Our philosophy is safety first, performance second, then weight, then aesthetics. Safety should be everyone's first priority though it's often overlooked. When we're recommending a certain rim and spoke for someone, we take into consideration their weight, riding style, local terrain and their habits of upkeep. For example, if we know someone never cleans their bike and rides it into the ground without ever looking at it, we tend toward more durable rim, hub and spoke choices. A light weight, highly skilled, obsessive compulsive bike cleaner can get away with lighter choices. Why is bike cleaning a factor? First off, a clean bike is a happy bike. By keeping your bike and all of its components clean, you're more likely to notice a potential problem before it becomes a catastrophic problem. An example of this would be tiny hairline cracks in a rim, we see this regularly. Catch it early and you'll live to tell the tale. Another reason is that dirty rims and brake pads wear the rim's braking surface more quickly. We've seen plenty of rims fail under tire pressures simply because the braking surface wore so thin it could no longer withstand normal tire pressure. This type of failure can be catastrophic. Rider weight is a HUGE part of wheel choice. Light weight wheels are great but if the rider is on the heavier side, the wheels may under perform. They can become very flexy and can fail more easily. In this case, the heavier wheel will actually be the faster wheel even when climbing. It's true, when a wheel is excessively flexy, you lose power and if it breaks, well it breaks and you're going nowhere. We don't want anyone breaking spokes or getting hurt, that's our number one priority.
Performance is one everyone's mind. We all have been told, and it's mostly true, that a wheel upgrade can make a huge difference in the overall ride of your bike. This is where we get into the wheel weight vs. stiffness vs. rider weight vs. aerodynamics. Starting with wheel weight, we have static weight and rotational weight to deal with. Static weight is whatever your wheels weigh, say 1500 grams. When you're accelerating that 1500 grams is part of the overall weight (you, your bike and all of it pieces and your clothing etc) you're moving. You've got to move all of it. Rotational weight is the weight at the outer edge of your wheels, your tires, tubes, and rims. That is the weight that you have to "spin up" in order to move all the other weight. The lighter your rims and tires, the less rotational weight you're dealing with. Most of the time these wheels will feel faster when accelerating and climbing. That is unless they are too light for you. If a wheel has excessive torsional flex, it doesn't matter how light they are because all that power you're mustering up is getting lost. Stiffness is another industry buzz word. A wheel needs to be stiff to have good power transfer. However, a wheel that is too stiff doesn't feel great but it also won't corner well. Wheels that are too stiff for someone can "chatter" across the pavement in corners. If you've ever experienced this, you know that it can be unsettling at the least. A wheel has to give a little in order to track properly and to absorb bumps in the pavement.
Aerodynamics are important but not as important as we are led to believe. In time trial or triathlon, better water bottle placement and the proper type of aero helmet will gain you far more than any wheel set ever will. Proper fit will do exponentially more still. That said, and it's totally true by the way, aerodynamic wheels can make a real difference. Just be sure that you're considering all the other variables at the same time. If you're a big guy, 1000 gram wheelsets may not be the best choice for you. If you weigh 110 lbs, super stiff, deep section wheels might not be great either, it's about balance. We built some time trial wheels for a client who was about 6'4" and weighed around 220lbs. We chose to use a traditional round DT competition spoke for his rear wheel instead of a light weight bladed spoke. We did this because the power he was producing was so high that the overall strength of the spoke and wheel would gain more than an aerodynamic spoke. If your wheel is slapping your brake pads under heavy pedaling or if your spokes are breaking, you're slower, bottom line.
Controversy! Several of you are going to want to jump all over this. Our wheels are not built in Portland Oregon. What??? How can they be good then? Our wheels are also not bargain basement options, price point is not our main priority, quality is. You will hear a lot of opinions on methods, techniques, lacing patterns and spoke choice out there. It doesn't mean that we're all right or we're all wrong. It only means that there are differences in philosophy. I will say that our most commonly replaced broken spokes are Sapim. They are good spokes but for some reason we replace more of those than any other brand. That's why we like DT Swiss. The most commonly rebuilt wheels are from certain wheel builders.com and some Willy something or other, those tend to be cheaper options and I do know a few people who ride them and have had great success. You get what you pay for. There is a great debate about proper lacing patterns on disc brake wheels. We've spoken with hub and rim manufacturers and had about a 50/50 split on what people think is correct. We build them our war way and I've built my own MTB wheels along with wheels for clients for a good 10 years with no problems ever. Stefan has a good 10 years on me and his wheels are absolutely solid. I won't tell you which way our pulling spokes go, you'll have to come in a debate with us to find out. What about Portland?, Well, I love Portland, it's safe to say I have as many friends there as I do here. There are a lot of talented craftsmen there. The bike industry is exploding there. But, and it's a big one, I have seen some seriously awful wheels from "master wheel builders" in Portland. Same with hand made frames actually. My point is that geography and hip cities have absolutely no affect on quality. Now my Portland friends won't talk to me for a while. It's OK, we live near Marin where Gary Fisher invented the mountain. Yes, the mountain, take that Portland!
To sum it all up, wheel building is something that most people don't quite understand. It's important to work with a wheel builder who spends the time to consider you individually as a cyclist and make thought out recommendations for you, not anyone else, you. If someone can't quantify for you why they are recommending a particular build, move on. If during the recommendation the only adjectives you hear are "stiff" and "light", move on. There's a whole hell of a lot more to it than that. If you are curious to learn a bit more about what custom builds would work for you, get in touch with us.
Here's a few oldies but goodies. Check out our Facebook group for all sorts of build pics too.
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