the precarious balance of rim development

[steel lugs]

Have a pair of Phil Wood 'Rivy' 36h hubs I intend to build up during the winter months for my Rambouillet, but am undecided on what rims to go with.  A while back, Grant posted an insightful piece regarding the precarious balance of rim development (i.e., 'Light, Strong, and Inexpensive: Pick Two').  He then mentioned rolling out a new ‘Stouty’ rim of which I've been pestering Rick for an ETA for nearly a year now, but he confessed they were waiting as well.  Complete speculation on my part, but I presume the delay may have something to do with Velocity moving it's production from Australia to Florida.  Given this, I may just go ahead and choose from the current offering of rims (such as the ones below), but wanted to first touch base with this group to gather firsthand builder/rider experiences or possibly learn of other options.  I'm also curious of any considerations pertaining to tire mounting/seating issues.

 

Grand Bois - http://cyclesgrandbois.com/SHOP/336618/404875/list.html

Pacenti PL23 - http://www.bikelugs.com/store/index.php?strWebAction=item_detail&intItemID=398

Soma Eldon - http://store.somafab.com/soelrim70.html

Velo-Orange Raid/PBP/Diagonale - http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/components/wheelsets-rims-hubs/rims.html

 

From this list, it is probably obvious I'm leaning towards a traditional looking, non-anodized, non-machined, single/double eyelet, silver rim.  Incidentally, I will be running 32 mm tires (Jack Brown Green’s, most likely).  Thanks in advance.

 

michael z

 

 

[Minh]

Great timing too bad no responses. Why not something like the mavic open sport? Not wide enough? I'm also in the market, I love the looks of the VO rims but wish there was a little more user feedback on them.

I'm also looking for how hard to build as I'm thinking about building my first wheel with these.

Somas are on sale this weekend,

[Benz, Sunnyvale, CA]

You may also want to consider the TB14 from H Son Plus - http://hplusson.com/products/TB14

I built up a set of these in Hard Ano a while ago and they are quite classic looking.


On Wednesday, October 31, 2012 12:48:21 PM UTC-7, stee...@gmail.com wrote:

<snip>

[Mike Schiller]

The Soma's look like pinned rims ( which is fine). I wonder who makes them for them?  

Just an FYI but Compass Cycles stopped carrying the Grand Bois do to excessive rim depth. 

The Pacenti and H son+ look like the cream of the crop to me. Welded, wide and classy.

~mike

[Garth]

 I have two sets of Mavic A719/T519 and they're fine.  I went with them over the Velocity Dyad as the builder I use said he preferred to use the Mavic's over the Velocity.

Non machined sidewalls?  Maybe that matters for some but I won't be wearing out any rims in my lifetime from braking.

Same with OCR rears.... in the hands of a professional builder it doesn't matter.

To each our own :)

[Andy Smitty Schmidt]

I missed this topic the first time around. I have a bike coming down the line and hope I have the patients or the timing is right to build up the rear with the forthcoming RivRim. The front is a cheapie pre-fab dynamo wheel I already bought. I'll see what happens as far as rim availability when the frame arrives and I get the other bits all ready to go. 

As far as building your own wheels... It can be rewarding. My advice would be that the first step be for you to read The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt. If after reading (or skimming) the book you'll know if you want to press forward to build your own wheels. I've built up maybe a dozen wheel sets over the last 20 years and refer to the words of Jobst every time. In addition to all sorts of wheel theory info, the book has step by step wheel building instructions with great hand drawn illustrations. 

I don't have a tension gauge so I reference an existing similarly configured wheel for tension. I've had 1 wheel come loose -- about a month into riding the wheel I noticed the rear felt odd. All the spokes/nipples had worked loose. I rode home, tightened it up and haven't had any issues in 2 years. On another occasion I was truing an existing wheel (non-eyelett rim) and I overtightened and pulled the nipple through the rim... oops. My point being that there is some risk but also great satisfaction riding wheels you built yourself. 

--Andy

 

On Wednesday, October 31, 2012 12:48:21 PM UTC-7, stee...@gmail.com wrote:

[Jeremy Till]

Another plus for the H+Son TB14--they come in a silver high polished version which is very classic looking, including no labels whatsoever except for a little bit branding on the counterweight around the valve hole.  I built up a pair for my Quickbeam and liked them a lot: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85709120@N07/8003630591/in/photostream

(they're a bit dirty in this photo)

On Wednesday, October 31, 2012 12:48:21 PM UTC-7, stee...@gmail.com wrote: