What am I going to build?

When I built my first couple of wheels I made the mistake of building them "for the hell of it"; in other words I only had cost in mind when I selected the components, not the wheels’ intended purpose. The result was that I ended up with an expensive black Hope hub laced to a cheap silver Mavic X221 rim, and a heavy Shimano Deore XT M755 hub laced to a lightweight Mavic X517 rim. So I reckon that before you even start to look at components you should have a crystal clear idea of what the final wheel will be used for and how it will look.

I have two pairs of wheels in mind. The final specifications of each will depend upon what components I can find at what I consider to be the right price, but the following is the general idea. The rims and hubs will be black and both rim and disc brake compatible. At least one pair of wheels will use black spokes and these will be built using a 3-cross lacing pattern, chiefly because all my other wheels are 3X and it gives me a point of reference with which to compare my own work. Lots of spoke nipple options exist, but most if not all are pointless and I’ll be using standard silver brass nipples.

The first pair of wheels is to be a do-it-all pair of bomb-proof wheels, strength before light weight, able to handle tyres up to 2.5” wide, all in black. These will be fitted initially to my On One Inbred rigid singlespeed bike, but the intention is that they will be my “utility” wheel set for use with all future projects. The hubs will almost certainly be Shimano Deore XT, because I’ve used XT hubs before and found that they provide an unbeatable combination of low friction, low maintenance, low cost and light weight and they come with skewers (which I can sell to reduce the cost of the wheels). The rims will be Mavic XM719 or equivalent. I’ve not used these before, relying instead on Mavic’s lightweight X317, X517 or XC717 rims, but due to encroaching middle age and my predilection for large quantities of real ale and the quantity of food of dubious quality that such liquids encourage the consumption of, my consequent 15 stone mass dictates erring on the side of strength! Also the thin profile of the X517s that are currently fitted to the Inbred do not adequately support tyres much wider than 2.1” and the 2.4” WTB Mutano Raptors that I’m using do tend to squirm around a lot as a result. Whatever hubs and rims I get, they will definitely be mated via black DT Swiss Competition double butted spokes, probably 36 of them.

The second set of wheels will be simpler, cheaper and lighter, intended as they are for Mrs P’s Airborne Liberator. It gladdens my heart to say that she does not drink anything from a pint pot and tips the scales at around 9 stones, therefore I can use 32 spokes and a budget XC rim for this build. I’ll probably go with Shimano Deore XT hubs again if I can find some, but with these wheels I’m prepared to try something different by way of experimentation. DT Swiss Competition double butted spokes here too, but in silver this time to cut costs.