Wheel builder recomendation please

[Retro Dan]

Hi Guys,
Just bashing my head against a wall trying to build an nos set of Campag 24h Electron hubs to Campag Sigma 24h rims - just can`t figure out the spoke length and have had a failure of patience... can anyone recommend a good wheel builder in the UK that can do the job for me and?

Thanks, Dan.

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

http://www.handcraftedwheels.co.uk/

this is a fellow retrobiker, Dan is a top bloke and has been building wheels for years

 

[Bowie]

Re:

Go online, find a spoke length website, build the wheels yourself, take them to a local bike shop and have them trued, its a good feeling afterwards

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re: Re:

Go online, find a spoke length website, build the wheels yourself, take them to a local bike shop and have them trued, its a good feeling afterwards

as a shop owner i sort of hate this, not the try it yourself thing, if someone wants to have a go i say yeah fine have a go, the problem with them going to a shop having basically built the wheel is usually that something goes wrong, i have had people drop wheels in to me that "can you just finish them off?" and assume it'll then be a cheap quick wheel true.

what i then have to deal with is spotting all the spokes that weren't laced, did the rim need washers? hoping the spoke size is actually correct then the inevitable phone call to say say "yeah i got in to the job then realised you spokes are too long" etc, "oh really can you swap the spokes with what you have?", yes this has been asked. sometimes they've tightened some more than others which means i have to back off all the spokes and completely start again but in the mean time this has pulled the rim one way or the other or the rim is now egg shaped etc.

basically finishing someone else's job can be a nightmare.

with what i think is a complicated wheel (i think straight pull and mixed lacing 2 cross/radial) like being asked about here i'd suggest just asking a good shop to get it done, i can build wheels no problem but i don't specialise in it, this is why i'd recommend Dan at handcrafted wheels as he does all sorts including the builds considered to be more odd.

 

[keithglos]

Re:

As I have said before, I could lace up a cheap 40 hole wheel in 3 minutes, and as a one man shop was buying spokes in lots exceeding 100 gross at a time.

Back in the 1960s the spoke holes in decent hubs were a lot tighter than cheap ones, and the flanges were much thicker, so an average wheel could take 6 minutes to get the spokes in. It could then take between an hour and 90 minutes to finish a light wheel, perhaps with an 8 or 9 ounce rim.

So the time saved by just putting the spokes in is negligable, and as pointed out could make the job more difficult.

Keith

 

[Midlife]

https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/

Quite well known I believe

 

[Nob]

http://www.tauruswho.f2s.com/