Wheels

hi all

first of all i'll say hi, been riding a ss roadie for a while now and thinking about the idea of going fixed.

i'm looking for a fixed back wheel and was thinking about trying to build my own. i've pretty much narrowed the hub choice down the system ex as it seems to be decent quality and cheap for a first build. what rims would people recommend, cheapish and good quality?

secondly, does anyone know where i can find rim and hub dimensions to calculate spoke length, and also if there are any decent online shops selling spokes?

sorry for all the questions in my first post.

thanks

mike

rims/spokes, I'd go to sjscycles.co.uk - A good cheap solid rim would be a mavic open pro. If you want something a little deeper, then the cxp22/33 are v good (but more expensive).

SJS have a huge range of spokes, I'd go for the DT Swiss double-butted competitions. Good strong spokes. Also you could get nipples from there (I'd recommend brass - better in the long run), as well as a spoke wrench (if you don't already have one of course).

As for the spoke lengths, try googling spocalc. I think that's what I used - it's basically a huge excel spreadsheet database of hubs/rims with a little script that splurges out the correct spoke lengths when you input the rim/hub combo. Pretty much infallible.

Hope this helps,

your friendly neighbourhood asm

that's great thanks, spocalc seems very useful.

does anyone know of any decent rear wheels that can be bought pre-built that are cheap? this was the main reason i was going to try and build it because it seems to be really hard to get hold of a built one even though all the parts are readily available...

ask mr dogs balls

Edinburgh bicycle coop
Rear for £75 fixed/free altho it would be cheaper to buy bits and get it built up me thinks

yeah, it would be much cheaper.
ambrosio hubs are the same as sys ex/formula i think.

on one do a £15 flip flop hub, might be worth a shot if you want to keep cost down, only had them in black last time i checked

rims/spokes, I'd go to sjscycles.co.uk - A good cheap solid rim would be a mavic open pro. If you want something a little deeper, then the cxp22/33 are v good (but more expensive).

they're the same price, actually

If you need lists of specs for some common fixed hubs have a look on my wheel site

http://www.yogarup.com/wheels/hubs

These are all ones that I have used and I have measured all the specs myself for use with spocalc. There is also a tutorial on my site if you fancy having a go at building your own.

Cyclebasket do double butted ACI stainless steel spokes for 14p each. Not quite as good as the DT Swiss ones but would save you a bit of cash if you're on a budget.

I went to a wheel-building class organised by some guys on this forum last night - got shown how to build a wheel up for £20. Bargain.

thanks for all the help everyone, greatly appreciated, i'm starting to narrow down my choices.

another question though, do spoke nipples come in different lengths and does this matter? such as on cyclebasket they are "ACI 16mm nipples" and it says "required for some deep section rims." Does this mean I need shorter ones if I'm not using deep section rims?

yes they come in different length, no its not really a big deal if your using shallow rims, but make sure that you don't calculate spoke length for long nipples and get short ones.