Eugene, Oregon Custom Wheel Builder?

[Wiley J]

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster. I've been to some shops in town, and whenever I bring up the idea of having a wheelset built, they act disinterested and try to sell me factory pre-builts because they are "better". I have noticed that there are a few of you on this forum from the Eugene area. Can any of you recommend a wheel builder in this area?

[Wiley J]

I thought of some more questions. Why do you suppose shops are not interested in building wheels? Don't have the time? Don't make as much money on custom wheels? No one knows how anymore? Could it be that after you buy all the individual parts, they cost more than some pre-builts? Or are the factory wheels really better? I like to take my bike with me on vacation, and I just want some wheels that can be serviced easily anywhere I go. I was recently on vacation and broke a spoke on the FSA wheels that came on my Litespeed. I had a hard time finding a shop that had an ordinary double butted black spoke the right length. Don't some shops have a machine that cuts spokes and threads them, so they don't have to carry lots of different lengths?

[SoCalSteve]

I can answer a few of your questions...

More than likely, its the path of least resistance when selling pre-built wheels. Just easier...Oh yeah, ignorance and whats trendy and looks cool comes to mind as well. There may be a labor factor as well, financially speaking. Also, many shop wrenches arent versed in building hand built wheels.

For the same weight vs weight factor, a pre-built wheel will cost more (in general).

As for better, thats all subjective. But, you did point out one reason why custom wheels are better...replacing spokes. They are just more readily available. Also, if you ride a 32 spoke wheelset, if you do break a spoke, the chances are much better that you will get through your ride more safely than a pre-built wheel with a low spoke count.

As to why you need a local wheel builder, I can tell you there is a guy who posts on here that lives in NY. He is a great guy, a fine builder and very knowledgeable. He posts under the name Ergott.

We like to keep business amongst ourselves, if we can.

Good luck!

Steve

Oh yeah, one last thing, a custom wheel can be built to your specific needs, weight, riding style, etc. Just one more reason.

[gasman]

Well-

I know that Nathan at Hutch's could build you a great set of wheels and probably a few others in town. BUT, they don't build up wheels all the time like Ergott and others.I bet if you search the forum archives you would get a lot of great names. I don't think you need to have the wheels built in town but if your jonesing for local wheels the Rolf Prima factory is in town. Good guys, I don't know if they will give you a discount if you deal with them directly. I sort of doubt it-why would they undercut their local distributers ?

[vaxn8r]

There is a guy that is not "employed" by the shops who would fit the bill. Nathan at Hutch's could lead you to him. I think his name is Robert Gonzalez but could be wrong about his name. He has a ton of experience and the shops still refer to him from time to time. He's built several sets of wheels for me. Specifically he's built all my tandem wheelsets which are 32 spoke. My current set has never required truing since new (about 5k miles) and we are not lightweights. However, Nathan builds a solid set of wheels as well.

I know the shops steer towards prebuilts because in many cases, not all, they are better (more even spoke tensions). Search for many posts on the forum and be aware that to many, (not unlike sew-ups, Brooks saddles and quill stems) preferences are often more a matter of tradition than than performance. You can break a spoke on any wheel and you can get home on pretty much any wheel...even with a broken spoke. Though you're more likely to break a spoke on handbuilts due to the tensioning issues on 10sp wheelsets. ATMO of course.

[SoCalSteve]

There is a guy that is not "employed" by the shops who would fit the bill. Nathan at Hutch's could lead you to him. I think his name is Robert Gonzalez but could be wrong about his name. He has a ton of experience and the shops still refer to him from time to time. He's built several sets of wheels for me. Specifically he's built all my tandem wheelsets which are 32 spoke. My current set has never required truing since new (about 5k miles) and we are not lightweights. However, Nathan builds a solid set of wheels as well.

I know the shops steer towards prebuilts because in many cases, not all, they are better (more even spoke tensions). Search for many posts on the forum and be aware that to many, (not unlike sew-ups, Brooks saddles and quill stems) preferences are often more a matter of tradition than than performance. You can break a spoke on any wheel and you can get home on pretty much any wheel...even with a broken spoke. Though you're more likely to break a spoke on handbuilts due to the tensioning issues on 10sp wheelsets. ATMO of course.

With all due respect, this has not been my experience. Try breaking a paired spoke wheelset spoke a la Rolf. You are done for the day and will be walking.

I also have not found that handbuilt spokes break any quicker than pre-builts. As for even tensioning, a good wheel builder can and will build a wheel with very even tension throughout the entire wheel.

Steve

[ergott]

You can break a spoke on any wheel and you can get home on pretty much any wheel...even with a broken spoke. Though you're more likely to break a spoke on handbuilts due to the tensioning issues on 10sp wheelsets. ATMO of course.

There are plenty of low spoke wheels that are unridable with a missing spoke. Standard wheels have enough spokes so this is not an issue.

You are not more likely to break spokes on traditional builds. That is not even opinion, that is fact. The tension issues are no more different than when 8 speed was the norm. The freehub body width hasn't changed. You might have has an issue with "handbuilts", but that is not the norm. Search around the net for spoke breakage issues and what wheels it occurs to the most and you'll see more traditional builds are far superior for durability.

[wasfast]

With all due respect, this has not been my experience. Try breaking a paired spoke wheelset spoke a la Rolf. You are done for the day and will be walking.
Steve

I'd beg to differ. Last summer, while riding with gasman, bcm119 and vaxn8r, vax broke a spoke in his Elan Aeros. Non drive side in the rear. He opened the brake and rode home.

I have a pair of Elan's on my dry bike with 7K miles on them. I'm 190lbs so no lightweight. Never had any spoke issues. Had to make some very subtle truings of the rear wheel twice but that's it.

[Wiley J]

What do you guys think of Velocity rims? I had some Mavic open pro's on my old bike, but had problems with eyelets breaking and rattling coming from the welded joint area. I thought I'd try something different different. A friend of mine has ultegra hubs and fusion rims, and he swears by them. His are 28 hole radial front, 28 hole, three cross drive side, two cross non drive. I weigh 185 now and sometimes less, never more. Would a set like my friends work for me? How many spokes should I use if I went with the Velocity fusions?

[bcm119]

Last summer, while riding with gasman, bcm119 and vaxn8r, vax broke a spoke in his Elan Aeros. Non drive side in the rear. He opened the brake and rode home.



We didn't even go directly home, we probably rode another 25 miles after that incident. I was a little surprised he was able to do that, but it held together fine. Those Elans are a lot tougher than you'd expect for their weight.

[ergott]

I'd beg to differ. Last summer, while riding with gasman, bcm119 and vaxn8r, vax broke a spoke in his Elan Aeros. Non drive side in the rear. He opened the brake and rode home.

I have a pair of Elan's on my dry bike with 7K miles on them. I'm 190lbs so no lightweight. Never had any spoke issues. Had to make some very subtle truings of the rear wheel twice but that's it.

Non drive spokes have the least amount of tension so they will effect lateral true less when they break. 24 spokes isn't that low anymore.

[ergott]

What do you guys think of Velocity rims? I had some Mavic open pro's on my old bike, but had problems with eyelets breaking and rattling coming from the welded joint area. I thought I'd try something different different. A friend of mine has ultegra hubs and fusion rims, and he swears by them. His are 28 hole radial front, 28 hole, three cross drive side, two cross non drive. I weigh 185 now and sometimes less, never more. Would a set like my friends work for me? How many spokes should I use if I went with the Velocity fusions?

They are great quality rims. They have no eyelets so you can't skip the proper assembly steps. Remove any burrs in the spoke holes, and use grease. At your weight, I'd suggest either 28/32 or 32/32 depending on your riding style and road conditions. More lighter gauge spoke will make a better wheel than fewer heavy gauge spokes.

[Wiley J]

Since they don't have eyelets, would you recommend brass nipples? Going back to riding a low spoke count wheel with a broken spoke, my 20 spoke front FSA was unrideable after breaking a spoke, even with the brakes opened up.

[ergott]

Since they don't have eyelets, would you recommend brass nipples? Going back to riding a low spoke count wheel with a broken spoke, my 20 spoke front FSA was unrideable after breaking a spoke, even with the brakes opened up.

Brass is recommended.

[vaxn8r]

There are plenty of low spoke wheels that are unridable with a missing spoke. Standard wheels have enough spokes so this is not an issue.

You are not more likely to break spokes on traditional builds. That is not even opinion, that is fact. The tension issues are no more different than when 8 speed was the norm. The freehub body width hasn't changed. You might have has an issue with "handbuilts", but that is not the norm. Search around the net for spoke breakage issues and what wheels it occurs to the most and you'll see more traditional builds are far superior for durability.
I respect your work because of the praises I hear, plus you have awesome taste as manifest in your Ottrott, but my own experience over many 10s of thousands of miles is that handbuilts will break spokes more often. Maybe if you (Ergott) built everyone's handbuilts we would see less spoke breakage, but in real world I believe there is more quality control from Mavic, Campy, Shimano than 99% of handbuilt....er...machine/handbuilts out there.

For the record, I did have trouble with a rear Rolf Elan. In a matter of about 50 miles I broke 3 spokes and then the rim cracked. I now have a new rear wheel and it has been solid ever since. I believe the rim was faulty from the start because this is a very popular wheel around here and I've run into no one else with spoke breakage in the 3 years that wheel has been produced. Also, Rolf asked no questions. They had my wheel back within a couple of hours each time, including when they completely rebuilt the wheel.

[coylifut]

what do those Elans feel like when you're diving into a hard corner? I've seen em and they look so flimsy, but you guys in Eugene are riding them, so they must be good.

[MikeS]

Non drive spokes have the least amount of tension so they will effect lateral true less when they break. 24 spokes isn't that low anymore.

Actually, on the Rolf Prima Wheels the design is so that both sides have equal tension. Therefore you don't get all jacked when/if they would ever break. If you were to get a Bontrager which is old Rolf technology and machine built versus handbuilt current Rolf Prima. That is why The new Rolf Prima wheels SLAY Trek product and prett much a lot of other wheels out there. Lighter and more areo and in most cases less expensive to anything similarly.