New Wheels - Am I Missing Something?

[Trevelyan]

I've been toying with the idea of getting a second set of wheels for my mountain bike so that I can swap easily between road tyres for commuting and knobblies for fun. I'm wondering if I'm missing something though. Looking at Chain Reaction and Wiggle I can only find wheel components rather than built wheels. Is this how wheels are sold? Do you buy the components then get someone to build the wheel for you, or is it fairly straightforward to build a wheel yourself? I'm happy to give it a go but still have unhappy childhood memories of trying to straighten buckled wheels and ending up with pringle shaped scrap metal!

[Stugots]

wheelsets are readily available. All you will need to add is rear cassette and disc rotors,tubes,tyres job done.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Categories.aspx...

Was in a similar situation so asked LBS for a wheel build quote to be told cheaper on internet. Due to time it takes to hand build wheels.

HTH

[Trevelyan]

Thanks for that. I'm not sure how I missed that category to be honest. It's probably something to do with CRC having more categories than PH has sub forums

[Raven Flyer]

I looked at doing this. Instead I just changed tyres when going out with my roadie mates.

I would have to buy tyres, tubes, wheels, discs and cassette so the bill was around £350. Then I figured I may end up re-indexing gears, setting up calliper offsets etc. So I ended up just buying tubes and tyres, changing the tyres for each road ride, which I got down to less than 10 minutes.

Then I got fed up with that and bought a road bike

[OneDs]

Raven Flyer said:

I looked at doing this. Instead I just changed tyres when going out with my roadie mates.

I would have to buy tyres, tubes, wheels, discs and cassette so the bill was around £350. Then I figured I may end up re-indexing gears, setting up calliper offsets etc. So I ended up just buying tubes and tyres, changing the tyres for each road ride, which I got down to less than 10 minutes.

Then I got fed up with that and bought a road bike

+1, I used to use my MTB for the winter commute, with disc brakes, less speed and being more upright it was a bit safer, I toyed with the idea of two wheelsets but in the end worked out that changing tires was actually less hassle than wheels, as invariably the disc cailipers would need realigning every time and the first couple of stops on the different wheelsets could be hit & miss whilst the pads re-bed in to your different disc.

Although if you want a good set of wheels try a custom built set from MerlinCycles.

[cjrob]

OneDs said:

Although if you want a good set of wheels try a custom built set from MerlinCycles.

dont bother with factory wheels, I switched to factory wheels on both road and mountain bikes (all £300+ wheelsets) and had nothing but trouble with them.

compare that to the handbuilt road and MTB wheels I have owned for some 15 years . . . . that are still going great guns.

the best thing about handbuilt you can spec exactly what you want, strong/light/aero etc also if you do bust a spoke they are so much easier to repair (try searching spare spokes for some more expensive Mavic wheels and you will see why)

handbuilt all the way from me!!!

[curlie467]

Just swap tyres, far less expensive and only takes about 10 minutes.

[robpearson]

How about a nice cheap pub bike with road tyres?