How much does a custom wheelset cost?

on March 13, 2017

There’s much debate over the value of having wheels built as opposed to buying an off-the-shelf set.

The benefits of buying a ready-built set are convenience (instant gratification), lower price and availability. The down side is that you’re stuck with what the factory thinks is a good combination of rim, hub and spokes. You also normally don’t know who built the wheel and how it was built.

Custom built

If you have a wheel set custom-built you have many choices and can really choose every part and component, as well as knowing the person who builds the wheel. Yes, you may pay more than a factory set, but you can really get something special. Here’s how I price the different parts of the build:

Skill, expertise and experience – I charge R400 per wheel for my time and effort. It takes me about 2 hours per wheel from start to finish. Disassembling an existing wheel takes time too, so I charge R50 per wheel for that.
Parts – this depends on what you choose and specify – good quality alloy rims from reputable manufacturers like WTB, Spank, Stan’s NoTubes and e*thirteen cost between R1000 and R1700 per rim. Double-butted stainless steel spokes are around R15 each and quality brass nipples are around 2 bucks a piece. Hubs are often where the money is – entry level hubs will cost around R1000-1500 for the set but will cost you more in servicing over a year or 2. Better quality hubs with sealed bearings and interchangeable end-caps for various axle standards will cost anything from R2 500 – R7 000 for the set but will last many years and are easier to live with. I love building wheels with Hope hubs – the quality is exceptional, they come in a range of colours and they sound great. Parts are also freely available and they’re really easy to live with.
Finishing – You’ll probably want to ride tubeless, so you’ll need to seal the spoke holes with a good rim tape and use tubeless valves. Tape and valves adds around R250 to the cost of a wheelset.