Future Wheel Projects

At the risk of getting ahead of myself – I’ve not even begun the XT/Sun wheels yet – I can’t help but look to the future to see what else I could turn my hand to! While it would be somewhat premature to declare myself a master wheel builder, I’ve no qualms about mumbling under my breath similar claims about truing and balancing pre-existing wheels. Therefore my next project will be to sort out the appalling job that Chain Reaction Cycles did on building my Hope XC/Mavic XC717 Disc/DT Swiss Revolution wheelset for my S-Works M5 hardtail.

In no way am I exaggerating when I say that these wheels were out of true before they even left the box. This was compounded by the fact that the spokes had not been stress-relieved (they pinged relentlessly) and the spoke tension was all over the shop. With hindsight I should have sent them straight back. Chain Reaction subsequently built my hardcore DMR Revolver/DT Swiss EX 5.1d/DT Swiss Competition wheelset, the only reason being that they were the only shop at that time to stock DT’s new all-mountain rim, which I specifically wanted. I included in this order a reference to their previous effort and a thinly-veiled threat to send the new pair back by return if they arrived in anything less than perfect condition. Unsurprisingly, these are fine!

Notwithstanding the state they arrived in, half an hour’s work with the spoke key brought the XC/XC717 wheels into some kind of order and they’ve been okay since, including coming through some rough treatment unscathed whilst in the North York Moors. However with the spoke tension the way it is they won’t last long before either the spokes start to break or the rims start to crack around the eyelets, so more remedial work is necessary. The DT Revolution spokes make it a slightly fiddly job because they twist far more under load from the spoke key than do the thicker Competition variety, which is one possible reason (but no excuse) for Chain Reaction’s shoddy work.

My second future project is slightly longer term because I’ve only ever read about it or seen pictures in magazines or on websites. I’m thinking of a single speed-specific rear wheel, possibly with a flip/flop hub. I don’t yet fully understand all the implications of such a wheel, but I have the germ of an idea: that I could convert the Inbred into a “double speed”. It would have two chain rings and two sprockets (one on each side of the hub), giving two different ratios but the same chain length, e.g. 34/16 and 33/17: one for getting to the trailhead; the other for riding off road. If the sum of the number of teeth on each ring/sprocket combination is equal then in theory the required chain length should be the same, which saves messing about adjusting the loathsome chain tugs.

One of the problems of such a set-up is sourcing a suitable hub: after all, I’ve never even seen one in the flesh so they can hardly be called commonplace. Even though they’re much simpler than a 9 speed freehub, I suspect that they’re sold for wallet-emptying amounts of money by ferret-faced little men via their internet-based niche bike shops, the sort of single-interest types who wear cycling like a badge of honour and who really need to mix with a broader cross section of society. The rest of us owe them a living, you know! I might ask around on www.singletrackworld.com as there’s bound to be a fawning little clique or two that frequent the forum.

Anyway, I want a black hub with 135mm OLN, 10mm quick-release spindle and proper, well-sealed bearings. Surly do something with a solid non-QR spindle that I could probably change and “angular contact bearings”, whatever the hell they are, but at around £60 it seems vastly overpriced for something that I’d want to dismantle before even using. On-one do a quick-release single-sided single speed hub for £30, but given my experience of the majority of the other products that I’ve tried with their name on it there’s a better than evens chance of it being crap, so that’s definitely off the list (although I’ll concede that the Inbred stem is very good – still reading, Brant?). This idea will stay on the back burner for a while yet!

For the last wheel-based project that I can think of for now, I’m coming to the conclusion that the best thing to do with my very first wheel - a black Hope XC hub, silver Mavic X221 rim and silver DT Swiss Competition spokes - will be to dismantle it and sell the parts individually. It’s hardly been used, being something that I built for the sake of it rather than for any intended purpose, and the only reason I’ve held on to it until now is that appearance-wise it matches the Deore/X221 wheels on Mrs P’s Airborne Liberator. It was this wheel that was the reason for buying the black Hope XC rear hub from Ebay, as at the same time I had my eye on a very cheap X221 rim and these would have combined to make a matching rear to go with the existing front. I lost out on the rim however, which left me stranded with that Hope hub.

The problem with the XC/X221 combo is that it mates high end with low end components, and so limits the appeal of the finished article to any potential buyers. It’s likely that the whole wheel will sell for no more than the hub on its own, hence the decision to split it, sell the hub and rim separately and keep the spokes for a future build. Also I’ve never unlaced a wheel before and that in itself is likely to be a learning experience.