Hi everyone, this is kind of a happy follow up post to First disk brake all road/gravel frame - #15 by Philip_Hackstock since I just ordered my Strael 4.0 frame and I’m obviously very exited. Equally exited about riding the bike as well as picking out the components and building it up.
The first question I’m trying to get sorted is which wheels I’m going for. I’ve recently built up my first set and really enjoyed the mechanical process of putting all the pieces together and ending up with a thing that you can ride. I’m fully aware that building your own wheels these days is probably more expensive than buying a set but I want to do it for the love of building.
Here’s my requirements for the wheels:
Disk brake
Max tire size is 39mm on the Strael, I plan to start with maybe 35mm
Since I want to do the odd long bike ride and don’t want to worry about the batteries for my light, I’ll build up the front wheel using a SON dynamo hub
I might do the odd bikepacking trip so I’d have some additional system weight on the bike
Now the open questions:
How many spokes should I go for in the front and the rear? I’m not too worried about weight or aero so I’m tending towards 24 in the front and 28 in the rear. For reference, i weigh 72kg
6 bolt or centerlock for the disk brakes? Since this is my first disk brake road/gravel bike, I have no experience with either. Just wondering if there’s any reason to pick one over the other. For the groupset, I’m planning to go with Shimano 11 (or 12) speed mechanical 2x
In the past, I’ve ordered carbon rims from Light Bicycle and have been very happy so I’m planning to do that again. For the rear wheel I’ve found this one: AR25 Disc Plus Carbon Road Rim - Light Bicycle . What I like about it is the asymmetric rim profile. I’ve done some quick spoke geometry and the offset would allow me to have a more favorable non-drive side (NDS) to drive side tension ratio. Using a DTSwiss 240 Hub the NDS goes up from 55% to 65%, which is a whole 10kg more assuming around 120kg for the drive side tension. From what I learned reading various sources (Sheldon Brown, Jobst Brandt, …) having a more even spoke tension ratio is one of the main ways to get a stronger and more long-lived bike wheel. My question there would be if this is still sound advice or if this is a bit outdated in today’s age of better materials and manufacturing.
With respect, you may want to have a pro do the final tighten and true on your wheels.
Having said that, Jobst’s book is the Bible. I have a 1980 edition somewhere. Asymmetric rims are still great. I personally like more spokes than less, less tension and less need for thread locker.
The six bolt vs centre lock is always fun. Centre lock looks cleaner and works if torqued properly. I do secretly admire the simplicity of six bolt though. I think the choice would really be made based on what hubs you want and which is available. Either will work.
Fair point about getting a pro involved. I have a good LBS that I can give the wheels to for checking. The one wheelset I’ve built so far came out quite good but surely never a bad idea to have a pro look at things.
So regarding spoke count, when you’re saying you’re a fan of more spokes, would you then go for 32 (or 36 even) in the rear and 28 in the front? For spokes, I’ll go with the trusted Sapim CX rays.
Looks like the DT Swiss 240 rear hub that I want to go for only exists in the Center Lock flavor so that answers that question.
32 or 36 spokes for a 72 kg rider seems like overkill to me. I didn’t read your other post but you don’t mention bikepacking here, so no extreme weight to support on the bike. I’m closer to 80kg and ride similar roads to you and I’ve never had any issues with 28. I know it’s not a lot of extra weight to go 32, but why?
You are already on the right path re rim manufacturer. Defo go hook
As for hubs, hope or similar would be a great choice to go with the Strael, particularly if silver hubs would match up with your choice of frame colour. Consider SP for the dynamo, rather than Son. From what I’ve seen, they are equally robust, and a lot cheaper. I’m running an SP hub with Supanova lights on my Secan, and love the setup. Only drawback is that dynamo hubs are not home serviceable, and must be stripped from the wheel and sent away, which with SP just isn’t worth it. On the flip side, it will take a huge amount of miles before one dies
For spokes, Sapin CX Ray or equivalent pillar Wing bladed spokes are the ones to use. I’ve absolutely hammered my 28 spoke gravel and MTB wheel sets and they have survived with cosmetic damage only and one or two very occasional truings, so you could probably go 24 both ends, but 28 might be safer given you are looking at 25mm deep rims.
36 is overkill. I haven’t built a 36 hole wheel in years. 28 or 32 was my thinking. Less spokes means more tension and more probability of loosening. So thread locker becomes somewhat important in these cases. Sapim CX Ray spokes are great.
I have a Light Bicycle WR38 wheelset on my gravel bike with a Son front hub and Hope Pro5 rear. Very happy with it!
After building many bikes in my shop days with 6 bolt hubs, I am centerlock for life. You can also get bikepacking-ready tools these days that can do a Shimano cassette and lockrings with the same tool (just make sure you get internally splined lockrings).
If you go silver with your hubs, you only have one spoke count option from Son (28), so your decision is made. You’re stuck with black if you go with Dt Swiss though. I weigh a bit more than you, have the 24 spoke front, and did the Roubaix sportiv on those wheels as well as some bikepacking, with zero issues.
The one thing that would push me towards a pre-built wheelset (unless you have zen-like patience) is that you can get no spoke holes. It’s really a game changer.
thanks for the warm welcome very excited to build it up and have some cool adventures on it.
The Hope hub looks great, I was considering going silver for the hubs, spokes and nipples and I think now I’m convinced. I originally wanted to stick with DT Swiss because I’ve successfully home serviced a few hubs. Looks like the Hope is also great though in terms of serviceability. I think I’ll go with the Pro 5 in a nice silver then.
SP for the dynamo sounds like a really interesting option but I think I’ll stick with SON. Being located in Austria, I like the idea of having the manufacturer around the corner in Germany and at-home serviceability, but man that SP is a lot cheaper, tempting for sure.
Very good to hear that 28 spoke has been good for you even when hammering MTB sets. I’ll probably go 28 for front and rear then.
Very cool, I’ll probably build my wheelset with this exact combination of front and rear hub. The only difference is that I might go for the offset rim in the back and something a little bit deeper in the front.
Since I’ll most likely go with at 2x11 Shimano GRX and hearing your centerlock preference, I think I’ll go centerlock as well.
Ah you mean inside the rim bed so that there’s no need for tubeless tape anymore?
Genau! So much less faff, and one less thing to go wrong or need replacing.
One underrated benefit of the Hope hubs is their sound - definitely personal preference, but I find the timbre much more pleasant than DT Swiss. The only thing that has me considering DT Swiss again is the silent zero-drag internals from WRP.
For sure, I definitely got bitten by that when I built my first set of wheels. I bought and followed the Roger Musson guide (Wheel Building and Spoke Lengths for cycle wheels). Even though I thought I’d done enough stress relieving, turns out I did not do enough. It wasn’t dangerous or anything but I noticed the wheels loosing true after a ride or two. With more intense stress relieving and a re-true they’ve been flawless ever since, lessons were learned for sure.
My favorite set of wheels I’ve ridden so far are Campagnolo Bora Ultra 45s. But that’s for a wheel system.
My favorite wheels I’ve built for myself are 28h front and rear. Hardly a weight penalty over 24h with a noticeable difference in lateral support. Steering and cornering feel much better to me versus 24h.
For my clients doing bikepacking I recommend 6-bolt due to the ease of rotor removal. DT Swiss hubs are always good too; freehub removal can be done by hand with the cassette still mounted.
Asymmetric rims are always good for improved triangulation/spoke bracing angles.
Just remember to get rims that have holes drilled in the back side of the tire channel. And a few extra spokes on hand for the long adventures.
Uh that’s really temping. I saw that option when I bought by first pair of light bicycle rims and didn’t go for it as I don’t ride tubeless (yet). I plan to at least initially set up the bike with the tubes and then maybe eventually switch to tubeless. I’m already jumping into unknown territory tech wise by going disk brakes so I’ll keep it one new tech thing at a time I’ll probably go with the no spoke hole option but stick with home building the wheels. I’m quite fond of mechanical tasks like that and with adding a little screw to the nipple and a magnet it should be doable .
That is a great piece of information, thank you. That would be my only complaint about the DT Swiss, I do find their sound annoyingly loud. Hearing that the Hope is more pleasant is great, I’ll do for that one then.
I have also seen the silent zero-drag upgrade, that would be super nice but the price (although probably justified) is too steep for me.
Thanks for the great professional insight, 28 front and rear it is then
You mean the holes through which I’d insert the nipples, right? I’m contemplating following @gerbils advice and getting the no holes version for less faff down the road the rim tape when I eventually dare to go tubeless. Is there a downside to going no holes apart from more patience required when building the wheel?
I have built a handful of un-drilled rims and even with significant wheel building experience I find it to be very labor intensive.
What I caution: in the event of needing to replace a broken spoke and/or nipple in a traditionally drilled rim you can perform a trail side replacement if you’re bikepacking. You can cut a slit in the tape and push the spoke/nipple through and patch the hole with a piece of duct tape as a temporary measure. Not ideal but it beats the alternative IMO. The undrilled rim won’t cause you or a less-than-suited bike shop the hassle of needing to remove tire, valve, and performing the replacement.
Granted the best handy tool to hold a nipple in place at the rim during a spoke removal is a small hand vice, then you can run the new spoke (so long as it failed at the elbow and not in the nipple) without having to remove anything at all.
Ok, good to know. I just remembered that I have an old pair of tubular rims where I can test getting the nipples into the correct holes through the valve opening, but I fear that I’ll agree with you in that it’ll be too much of a pain.
That is a really fair point, reducing roadside (or workshop) faff in the worst case scenario sounds like a good case to optimize for
I’ll probably go with the no spoke hole option but stick with home building the wheels. I’m quite fond of mechanical tasks like that and with adding a little screw to the nipple and a magnet it should be doable .