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Bike shops sure know their stuff!


ForrestDump

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you must take into account how expensive living in different countries is.

i have to charge 50 euro for a wheel build,otherwise it wouldnt be worth it

50€ for one wheel build or a pair? Damn i want to work for your shop!

I can make a wheel in half a hour or less, i would get rich!

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The first time I ever built a wheel I din't brake a single spoke or nipple in a year, then I split it.. My pro 2 hub conked out before the build did.. Thats given me confidence for any other wheel build I do (Y)

But enough about me.. For those of you in foreign countries charging 10 euros for wheel builds.. Halfords in the UK charge £9 for a puncture repair.. (never paid for that btw :giggle: )

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i can,too.but i wouldnt,i am seeing it as a high art that needs its time to get near perfection,and my customers think this is good.

in germany theres no way to get rich that way,bike shops in munich city charge 65+eur.

thats a lot

15 mins is my record and I'd say it was as high quality as all the other wheels I've done (well most, some Echo rims have been terrible).

No point spending more time on it than needed however I must admit that 15 min wheel was dishless and the rim was really straight which made my life easier.

Wish I got £9 per build too, that would be nice.

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i am seeing it as a high art

For me, it's this sort of attitude that puts people off building their own wheels, and then leads them to paying other people to do it for them. There's nothing 'high art' about building wheels - it's simply following a procedure. I've seen it refered to as a 'dark art' (as a result I'm not just aiming this at you (Y)) and all that sort of stuff before but the fact is is that it isn't, and by hyping it up so much it's just making riders who'd be fully capable of sorting their own wheels out get put off. I built my first wheels using spokes that were totally wrong and without really knowing what I was doing, but they worked fine and I rode them for a pretty long time. Since then I've become better at doing it, and because of that I can build them faster now but still have strong wheels that work well (althouh I haven't had to build a wheel for a while now because Ali usually does it for me).

Part of the thing that annoys me about the hype that people generate around building wheels is the way that shops here take the piss for their prices. We heard of someone through work who basically had to pay over £100 for two wheel builds, and fleecing customers like that doesn't really sit well with me...

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there are many people that can build a wheel,but there arent many who can hear the wheel isnt true by hitting the spokes with a screwdriver,without the need to even look at what your doing,as my 67yrs old senior boss can do.

you can make an art out of everything

edit:the 50 per wheel thing is just because of the labour values we have to stuff into an our of real work to stay in the game.

in germany thats in a low price range true story

Edited by FamilyBiker
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I built my 1st wheel when I was 13, I used a brand new Mavic 121 ceramic (best rim on earth in 1997) a Shimano Acera - x hub and shitty old spokes.

The build was PERFECT, and I used it until the hub imploded a few days later.

It's not hard if you have any kind of mechanical mind.

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It's not hard if you have any kind of mechanical mind.

Very true! First time I built a wheel was just because I had a spare one lying around so i just took it apart and wanted to see how far I could get with putting it together again without a guide... this was before I owned a spoke tool as well!! Lengthy work with a flat headed screwdriver!!! Since then I've built/trued wheels as a favour for friends.

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why didnt they just do a rim swap? tape old wheel to new rim, undo spoke, move it over etc...even with fresh lacing and new spokes they could have done it with the sprocket on,

but yeah, next time, just do it yourself, sheldon brown has all the information you could ever need

I had snapped two spokes on the sprocket side so it needed to be removed to fit them in. Didnt get anything back from it which is very annoying as my rear magura is playing up now so could have done with the money from that for a new lever body nothing seems to be going right recently

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I had snapped two spokes on the sprocket side so it needed to be removed to fit them in. Didnt get anything back from it which is very annoying as my rear magura is playing up now so could have done with the money from that for a new lever body nothing seems to be going right recently

Thats because you don't give your bike any maintenance... you just wait until I'm home from uni to fix stuff haha

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15 mins is my record and I'd say it was as high quality as all the other wheels I've done (well most, some Echo rims have been terrible).

No point spending more time on it than needed however I must admit that 15 min wheel was dishless and the rim was really straight which made my life easier.

Wish I got £9 per build too, that would be nice.

I have witnessed ali's wheelbuilds when I dropped in at tarty's. damn he's fast.

He was building an entire batch of pro2 to Atomlabs for the skye full builds they were expecting to come in a few days later.

Leg on the table, ankle in cast (tarty days fail), truing stand in his lap and doing someone else's 300odd pound wheel.

Not the worst way to spend a rest day.

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