Happy 2018!
It’s almost the end of January and hopefully by now you’ve recovered from the excesses of the festive season. It’s time to plan for this years’ races and rides and give your bike some TLC. If you’re in the market for a bit of an upgrade, consider some new rims, or a new set of wheels, custom built, by hand, to last longer, look better and out-perform your stock wheels.
Here are some options you can consider, that I can help with:
Rims:
Go lighter, wider, stronger, tubeless, bling. I supply the following rims for rim-replacements and custom builds. The wider rims spread the tyre bead which reduces sidewall flex, allowing the use of lower tyre pressures and improving traction and comfort.
Spank – The Oozy Trail 295 (24.5mm inner width) and the 345 (30mm inner width) are the most popular rims I sell and build with. Second most-popular are the Stan’s NoTubes Crest Mk3, Arch Mk3 and Flow Mk3, then WTB Frequency and KOM, RaceFace Arc 27/30 and e*Thirteen TRS+.
All of the rims mentioned above are tubeless compatible and range in price between R1000 and R1600 per rim.
Carbon? Well yes. If you want the ultimate style and strength-to-weight ratio, and your budget allows, go for carbon rims by cSixx or South Industries.
Hubs:
I recommend Hope hubs all day long. Yes, I use them myself and can vouch for their reliability, ease of maintenance and cross-compatibility between most axle standards. Available in 6 colours, you’re sure to fine something to suit your ride. There are other options available, but I feel that Hope hits the sweet spot. A set of hubs comes in at around 4 grand and change.
Spokes & nipples:
You can have any colour you want, as long as it’s black or silver. I build with either double-butted or bladed (or wing-shaped) spokes for best weight-to-strength and cost ratio. I build with brass nipples. Alloy nips may be marginally lighter, but are prone to breakage due to corrosion when exposed to tyre sealant.
I’m looking forward to helping make your bike more unique. Contact me today to discuss your upgrade 🙂
