nick_the_wheelbuilder

Not worth replacing that hub - rather get new wheels. Yes it will cost $$ BUT buy new wheels that already have sealed cartridge bearing hubs. Forget about the fact that your bike was cheap - if you want a hassle free riding experience, what's that worth? Spending R5-10k on a set of wheels and have them work well for the next 5 years is a superb investment. Less than R100 per month to have a better ownership experience. Better wheels will also likely mean you have a better tubeless experience. Either look at 2nd hand wheels, or budget-friendly ones from Rapide, or Lyne.

The Lyne rims are great. Happy to help with a build if you're prepared to courier to George.

If you get spokes with regular round heads, whack them flat with a hammer to make them t-shaped. I've done this plenty and it works great.

Here are the important considerations for gravel bike wheels: Comfort: Wider tyres at lower pressures need rims that can spread the tyre beads. For 35 - 45c tyres, use rims between 22mm and 28mm inner width. Weight: Lower-profile rims weigh less than deep section ones. Carbon rims are lighter than alloy. Durability: Rim quality, wheel build workmanship and spoke count all contribute. Keep in mind the maximum weight rating for the rims you choose. Cost: Buy the best you can afford, but know that spending more won't necessarily get you better wheels. Alloy wheels from around R9k upwards and carbon wheels from R20k upwards. So many choices! Another pic for inspiration:

I agree. 25-35mm profile is probably best for gravel wheels that won't see much high-speed road use. I don't buy into the radial compliance story unless the rim has a sub-20mm profile, but that's besides the point. The deeper you go, the heavier the rims will be, and will add strength to a point. 30mm - 35mm is the sweet spot for me.

Thanks for the shout-out!

There are plenty of options, both off-the-shelf and custom. 22-26mm inner width rims are fine for most gravel bikes. There are a few options you can look through on my website: Very premium: https://wheelbuilder.co.za/product/south-industries-gx-hope-pro5/ Very light: https://wheelbuilder.co.za/product/nextie-crx-disc-road/ (same price but with with the Nextie GX gravel rims) Shout if you'd like to explore these or other options. Some pics for inspiration.

The Nextie Vista rims are R7900 each. (280g per rim - 3 year warranty) The Pillar PSR Xtra1420 bladed spokes and black brass DSN nipples are R2200. I charge R795 per wheel to build. So ballpark figure of R20k to supply the rims and spokes, build, and deliver.

A rim-brake road wheelset I've just finished. A bit of a mission sourcing rim brake rims and hubs these days - especially in 28h as requested by the customer. I had to get the hubs flown in from France. Got the rims locally, but stock is just about finished. These came out nicely though.

The 26" Podium MMX rims are still available and are pretty reasonably priced new. Around R1200. Let me know if I can help get one for you.

Thanks Hilton, Yes, I'm still busy adding products and making sure links work. I'll fix that pop-up issue too. I can get these gravel rims below, same price as these: Nextie CRX Rollingstar Disc brake road wheelset | Wheelbuilder

Last week my website crashed and needed to be rebuilt, so I decided to add online shopping functionality. It's a work in progress at this stage, and I've mostly added the most popular wheelsets I build for my customers. I have added a few other bits and bobs, but I'd like to know from you guys what products you're most likely to buy online, rather than in your local bike shop. I'm not trying to compete with the big guys like Evobikes and Rapide, but to offer interesting and useful products to customers who buy wheels from me anyways. What's on your online shopping wishlist? Please check out the site and let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback while I work on adding new products. https://wheelbuilder.co.za/shop-online/

I'm obviously nit-picking, but on the Spez site, the Epic Evo has wider rims, but the same low-end hubs and spokes. The wheels are probably heavier than the wheels on the Chisel because they're wider. Carbon frame, heavier wheels. The Epic Evo Comp has better spokes and rims, but costs substantially more now. Only when you look at the Epic Pro or S-Works do you get carbon wheels, but then you're paying R165k+ for the bike.

Yes and no. People love options. It's a fact that most OEM's compromise heavily when it comes to the wheels they spec on their bikes, so they can hit a price point. The new Chisel is a great example of this. Specifying cheap Shimano hubs, laced with plain-gauge spokes to average rims leaves a lot of performance potential on the table. Also true is that upgrading a new bike isn't something many people will do - but some will. Is it worth spending 1/3 of the cost of a new bike on new, better wheels? Some will argue that this is a great investment, especially if you can keep the wheels and transfer to whatever bike you buy next. Kind of like buying an already quick car and spending money on a performance chip for the ECU - guys do it all the time, not because it makes sense, but because people are enthusiasts. We don't spend the same on mountain bikes as we do on 2nd hand cars because we NEED to, it's because we want to, right? Pro's who win races don't buy bikes, it's us wannabe racers who spend our hard-earned cash on luxuries like dual-sus Specialized bikes. If a lighter set of wheels makes you happier when you ride, that's cool. If you're happy to ride a stock bike, that's awesome too

One could easily save some weight on a Chisel by swapping the wheels out, and make a good bike great. Based on the website I'm guesstimating the stock wheels will weigh +/- 2000g for the set. Keep the stock wheels as spares (or sell them) and throw on a 1300g set of carbon wheels for R25k or a 1650g set of alloy ones for R15-16k. If it were me I'd build a set of wheels with DT Swiss 350 or H-Works straight pull hubs, Stan's Arch Mk4 rims and light 2.0 - 1.5 - 2.0mm spokes.

Only R20k saving... and as good, if not better in every way...

With pleasure

I'd just like to share some pics of the last set of wheels I built. Here are the specs: 29er BOOST Nextie Vista Alpha asym carbon rims (30mm inner width / 280g per rim) DT Swiss 350 straight-pull hubs Pillar PSR Xtra1420 bladed spokes with black brass DSN nipples Total wheelset weight: 1300g with rim tape Price as built and delivered: R27 995.00 The cool thing about these wheels is they compare well to the pro-level Bontrager Kovee RSL wheels (only 100g heavier) but cost a whopping R22 500 less. I am incredibly privileged to be able to build wheels like these. Thanks to everyone who's supported me to date.

Lyne hubs are superb for the price. "Big" name brands have become a lot more pricy over the past few years. The budget friendly hubs I'd recommend are: Lyne Cure Rapide If you insist on big international brands like Hope, DT Swiss, or i9, expect to pay significantly more. Don't skimp on rims and spokes and nipples though - these are often the deciding factors when it comes to overall, long-term wheel durability.

I've built loads of wheels with Nextie rims and rebuilt a lot of ENVE wheels. The level of quality and finishing on the Nextie rims is better than all of the Enve wheels I've worked on... As good as anything I've ever worked on.

Ceramic bearings are snake oil and offer no benefit over decent quality steel bearings, at all. Don't waste your money. Rather buy better quality hubs

Obviously I'm going to chime in and remind you that you can have a custom wheelset built with your choice of rims, hubs and spokes. For example, I can build a wheelset with Hope RS4 hubs, Nextie rims and bladed Pillar spokes, for around R24k, delivered nationwide.

I ship wheels all the time, as you can imagine. Get a wheel box from your bike shop, or a couple empty boxes from your local supermarket. Make the box as small as possible, so that the wheels fit snuggly. Remove tyres - this makes the box 10cm shorter (and cheaper). I normally pay between R250 and R280 with The Courier Guy, for nationwide economy shipping. Take your box with wheel inside to your local Courier Guy depot or kiosk and you can pay cash for the shipment. Happy to answer any other questions you have.

I only know of one Wheelbuilder, William’s Bike Shop in Somerset West. If you don’t come right you can courier the stuff to me.

Just finished a nice carbon gravel wheelset with Hope Pro5 hubs and South Industries GX rims. Hope you like 'em.