Handbuilt Means Nothing if it Isn’t Handbuilt Well

“Handbuilt” is a term thrown around in the bike world as if it magically confers quality on a wheelbuild. But handbuilt doesn’t mean anything if the wheel isn’t properly built by hand.

The term “handbuilt” is loosely used in the bike industry to mean a wheel that has the final tension, truing, and stress relieving performed by hand. Often, handbuilt wheels from distribution houses are laced and initially tensioned by machine, and finished off by hand. The initial automation doesn’t affect the quality of the final wheel as long as the rest of the wheelbuild is done properly. But often in such environments the pressure to build wheels quickly means the wheels are built less than perfectly. Almost all wheels built at local bike shops and distributors are improperly and unevenly tensioned, even though they’re “built by hand.” This is of special concern to riders who tend to break spokes, because under-tensioned spokes are the primary cause of spoke breakage.

One of the reasons I started my own business is to ensure that every job is done to my standards. Any wheel that I build will be evenly and properly tensioned. I thoroughly stress relieve all the wheels I build so they should need minimal truing if they ever need to be trued at all.

If you have a hub or rim you’d like to use that you don’t see listed on my site, please contact me. As long as I’m convinced the part is of sufficient quality, I will special order anything that I don’t stock. Since my wheelbuilding backlog generally hovers around a week, special ordering a hub or rim will rarely delay delivery of your wheels. I’ll simply order the part and it will arrive by the time your wheelbuild makes it to the front of the line.

Lacing Patterns

I build rear wheels with the number of crosses appropriate for the number of spoke holes, hub flange diameter, and effective rim diameter.  Front wheels can be built radial laced if the hub is approved for radial lacing–you’ll find an option for front hub radial lacing on the wheel components page.  I don’t build wheels with twisted spokes.  I don’t build wheels with elaborate cross patterns.  Many of these patterns look interesting, and some of them are just as strong as traditional cross lacing–some.  But many aren’t, and I don’t have time to thoroughly evaluate each proposed lacing pattern.  I stick with what I absolutely know works–tried and decades-long tested traditional lacing patterns.

Building with used hubs (yes), spokes, and rims (no and no)

I will build wheels with used hubs that customers send to me. I do not build wheels with used rims or spokes. This isn’t to say that good wheels can’t be built with used rims or spokes. They can. But many times they can’t and I can’t tell by simply looking at a rim or spokes how much the material has been stressed and how close it might be to its fatigue limit. I don’t want you to ever have a problem with any wheel I’ve built you, and the best way for me to ensure this is to always use new rims and spokes.

Building with New Hubs Purchased Elsewhere (maybe)

I evaluate these situations on a case by case basis. The decision on whether I’ll build the wheel and the labor rate for the wheelbuid in such cases is entirely up to my discretion.