You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
29" front wheel, 32H, j-bend spokes. Any idea?
£67
£35ish, plus cost of spokes, plus any costs around retaping the rim if tubeless etc
Why bother. Just buy a new wheel and seek the old one (unless the hub is broken and the rim a good one).
At work if you hand me a hub, a rim and a set of spokes and nipples that are the correct size then we charge £25
Extra costs for taking old wheels apart and calculating spoke length.
Hmm, OK, so only the rim can be re-used, not the spokes and nipples?
Yes the hub is broken, it’s a Specialized OEM wheel. I’ve been looking at the new Hope Fortus 23 (£144 at CRC for a front wheel) but was thinking maybe I could save a few quid by rebuilding the Spesh wheel with a Pro 4 hub.
Hmm, OK, so only the rim can be re-used, not the spokes and nipples?
You can if you do it yourself and the hub is a like for like swap, I do. Professional wheelbuilers aren't keen on reusing old spokes, it makes the job harder and you can't really guarantee the quality of the build.
Think of it as your opportunity to fit a dynamo hub and go bike packing
The spokes can be reused. Assuming that the new hub needs the same lengths that is. Unless the rim is something special just not worth it unless you DIY and can reuse spokes.
Evans do rebuilds for £35ish including new spokes and nipples. I've had a few done in different branches and all were good. Prices may have gone up as it was a few years ago.
I paid 57 squid including new spokes and nipples.
Its NB to remember, that it is generally good practice to have the wheel re-tensioned at some point a few hundred miles down the road. Most good builders would generally do this for free. (I think)
40quid from Evans inc new spokes. A few years ago so may be more now.
Learning how to build wheels is not as hard as you think, I've built a dozen or so wheels now on homemade jigs from an old kona swingarm and some old forks, I bought a spoke tension meter off eBay and build more accurate and better tensioned wheels than the last shop I used. You can re-use spokes but I'd always advise using new nipples.
Once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier, the only downside is you'll end up fixing your mates wheels as well. Spoke calculator apps, Google and YouTube make it much easier these days.
labour cost plus spokes/nipples/tape etc
depending on shop