Here are three recent custom wheels I built up.

First up are some Deep V fixed gear wheels. Bomb proof alloy rims are laced to Origin8 hubs.

For the price it’s pretty hard to beat these hubs. Just like high end hubs from Phil Wood, Paul, and other small manufacturers they use easily serviced or replaced sealed bearings. Unlike those other companies they barely crack the $100 mark for a pair. What they lack in bling factor they certainly make up in value.

This set was going to see plenty of street use so we went with a 32 hole 3 cross lacing pattern with some flashy red Velocity spokes.

Next up is another set of track wheels. These started with the New Sheriff hubs from All City Cycles. All City gave a little nod to the classic Campagnolo C-record “sheriff badge” hubs from the 90′s. They beefed up the design a bit to withstand daily street use and opted for sealed bearings over the unsealed loose bearings of Campy’s track only hubs.

These were laced up to the TB-14 rim from H+Son. 32 hole, three cross with some Sapim CX-ray spokes. The wide and low box profile of the TB-14 rims combines the classic looks of a traditional rim with a wider footprint and modified inner rim profile that allows the tire casing to open up more in the same way that a HED C2 rim works. Bottom line, these wheels are going to ride GREAT and last a long time.

Last on the list this week is something of a long term project. These wheels are going to end up on my personal bike as soon as my Auger frame arrives from Foundry. The Auger is a disc specific cyclocross frame and this build called from something special. I stated with those PINK Industry Nine hubs I posted about a little while back. For the rear wheel I went with a standard 32 hole 3 cross lacing pattern for all around strength. In the front I decided to change it up a bit and do something a little more tricked out.

While it’s not uncommon to do radial (or straight) lacing on a front wheel for road and cross bikes the fact that these are going to be using disc brakes changes things. Disc wheels always need at least one side of the spokes to be crossed to resist the twisting force on the wheel that the disc brake creates. I went for the best of both worlds and laced the disc side 3 cross and stuck with radial for the non-disc side. I nice side effect of mixing lacing like this is that it actually stiffens up the wheel a bit laterally.

I used Sapim CX-ray spokes for this build as well. Bladed spokes certainly cost more and they look cool but what I like best about building with these is that they actually build a stronger wheel. Where the spokes cross the flat bladed shape of the spokes allows each spoke to sit flatter against one another. This allows each spoke to bend less where the cross which strengthens the wheel.

I went with H+son TB-14 rims for these wheels for the same reasons I did with the previous set. Strong, great ride quality, and their all black look will fit in nicely with the stealth look of the Foundry frame. Now all I need is that pesky frame to arrive!