Boston area wheelbuilders? Speedgoat custom wheels?

[wwtsui]

Anybody have a Boston area (or heck, Northeastern) wheelbuilder they'd recommend? Alternatively, any experiences with Speedgoat custom-built wheels? They seem to have quite a large selection of components, including those DT rims and hubs that a couple of forum-ites have been raving about...
Thanks.

[Bill Bove]

As much as I think Sheldon Brown is a putz, he is a very good wheelbuilder. He works Harris Cyclery in Newton.

[dauwhe]

Anybody have a Boston area (or heck, Northeastern) wheelbuilder they'd recommend? Alternatively, any experiences with Speedgoat custom-built wheels? They seem to have quite a large selection of components, including those DT rims and hubs that a couple of forum-ites have been raving about...
Thanks.

Peter White in New Hampshire (www.peterwhitecycles.com)!

I'm also having some wheels built by Daq at the West Hill Shop in Putney, Vermont. People tell me Daq is the best mechanic in the state!

[Bradford]

I second the support for Peter White. I’m heading into my third year on a pair of his wheels and they are holding up just fine under my 200 lb butt. I’ve had plenty of wheel trouble in the past, both on machine made and hand made, so it is not an insignificant test. If I can scrape up enough cash for a new set of hoops for my touring bike, I’ll go to Peter.

When I bought these wheels, I wanted to get them from a local guy, but I think this forum is turning me around. Peter is a 3 hour drive from my house in RI, and even a 45 minute drive from my brother’s house. So I can’t really just stop by the shop for a quick true if I need it even when I visit my brother.

Why not go mail order from one of the great wheel builders around the country? I keep hearing good things about Jeremy Parafit and Speed Dreams on this forum, so I’m starting to think about them as possibilities for a set of road wheels.

[Bradford]

By the way, I love Wheelworks and have bought 5 bikes from them, but they don't get my wheel business anymore.

They built me an awful wheel for my touring bike and then charged me to rebuild it when it fell apart in the first year. Great shop, but stick to people who concentrate on wheels if you are having a set built.

[jerk]

jeff huckleberry at ibc.
jerk

[davids]

jeff huckleberry at ibc.
jerk
My new mountain bike wheels were made at International; I don't know who made them, but they're quality work - Mavic 717 32h disc rims, laced to XT disc hubs.

[wheelworks]

By the way, I love Wheelworks and have bought 5 bikes from them, but they don't get my wheel business anymore.

They built me an awful wheel for my touring bike and then charged me to rebuild it when it fell apart in the first year. Great shop, but stick to people who concentrate on wheels if you are having a set built.

Hey!!!! lets be fair here. When you purchased your Independence touring bike and Wheelworks built your wheels... this was back when DT spokes were having a few issues and they were recalled. Wheelworks did not know of this problem at the time.

Cheers
Wheelworks

p.s. David Hess is a great wheel builder. He is USCF and Shimano support.

[Bradford]

Good to hear from you Andrew. Sorry if my earlier comment came across as too sweeping of a statement. Overall, I love Wheelworks and highly endorse the shop!

Yes, to be fair, DT was having problems and should have let their retailers know. But both DT and Wheelworks have deeper pockets than I do, so I don't think that I should have been the one to bear the burden on DT's error. I still do all my other business with Wheelworks, but I go elsewhere for my hoops.

I have been torn between my annoyance over this problem and the great treatment I always receive from you, Doug McKenzie, and the staff, not to mention how neat it is to talk to Peter Mooney about bikes.

I still make an effort to go to Wheelworks; heck, it takes me an hour to drive each way, and there are several bike shops closer in Providence, so I must like the shop a lot. If I didn't, I wouldn’t have bought the tandem there. And I recommend the shop whenever asked, both in person and on this board.

But I think the spirit of this board is for people to relay their personal experience and then let the reader can take into account the different things that are said. I have been a loyal Wheelworks customer since 1990, but I had a bad wheel experience. I think that is fair.

However, I have not had a better experience buying bikes, tires, and especially the little bits and pieces that are hard to find like bolts, out of date saddles, and NOS parts. In addition, I’ve had some great advice from people in the shop that led me to things I wouldn’t have figured out on my own. You couldn’t ask for a more helpful person than Andrew Fullerton and Doug McKenzie is a prince among men. I was just in the shop last week and will be buy to pick up some more stuff this weekend. :banana:

[samcat]

Been doing business with the W/Works crew since the mid eighties...three generations of my family have been fitted by their folks. I've never had an issue with a W/works wheelbuild in all the years I've been doing business with them.

Dave H. has built 4-5 pair of wheels for us over the past few years. In fact, there's a brand new set of Chorus/OP's in Peter's back room now, awaiting fitting to my spoose's new Mooney...assuming he finishes it in the not too distant future <grin>. Dave also did his undergrad w/my son...which makes him a pretty smart cookie, too, and a fine Southern Gentleman! <grin grin>

I'd give W/works a shot.

BTW, Harris sends their wheelbuilding out. They have for some time, IIRC a conversation w/Sonny this past summer. They used Joe Young when he lived in Newton. Don't know who they're using now. As I understand it, Sheldon The Magnificant, is too jammed doing the internet thing to wrench or wheelbuild much anymore.

PH, quietly humming "Oh Canada" for Andrew

[Ti Designs]

The subject of wheelbuilding is a tricky one, there's always the toss-up between prebuilt wheels and hand built wheels. For the longest time I've told people that your workhorse wheels should be a good set of hand built wheels because there's nothing you can do to them that the builder can't fix in a day. That said, Mavic wheels come out of the box true, prestressed and with spoke tensions within 10% tolorance from tightest to loosest - not that many wheel builders can claim that (they all THINK they can). And then there's the issue of bad equipment. DT altered the distance from the head to the elbow on their spokes to match the hub flange on Hugi hubs - big mistake! Nobody bothered to tell the bike shops about that change until they started noticing a higher rate of spoke breakage. It was a big pain for the people who's wheels had the defective spokes, but the largest headache belonged to the bike shops. Think about 5 shelves full of spokes, almost 50 lengths in 1mm increments, 1000 spokes per new box. Now think about weeding out the defective spokes which can be told from the good spokes by an additional .8mm from the elbow to the head. Nobody won here, the problem is behind us, time to move on.

If you want my opinion here (Don't bother saying no, I can't here you), Wheelworks has a few of the best wheel builders around, I don't think you're going to find anyone better. If you want to take it to the next level, sign up for an individual class and learn how to build a wheel with one of them. This gets you two things. 1) they always do a better job with someone watching (no last minute rush jobs here). 2) you leave with a well built wheel AND an understanding of how it got that way. You may never feel comfortable building your own wheels but at least you can throw a spoke wrench into the bag behind your saddle, knowing that you can handle wheel problems that pop up on the road...

[the walrus]

The topic of wheels and wheel building is an old and longwinded one. Frankly all there is to wheelbuilding is the desire to do a great job, a few little tweeky tricks, good tools, good product to work with and most importanty, build a s-load of them. So if I was going to pick a wheelbuilder I would pick one that has built the most.

I learned from a couple of great wheel builders, Chris Cooper and later, John Cook. They weren't gurus or decended from God, they are just good mechanics that rode their own work and had the "touch" which came from, you guessed it, building a lot of wheels.

I also think it will become harder and harder to find a good wheel builder, especially if we keep seeing wheel companies building very good wheels, and shops selling them. Yes, I can rebuild a Ksyrium, but for the most part I just pull them out of a box and install them on a bike and they ride as good or better than the best wheels of the best builder. (I seriously doubt we sold one set of handbuilt 700c wheels over a set of Ksyriums or RaceLites this year) This means I hardly ever build 700c wheels up from the parts. Which is a bit of a shame, but I hardly ever use my 32mm headset wrench any more, and I'm still working.

I know a few people who work at Wheel Works, (I do not work there) and they are some of the nicest and most knowlegable people I know in the "buisness". They know what they are talking about. I am sure someone there knows how to build a good wheel, just do me and every other northeast bike mechanic a favor this winter and DON'T mailorder them or "find a good price on Ebay". (F'n Ebay!) Every mechanic at our shop has had their hours cut to take us through the winter. Give your meager earnings to a real shop. Then we can pay our rent.

Hint:
Just find a good shop, and because it is a good shop, they employ three or four good mechanics, get to know them a bit, stop by and chat, throw them an unexpected bone every once and awhile and they will bend over backwards to build you something nice. Be an ***, and most likely you can forget it.

[bags27]

Peter White builds great wheels...quickly...and guarantees they'll stay true forever. He's a one-man operation and a real resource. Yes, and Wheelworks is good people, too.

I hope Bill Bove might rethink his characterization of Sheldon Brown (I suppose Serotta's Thought Police doesn't scan for dirty Yiddish expressions). We can disagree about people (although Sheldon has always been great at patiently answering all my stupid questions and his website is one of the great resources in cycling). But, whatever one thinks about him, there was no reason to offer that opinion: it had nothing to do with wheel building. Just my thoughts on this, and I don't mean to start something here.

[jerk]

the jerk seconds the walrus' comments. wheel building is not rocket science. experience and proper materials are what makes a good wheel. try jeff huckleberry at ibc, he has lots of experience and builds wheels that last.
(as an aside, his employer ibc guarantees its wheelbuilds for the first year...if something happens that shouldn't they'll make good on it. doesn't matter if its the fault of the builder or the manufacturer...that's why you go to your lbs, because they'll be there for you.) boston is lucky to have two of the best bike shops in the world within spitting distance of one another. you won't go wrong relying on the ace mechanics at either ibc or wheelworks.....
jerk