheelsets but for a budget wheelset I wouldn’t consider Velomine a cheap eBay “hand-built.” They’re a real shop in IL with an online store and a solid reputation (lots of positive reviews online). I have four wheelsets from them and they’ve all been solid. One with Formula hubs to Archetypes (singlespeed commuter), another with 105 to H Plus Son TB14 (88 Paramount), another with XT 6-bolts to 650b Velocity Blunts (AWOL), and a set on my wife’s Soma Buena Vista with 105 to A23s. All of these were somewhere between $199 and $229 which has proven to be a great value given the quality of the parts and build.

While these wheelsets have been great and I think are appropriate for the bikes they’re attached to, I can also appreciate the CK R45s to Belgiums on my Geekhouse road bike, the set of T-11s to Archetypes on another road bike, and the old set of King Classics that are on their fourth set of rims and currently on my cx/gravel bike. And with a Geekhouse cx/gravel on the way I had Matt Moore at District Cycle Works build up a set of Industry 9 to Belgium +. I also highly recommend Bill Mound at Spokes in Alexandria and the good folks at Bikenetic. I’ve had wheels build buy all those mentioned and they’ve all been great.

[Greenbelt]

I’m getting my next set of wheels from this guy I think (he’s back in DC, hopefully for a good while):
http://bicyclecomplex.blogspot.com/2013/01/merlyn-townley-master-mechanic-speaks.html

[hozn]

Yeah, I didn’t mean to imply that Velomine is a bad option. I think my wheels were from some rocky mountainbike shop. They were terrible. I had to ship them back to get them fixed. That was almost the last time I let someone else build me wheels. It should have been the last time

Sent from my LEX727 using Tapatalk

[Steve O]

@ctankcycles 156410 wrote:

I actually bought a couple Arundel Dave-O cages when they first came out around 2000 and they’re still going strong.

Maybe this is a naive question, but why wouldn’t a water bottle cage (unless it’s plastic) last forever? It’s not like it’s a moving part.

[Emm]

@Steve O 156456 wrote:

Maybe this is a naive question, but why wouldn’t a water bottle cage (unless it’s plastic) last forever? It’s not like it’s a moving part.

aesthetics? I put metal coffee cups into my cages during my commute, which scratches them up over time and eventually makes them ugly. So I replace them every so many years, or switch them out to coordinate with my handlebar tape when I change the color of that.

You could probably break one in a bike crash, but I haven’t crashed hard enough to find out yet.

[huskerdont]

@Steve O 156456 wrote:

Maybe this is a naive question, but why wouldn’t a water bottle cage (unless it’s plastic) last forever? It’s not like it’s a moving part.

I’ve broken aluminum ones and carbon ones. I haven’t broken any that are plastic, but I’ve thrown them out after finding they were too flexible to allow the bottle to go back in easily.

[drevil]

@Steve O 156456 wrote:

Maybe this is a naive question, but why wouldn’t a water bottle cage (unless it’s plastic) last forever? It’s not like it’s a moving part.

In mountain biking, you inevitably get grit between the bottle and cage which will act like sandpaper. After hundreds of insertions and removals, it wears through (in my case, aluminum and titanium). I’ve also seen a few crack at the welds.

[Steve O]

@huskerdont 156462 wrote:

I’ve broken aluminum ones and carbon ones.

There’s your problem. My cast iron ones are not breakable.

[ctankcycles]

@Steve O 156456 wrote:

Maybe this is a naive question, but why wouldn’t a water bottle cage (unless it’s plastic) last forever? It’s not like it’s a moving part.

Arundel Dave-O cages are carbon and sometimes carbon, like most materials, fails. I’ve seen plastic cages crack in extreme cold, steel and ti cages crack at a weld, and carbon cages crack because carbon.

[Author]

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