[Closed] Light bicycle wheels - who builds them?

Expect to pay about double if you source LB rims in the UK v buying direct.

I've bought 3 or 4 pairs of rims off them and built them up myself.

What does the delivery charge work out at?

How easy are they to build up? I've only built one pair of wheels, but they've turned out fine so far...

Was thinking of a Novatech/LB budget carbon build, but feel very uneasy about a 24 spoke carbon build!

Any issues getting them delivered overseas?  Did you pay duty?

I'd be keen to know this

I'd be very, very surprised if you didn't get asked for duty and customs charges.

feel very uneasy about a 24 spoke carbon build

Me too but I had some old Hope Pro3 Sp3 wheels with 26" Stans Crest rims that were never going to get used again.  The LB 38mm 650b rims have a pretty close ERD to the old 26" Crests so I just swapped the rims straight onto the old spokes.  Must have been over two years now and I have broken one spoke but no other problems.  The 38mm rims are pretty stiff, didn't have that much of a wobble riding home even with only 23 spokes left.

I would not choose 24 spokes though, I was just being tight and reusing what I had.

I have built a few, they were fine, no issues. Only points of note would be max spoke thickness 2/1.8/2, no 2.0 plain gauge and 130kgf max.

They were quite stiff so you could have uneven tension and they would still be quite true, tension meter is handy.

Still going after a year of race use.

Light Bicycle Instructions

https://us.lightbicycle.com/lb-wheel-building-tips-instructions/

My mate has some, has no issues that I know of.  I think I will use Crests for my XC race narrow rim build, but probably get some LB rims for my rigid bike so I can go wide and not end up with wheels weighing a ton.

I have 2 pairs of 30mm 29er rims, 28h on the hardtail and 32h on the full suss.

I was hit for duty on both deliveries....$170 per rim, $50 or so shipping, 4% duty and 20% VAT. A mate had a pair of LB rims delivered a couple of years ago and managed to avoid paying duty, but I would always factor it in.

http://www.sixthelement.co.uk/ under £1000 for the pair of full build carbon wheels.

I've had several sets over the years....always just bought direct and built them up myself. Wheel building is strangely addictive...

You will get charged duty and postage can be more than you think...still much more cost effective to go direct. A few pals usually just club together and make up a bigger order...thus sharing the postage costs.

I've only had one rim failure...a 65mm 26x4.8 fat bike rim went 'pop' when I was going full chat down an old landrover track. I didn't hit anything so it was a genuine carbon failure. LB were great and after a few photos of the damage they sent out a new rim FOC.

I'll be placing another order for some soon...!

Nextie rims is another overseas option. Not had any myself but a few pals have and they seem to be as good if not a little better made than LB's.

Under a grand?  Aren't LB rims like £100?  Should be able to build a set for less than half the price of those sixth element ones.

My last pair of Chinese carbon rims cost me £56 in customs and handling charges - rims were $340/pr. Last pair were some generic ones from AliExpress and have been great - seller was easy to deal with plus you get some good discount codes. I've also got some Nextie rims that I bought direct - their communication was rubbish as the consignment effectively disappeared for 4 weeks / no tracking and the rims themselves there are a few spoke holes that aren't aligned correctly - don't know why anyone would consider them 'premium'

there's a guy selling nextie hope wheels with cx ray spokes at a great price on ebay.

I ordered mine direct, then had them built up by Surrey hills Cycleworks in Leatherhead. 3.5 years later, they're still going strong.

molgrips

Under a grand? Aren’t LB rims like £100? Should be able to build a set for less than half the price of those sixth element ones.

More like $170 to $190 per rim  + delivery + import charges etc.

I'm running two sets of self builds and have broken uh, three. Two rears and one front in the 4 years I've been running them, but I am a lover of low pressure for rock crawling climbs.

They worked out at £120 per rim delivered when I first did it, £150 2nd time round.

The rim I use is now $185 which in today's money is about £132 undelivered. I'd happily use them again, but with duty and delivery added on, they're basically 180 to 200 a rim. That's a bit juicy for me tbh, especially for a consumable.

prices are getting much higher now the pound is so weak and prices have generally gone up, some good prices on aliexpress but more of a risk, asian cycle express ships from germany and their rims are around 200euros with no tax, can't remember who they use but think quality is good. been happy with all of mine, my original front wheel is 4 years old and has been rebuilt once and never trued since, rears take more hammer and few are geting a bit ropey, lsat wheelset came from carbonfan as their prices were best but it came dished badly

I decided I make things even more complicated as

i already had a set of king hubs that I wanted to reuse.

Once I looked into the cost of spokes and a build it was obvious that it was cheaper to send my hubs to them and have them built in the factory.

At the time the pound was quite strong so that was in my favour

i Did the online chat thing with a few of their reps after the chat they send you the transcript of th conversation, this included cost quotes.

So I sent my hubs they built them with DT Swiss spokes and sent me 3 spares front and rear at my request

they marked the overall value down on the shipment and I paid about £70 import duty

they were really nicely boxed and wrapped

iv run them on my fs bike fairly clumsy riding lakes/ Scotland etc

they have never ran out of true and never been retensioned.

Rims have plenty of scratches and marks but so far so good I’d definitely have another pair.

Mine are 38mm 36hole 27.5

Check out http://www.blueflowwheels.com

£679 for carbon wheelsets on Hope hubs.

Got a good wheelbuilder near you? Steve D at Icycles did both of my sets, I assembled them and he trued and tensioned them for a sensible price. With used DT240Ss I ended up being into it for less than the cost of some alu wheelsets.