Going Shopping… part 2

The Sun CR18 rims from the STW classifieds have reappeared, this time on Ebay and for a more reasonable £23, so I’m watching them. From what I can glean by looking over off the peg bikes in Cycle Surgery at lunchtime they appear to be the approximate equivalent of the Mavic XM317 so I’m definitely interested, in fact to hell with it: I’ll tee-up Auction Stealer to bid £25!

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to get the Shimano Deore XT 36h hubs from Wiggle and the morally challenging on-line retailer (whom I can’t bring myself to name) for £26 and £17 respectively. That all goes well, despite the consequent loss of the moral high ground!

Now, in addition to two pairs of XT hubs I’ve also gained two pairs of excellent XT quick release skewers. This means that I can sell the Deore skewers currently on the two bikes and offset the revenue against the cost of the new wheels. A “For Sale” ad in the STW classifieds nets £20 for the two pairs. This leaves me with that Hope XC rear hub from Ebay… what do they say about acting in haste? No takers on STW for that one, so I’ll just have to re-flog it on Ebay at a later date and hope I can get my wedge back.

I’ve won the Sun rims! As the sole bidder too, which is never a good sign as all too often it’s an indication that you’ve paid over the odds. Now I just need to check my spoke length calculations and order the spokes and nipples.

So, all components sourced and purchased, here’s the scores on the doors:

The utility wheelset (XT on F519) comes in at £88, against an equivalent cost of £120 if I bought a fully built pair of identical wheels from Chain Reaction, who are usually the cheapest of the on-line custom wheel builders. A saving of £32!

The budget wheelset (XT on Sun CR18) comes in at £63, against £105 from Chain Reaction (substituting XM317s for the CR18s). A saving of £42!

These figures include the sale of the Deore skewers and assume that I can sell the unwanted Hope XC for what I bought it for. So a total saving of £74, emphatic proof that it’s possible to build your own wheels for far less than the on-line builders, and I’m well chuffed!