Hi all,

I need to get some hard-wearing wheels for my road/commute bike, and was wondering which wheelbuilders people would recommend. I’ve sent a few emails out to Hewitts, JustRidingAlong and Harry Rowland so far.

Any other suggestions?

where abouts are you based?

EDIT: in terms of recommendations for wheels, something like a Mavic Open Pro or DT 430(?) would seem a safe bet and then a good quality hub with DT supercomps would see you just fine.

I’m in East London. Happy to order from anywhere really, though.

I think this guy is meant ot be good

http://www.harryrowland.co.uk/

Out of the box Mavic ksyriums are very good and strong.

I’ve used Strada wheels a couple of times and got excellent quality at a good price.

What do you define as heavy? have used Fulcrum 7’s when I was 100kg, and carrying 20kg+ in panniers no problems, for handbuilt wheels, Open Pros are great and build easy, not too keen on DT’s after I had RR1.1 start to crack around the spoke holes

Fulcrums are strong and reliable. Love my Racing 3s but probably overkill for a commuter.

18st 8lb. Although as cycling naked through London is frowned upon, I’m probably a good few pounds heavier with clothes and rucksack.

Harry builds epic wheels at a very good price…

He’s a sound bloke to deal with.

I got some Halo tourer rims (something like £17 each) laced to some Shimano hubs by Webbs of Warmley in Bristol – bombproof for me and I’m close to your weight.

I also have some Planet X Model C wheels on my road bike and they are great too – not flexy like lighter and less-spoked wheels.

I’d strongly suggest avoiding factory wheels. the rims are a pain and expensive to replace if you bend them on potholes or similar. plus unless you get a deal, they’re usually less good for the money.

open pros with half decent hubs and db spokes is what I’d recommend.

I got some handbuilt from hewitt with rigida chrina 36h rims. They’ve been bombproof for winter riding, commuting and touring with two bags on the back rack. I’m 15.5 stone.

Thanks for all the info, chaps. I’ve had responses from JRA and Harry. JRA suggest Miche Primato hubs/Ambrosio Excellence or DT 465 rims for around 240-270 quid, but Harry suggests Shimano 105/Ultegra hubs with Rigida DP18s for 200/257 depending on hubs.

Thinking I’ll probably go the 105/DP18 route, simply because they look like the most bombproof option, although am v tempted to ask JRA to do Ultegras with Excellences for something lighter. As I’m going to be using these for commuting and general riding, I’m wary of getting anything too heavy.

Decisions, decisions.

32 spoke mavic open pro’s on hope pro 3 hubs. Think you can get them for about £260 off of ebay. They’ll be pretty light and strong

Harry also builds onto open Pro rims.. Not sure if that will save much weight…

Badfink,

I’m a very similar weight to you, ride on the road and I build wheels too. I used to build at JRA but I’m now at 18 Bikes in Hope. I could definitely help with a wheel build quote for you.

Best bet would might be to ring me at the shop tomorrow (01433 621111) and we can discuss what would be the best bet for you.

Cheers

Matt

Depends how narrow the tyres you want to fit are? I’d got for a set of Shimano hubs (whatever your budget allows) with Mavic A319 rims from Parker International like these
parkers wheels

Would steer away from Rigida Chrina rims, have been using one on the front for the last 8 months in all weather, about 6-7K with a lot of high speed wet decending, and it has a lot of wear, very concave, will be replaced it with an Open Pro CD for this winter

I had a pair of touring rims (sputniks) on xt hubs built for my cross bike – carrying me (16st), the bairn in a child seat and some panniers. Touring specialist in Yorkshire did them – spa cycles I think. Really impressed with them over the potholes, they’ve been spectacularly durable. Not enormous miles, but I have lashed them down some rocky off-road stuff on top of the commuting and they’re great with it.

Nice side-effect is that the rims and tyre combination I have on now is really puncture-proof. Don’t know why, if it’s the wide rim, or the Schwalbe cycloX tyre is just nice and beefy, but it’s been superb for avoiding flats, even on MTB routes. Probably get 3 going to work tomorrow after saying that.

i was just gonna reccommend Spa cycles too.
been using them for 20yrs for wheels………..and hand on heart, never had so much as a bust spoke.

21stone by the way.

Try Darren here:

wheeltech

He builds for strada wheels and knows his stuff!