Make the best choices for every budget 

Considering the quality of the videos you guys put out, I am baffled by how little subscribers you have! I have asbolutely been binging your videos. Keep it going lads!

Calling out the mindset of the wheel owner is crucial and often overlooked, so I think you're on the money there. "If you're the kind of rider who goes to your bike shop when you notice a creak or crack, it's usually too late. Buy a quality branded hub". Spot on. Not shaming, just realistic. Oh... I'd also say that hookless isn't fit for purpose for most humans and needs to be ditched.

Fantastically informative and balanced video. Thank you.

Thorough treatment of the topic. Some useful tips too.

Wow the quality of your words my mind blows ❤

Wow!! super review. Was looking for ear pieces for riding and these seems the one! Thank you for your work on this. And beautiful ride route.

What a comprehensive, easy to watch video. Thanks for that!

this is exactly what I have been searching for my new wheelset choice Thank you so much

Great video. The most informative unbiased I've seen on wheels.

Top notch video. Always considered wheel building as something out of reach but things are changing.

Cheers for long form videos. Just getting started and can already tell this is a passion project.

Fantastic! Information-packed, well-presented, easy-to-understand, well-paced and useful. 😀

What a great video for someone like myself who puts a ton of hard miles on his equipment. I do all of the work on my bike, but have only built a few wheels, so I don't have enough experience to make the right calls on things like which spokes to use, spoke tension, etc. Much appreciated for sharing knowledge acquired from years of experience.

Great presentation Paul we appreciate your effort and research in preparing this video 👍

Great to hear that custom road bikes are making a comeback! I own an older ti custom frame, and have rode that bike thousands and thousands of miles. May be looking for something similar but with a few added twists. Thanks for sharing all of this!!

I remember discovering your channel when your commented under Hambini’s wheel guide that your were also working on yours, and I’m glad it came out! Amongst all the great vids about wheels I watched (Ali Clarkson, Bini, Peak Torque and some french guys) this one definitely sets a benchmark imo. Thank you for all the practical and valuable informations you give away through this channel.

Awesome video, thank you so much for sharing. Looks like the message on FFWD Ryots has not got to many people. Managed to pick up a new, display stock Ryot 33 with 240 hubs wheelset for the equivalent Euro 750. Dream build coming up.

Really well done. Loved the structure and detail of this video, especially the simple checks on wheel quality. Thank you! FYI, I just got the Hunt Alloy SL wheels and I'm trying to decide if I should keep them. This will help a lot!

Very comprehensive and helpful video!

I absolutely loved this video Wish it was created just like this, when I first started getting into bike wheels

What an excellent video-more like this please and thank you

Some new carbon rims are at the top of my list at the moment and vids like this are a lifesaver. There's so much to choose from and getting some good, honest advice is a godsend.

Great video. Very useful for someone building their own wheels.

Extraordinarily happy with my FFWD Ryot 44's. Great customer experience, but beyond that they feel fast and snappy and so well-built that I'm very confident at high speeds. Not the lightest or fastest (like me), but the best wheels I've ever had for the price (just shy of 2k USD).

Exactly the video I needed! I want to build a set of wheels and there was so much information here I couldn't find anywhere else - I am still processing. Thanks!

Great masterclass Paul , thanks for putting so much preparation and time into this. Knew the basics but have learnt so much more from you. My personal go to is hand built by a time served master craftsman wheel builder. As well as allowing customisation to suit purpose and rider type it also gives longevity and complete trust in the wheels over their lifetime. 👍😁

Super informative!! Great video. Thank you! Now I know more about wheels.

Yes I'm still watching. That was a deep deep dive into wheels. Might I add it was wheelie wheelie good 😂

I’ve had a great experience with BTLOS on two wheelsets. I built one from custom rims and the other was built by them. My initial order came with a damaged box and there ended up being some cosmetic damage to one of the rims. BTLOS offered to ship a new wheel or take an $80 discount and keep the scuffed rim. I was so satisfied with the customer service that I ordered the rims to build my own wheelset for my gravel bike fairly quick after that. They did a custom layup that added about 40 grams of carbon to increase the weight capacity from 130kg to 160kg, so that I had plenty of extra room for camping gear.

As a hobby builder, I have to calibrate the tensiometer for each new type of spoke I use. Users or buyers have to realize that a custom built wheel is never cheap. The some of the part might even be more than an off the shelf. You need to factor in the labour time to build it. Then put a tire on it. Ride it for 30km or so. Back on the stand and check again. True and tension. Custom can be to the level of different spokes use for the drive side and non-drive side to get down to cost/performance metrics. This is especially for the rear wheel. It is also not uncommon to use thicker 3mm bladed spokes for the drive side and triple butted on the non drive side. Spoke patterns also play a part. Coming back to the rear wheel, there standard 2x and 3x crosses, triplet lacing(2:1) and G3 lacing (Campagnolo).

Many thanks for taking the time and effort to put this all together, Paul. As you say, FFWD on a set of 350’s (or maybe some 240’s) is pretty much all you’ll ever need.

Very informative video, thank you very much, appreciate you advice and content

I've been running Token Konax Pro 52 MM wheels with Pillar bladed straight pull spokes for a year now. So far so good with Continental GP 5000 TR tires. Have been a solid set for me.

What a great article. Really good. Thank you

Really enjoying your content - keep it up!

Brilliant video, I've already passed on the link on a Reddit forum thread where someone is asking about which carbon wheel to upgrade to. I sure hope they'll watch for your superb guidance.

Thanks Paul. Best regards Martin

Excellent video! I do have a set of princeton carbonworks Peak 4550 and their my best wheelset ... worth the money and customer service is fantastic. They have Tune hubs which are very light easy to service but not too sure about long term durability yet

Glad to to see hookless starting to away. Saw the concept as dangerous. The heavy cheap stock wheels had the spokes too tight and too loose spoke situation on it with the cheap novatech hubs build going out. Limited choices for my CX/ general use/ gravel bike with rear tire clearance at 40 and fork is 15mmTA which wheels of different internal width to make work the best. So road wheels from local company using easy to find parts not enough spokes or dirt wheels to wide. Lucked out on spinergy on sale from local store new for each wheel. Not my first choice due to priority truing tools needed, it what I could afford and regional company just in case. Next set will be set a easier to service and find parts for.

Great video on wheels

Malcolm at the cycle clinic has a good piece on wheels. He's one of the best out there

Shoutout to scrub wheels. Hand made in the uk with a range of budget and name brand components. Can heartily recommend from my own experience with his work.

Great info! Thanks

Just built a new mtb front wheel with a DT Swiss 350 classic front hub, Mavic rim and DT Rev spokes. Wheel went together really easily and wasnt far out of true or round before I put it in the jig. Never pinged or twanged on its first ride . DT Swiss 350's are my favourite hubs now , although built some summer gravel wheels with Superstar hubs, which are Novatec rebadged. DT Revs again and DT Swiss rims . Happy with those over the facory Fulcrum wheelset that came with my Planet X Tempest, which are now made up as winter wheels.

Really enjoyed that video. I won't be looking to upgrade my wheels for a while, but from watching this I know what I want, what to look for and that I need to put some more money aside 😂 Also, learnt that I am inflating my Giant wheels too close to the 'max'. All round great video.

Campagnolo shamals here love them have 2 x sets of ally rim brake and a set of carbon disc excellent wheels easy to service lovely hubs 😊😃🚴🏻 Pete

This is excellent

Great content keep it up mate 👍🏼

thank you for this very detailed vid. Very usefull infos.

I always build my own wheels i love to use Hope , Dt Swiss or for my budget ones Novatec hubs.

I brought hope pro3 mono dt swiss 1.1 in 2004, i sold them 2023. Great wheelset , thousands of thousands of miles every winter inbetween . One spoke and bearings when needed

Tks. Now.. i know what to look for when looking for wheels...to suit my kind of ride and matching rim to desired tyre size and safety considerations. Just need facts and no validation as i am not using chris king hubs! Keep it (vids) coming!!

No buzz here, only valuable information. Thx that will help me

Excellent video. Thanks!

I shopped around for ages before settling on Farsports Feder 45mm, 21 internal hooked, DT 240 hubs, sapin cx-ray with brass nipples. 1370 grams for less than 1,500 AUD. Been good wheels, no issues. Proof you don't need to spend Zipp or Enve money to get decent wheels.

I have two sets of handbuilt DCR 24 25 alloy disc brake wheels. 28 Sapim Cx Ray spokes front and rear, built on DCR / Bitex centrelock hubs. Internal hooked rim width 20 mm. First pair are 6 years old and still going strong with only a clean and re grease of the free hub pawls. Very happy with them and perform well without breaking the bank.

When I stumble on my "pile" of used wheels I often think replacing bearings instead of buying more might be the answer. Who knows the earth might be round...

Paul raised the question of Shimano hubs not featuring much in factory built wheelsets, apart from Shimano branded wheels. The answer is that they tend to be heavier than many other brands, with steel axles, steel freehubs and loose ball bearings. Words such as 'durable', 'reliable', 'strong' are not attractive these days. Also, their 105 and Ultegra range are not available with lower spoke counts. My 32 spoke 105 rear hub has seen me through the winter months for the last few years. My experience with DT Revolution spokes was not a happy one. Light and strong but very difficult to get high tension without creating serious spoke wind-up. Great care needed in the build up. Pillar do not have a UK distributor, though the Cycle Clinic have started to stock some triple butted, round spokes. However, I know of no UK source for Pillar bladed spokes, common in some imported wheelsets from China.

Great video.

ICAN FL50 with Novatech hubs, and Sapim spokes. I’ve ridden these for 3000+ miles as they are as straight as the day I got them. Highly recommend, high value wheels.

I managed to get BITEX RSPF for a rim brake wheel rebuild. Little I got surprised after I put it on scale to check versus worn Ulegra WH-6700-F hub. Bitex was 96 grams versus 159 grams of Ultegra hub.

Great video 🙏 The only part of this subject I thought might be missing (and apologies if I DID miss it), especially for someone new to cycling, is the choice between clinchers, tubeless clinchers and tubulars. You did mention hookless a few times and to me this is subset of a more fundamental up-front decision for someone who is new to upgrading their wheels!

Agree about Bitex RAF12/RAR12 road hubs for rim brakes. Inexpensive, light and well made. Spares readily available from DCR , a major distributor. Bitex disc brake hubs also excellent. Spa Cycles a good source for hubs, rims and spokes. Ryan Downes also for spokes. Cycle Clinic also do a good range of wheel components - Malcolm Borg has good info on wheel components. If you're having a go at wheelbuilding it's important to calculate the ERD (effective rim diameter) of the rim so know what spoke length to order. In my experience a slightly long spoke is less problematic than a spoke that's too short. Never use alloy nipples.

Brilliant video

Farsports Revo rims on DT Swiss 240 EXP hubs, Sapim CX-Rays: $1,299 + shipping. Fantastic build quality, top quality non-proprietary hubs and spokes and some of the best hooked rims you can buy for a very good price. Also, great out of the box build quality.

Really good video!

Good informative discussion. Thank you. I bought some Scribe wheels and I bought the tools, bearings, got spokes - I think those were included and with everything including the noise quieting grease they were still not expensive. Unlike yours, mine came well made and seriously stiff. I've ridden them hard for a couple of years now and haven't needed to use the parts I bought but the bearings are due. In fact, that's what I'll be doing later today.

HED 180s front and rear. Onyx vesper hub. Set up tubeless on conti 5000s

Your makeup is professional as hell!

Great video, very informative. As for myself I'm am old school wheel builder I built my first wheel way back in 1978 when I was 18, since then I have built well over 10K wheels mostly built on a $ 2.00 flea market find wheel truing stand I built wheels for 2 San Francisco bay area distributors, D.I.N. industries and Kobe Co. both of which are now long gone. Many of my high end wheels were built with custom cut spokes by Phil Wood, I would roll into Phil Wood and see Bernie and he would cut my spokes for me. I don't use tension meters or spoke prep, when tension meters 1st arrived to the market place a co worker at D.I.N. industries looked at one, grabbed it and tossed it into a garbage can and said, Baron doesn't need this, I guess it wasn't needed I picked one up looked at it and that was it I never touched a tension meter ever again, if I do remember correctly it was Wheel Smith who produced the 1st spoke tension meter. Timing for myself when building a single quality built wheel could take 3 to 4 hours total, I will true then destress the spokes at times pushing the wheel out of trueness, then do these procedures again then bring it back into trueness, then I'll drop a tiny drop of oil into the top section of the nipple spin the wheels for a bit then hang them up to let them rest over night, next day I will repeat the same procedures once again, finishing touch is to mount the tire and tube, over pressurize the the tire, drop a tiny drop of oil again then spin the wheel so the oil can find it way into the threads then I'll apply the final turning of the nipples, when all said and done then they are ready for the road. At times some of my customers will ask, are you turning the nipple because I don't see any movement I'll reply, yes but at times very little is needed, it's all about touch, sight and sound. one customer has logged well over 40K miles on his touring bike wheel set, I said hey Ike how's about servicing your wheel set, he said what for, why mess up such a good thing, they will have 40K miles on them and are doing just fine, I replied, not! He then showed my his bike computer and said the numbers don't lie. BTW: When building the rear wheel in the old days I would want to bring the rear gears as close to the right side chain stay, this is done by respacing the axle, via respacing the axle shifting the spacing over to the other side, when doing so the wheel will be more symmetrical, thus building a stronger wheel and on some steel frames I'd even dent the inside of the right chain stay, as like I had to do with my lugged steel track bike that was converted into a road bike and it was tight. In the mid 80's I built a wheel set for a privateer Specialized sponsor rider, Brad Decker, several weeks later he was rear ended by a car that the CHP estimated that the car rear ended him was traveling at roughly 80 MPH, anyway after his accident he came into the shop being all torn up, he told me of these happenings and I replied well there goes your wheel set then he laughed and went to his car and pulled his wrecked bike out, the frame was totalled, the front end was totally callapsed, the accident was so violent the front end locked into the pavement, when I saw this for sure I was thinking the front wheel must have disintegrated, then he pulled out the wheel set, I couldn't believe my eyes the wheels looked to be 100% intact, I checked the front wheel and it was like the day it was built, it was as straight and tight as can be the rear wheel only had a small blip, he said check them over true up the rear wheel, I'll have a race in about 3 weeks time and I want to use these wheels, I said nope, I'm not touching these wheels, if you really want me to work on them then you'll need to sign a waiver, so he did. He then got his new Specialize bike less of course the wheels of which I don't think Specialized wasn't in favor of, end game he did the race then came into my shop after the race with a friend and said, this is the man, his wheels are TITS! Then said he did his best finish on a badly crashed sets of wheels, he finished 3rd. Today I don't do much wheel building, my thumb joint is a bit messed up from all the wheel building. For me when building a wheel, it's all about, touch, sight and sound as like one of my customers would say, you're fine tuning my wheel as like some one that is fine tuning a violin. Just my long 2 cents.

I love my DT Swiss ARC1100 s with GP5000 tyres smooth n fast

Freehubs tend to go first on my wheels, I like Fulcrum's Raciing 900 as cheap, well sealed, easy to regrease freehub and change bearings. Use old NOS Shimano 7spd 26" mtb wheels on my commute bike, bombproof.

awesome vid, thanks for the effort! I wish you had covered the difference between straight pull and J-bend spokes, pros/cons

Tredz had a crazy deal on Reynolds AR 41 rim brakes - so I bought them as I saw that Jake was running a pair. I was attracted to the lifetime warranty and that Reynolds are now backed by a big brand like Hayes.

What a brilliant vid!!!. Many many thanks for your time and effort just goes to show weight is not everything. Would love to hear what you think of the latest alloy wheels that is only if you consider them relevant any more. Think i will save up and perhaps look closer at the Fastforward wheels option after watching this vid. Once again thanks for the knowledge never knew wheels were so complicated!!.

for myself and breaking many brands, i stick with Bontrager and Roval across various disciplines. my Roval cx38's have been bombproof gravel racing and cyclocross.

Great video as usual. Just would like a bit more guidance at the budget end, particularly aluminium rims. Recently bought a pair of £300 Hunt aluminium "all year" wheels. Will be looking at them with new eyes now! At 1500g they weren't much heavier than the cheaper end of the carbon ones. Now I know the difference might be hubs and spokes.

Love how you rolled your sleeves up when you started talking about rims. Ha.

I really like the light bicycle rims and wheel builds with carbonti or DT hubs :) straight from china but as far as i can say flawless

Great video. My aluminium Gravel DT Swiss wheels with DT Swiss hubs roll better than some aero carbon wheels my friends use.

Cero AR24 Rim brake set. If you can do your own bearings etc thay are fine.. I'm 100kg and never broke one in a very hilly area. I have broken CX Rays.. 200 quid 1500g.

Small tip 28:27 just a dot of lube on spring of tension meter will stop this unpleasant sound 😉 I did it and enjoy silent work with it.

Spoke failure is often due to poor technique but a key issue is that of spoke length. If, for example, you use an online spoke calculator, you might find that the required spoke length is 285.2mm. You have a choice; do you opt for 286, 285 or 284 ( spokes are frequently available in 2mm increments eg 284, 286, 288 etc. This issue is addressed in a 6 minute video on RU-vid by American wheelbuilder Bill Mould. Yhe video title is 'Optimal Spoke Length'. He concludes that a longer option is more reliable than a shorter one. Worth a look.

I love your videos and for the most part this is a great one. I think the title is completely inaccurate though as the budget in "wheels for every budget" starts at £900 which is just unrealistic for most people. Why does this not start at a much lower figure? £300 constitutes a wheel upgrade from most stock bike offerings and would be applicable to a much wider audience. Keep up the good work though! 👍

I bought a pair of custom wheels from Ryan and they are my best wheels I have.

Great sum up of all that's so important when selecting the components of a wheel(set). Would love to hear your thoughts about the spokes lace pattern used (Straight or over 2, 3 or 4spokes) in relation to the optimal tension and spoke diameter in a separate post

Fantastic video - love you work and. As you are very much in favor of DT Swiss hub, why don't you mention the complete DTSwiss wheels (ERC1400 DICUT) as great option at the 1.500 mark?

The best wheels are generally the ones you have :) If they’re round and not broken, keep riding.

Very informative and constructively biased as ever from Mr Mapdec. It’s a shame that not more new bikes with more premium frames, wheel sets etc don’t get the choice of 105. My Domane SLR 7 Gen4 has a nice set of wheels and was deeply discounted, 105 would have served just fine. BTW You can pair the 105 11-36 cassette with the new Ultegra Di2 groupset and It works fine. Just be careful with the b screw adjustment. My main issue with the Di2 set up is the lack of a rear mech clutch - noisy chain slap for us less meticulous gear changers. Rear mech charging isn’t so bad though, I have no electric in my garage and a very understanding wife. Battery life is much better than SRAM Totally agree - SRAM Rival AXS beats the 105 and Ultegra Di2 hands down. Tried it on the new Frankenstein Canyon Endurace and it was great. I’d go fir that and wish I had in the otherwise great Domane Gen4.

having went from shallow alloy wheels that were 21mm to a set that was 31mm then to a 55mm set of carbons almost a year ago. I have now inherited the disease where I run out of road before ever reaching my top speed. There are no sections of road on my commute that are clear or long enough for me to really open up the taps and see how fast I can really go compared to the shallow rims. 21mm will get me from 0-28mph in 20-30 seconds but the moment I let off the pedals it starts to lose momentum really quickly. Its impossible to do the same with the 55mms and stomping on the pedals from a complete stop and expecting to go like a rocket ship has only resulted in giving me knee pain so I can only accelerate from a stop more like a steam train. Its hard for me to decide which set to put on. On one hand Im addicted to the punchy acceleration of the shallow set but the 55 will cruise effortlessly above 30km/h. I may put the 31mm set back on and save the 55s for club, weekend rides and silly things like the Dynamo. Excellent video! straightforward and right to the point!

I'm already confused 😵‍💫. Still, this channel is, most likely, the best source of information for navigating the wealth of products out there

Wow thanks

thanx

I just got my weirdo lenght Sapim Race spokes in the mail.

Great video, thanks for the info. Like you I'm amazed Shimano hubs aren't used more widely, the ball bearing version is so much better than all of these cartridge bearings, just ride next to someone who runs shimano ball bearings and see how much more you have to pedal!

I generally have my MTB wheels built with DT Comps/brass nipples but I went DT Alpjne IIIs for my DJ bike and I'd go the same for eMTB wheels. Edit: I also make sure my wheel builder supplies a few spare spokes of each length I might need in case I need them fixed in a hurry (if I'm on holiday for example). For the MTB equivalents to your three categories at the end (only roughly the same price?) I'd go: Extravagance: Chris King/Enve (£4,000?) Benchmark: I9 Hydra/SC Reserve 30|HD (£2,000?) Compromise: Hope Pro 5/DT EX 511 (£700?)

Watched practically your whole back catalogue lately and thinking about getting a custom build from you if my insurance replaces my crashed TCR. Only problem is I live in Edinburgh!

Well, you know you're really old when you owned all these components when they were new! Still have enough Tois Etelle spokes 1.8mm straight gage to build a wheel. Ark en Ciel rims moldering on the basement floor. A Regina Oro 14-18 stored in an old freezer. A rotting "Wobbler" Pro tire on a disused work bench! A foreign deport if such was a thing! The Dave Moulton restored and restromoded to 9 speed cassette without cold forming the dropouts! Decals match original. Original rear derailleur 1973 from its predecessor. The thing still gets ridden on sunny days and hangs on my wall. I've got new bikes, but would advise others to keep your favorite bike. It will be comforting later on!

I used hunt i did have problems at times. My main bike as got a rear hub motor it wasn't made right after year spokes went . I now gone to local wheelbuilder who got stronger rims h son and on rear sapin strong spokes plus washers .

I'm currently comparing two options: Corima Essentia 40 and DT Swiss GRC1400. The Corimas are ahead in pretty much all aspects except crash replacement. Corima: need to register within 10 days of purchase. For 3 years, a decreasing discount of 50>30>10% for a new wheel of the same model. DT Swiss: no registration necessary, for 10 years, 249€ flat fee to have the rim repaired or replaced. I really don't know if I should give the crash replacement so much weight to offset everything else. My bike is going to be insured anyways.