Latest Custom Builds — All Mountain

Ted was keen for some new hoops and approached us for advice on wheels to replace the alloy Roval 29er wheels on his 2017 Specialized Enduro. He was specifically after a wider rim and had a weight target in mind. He rides technical and rocky trails, and had smashed up his Rovals, so reliability was paramount. Following some discussions, we suggested a Nextie Carbon rim build with silver Sapim Race spokes and brass nipples. The silver spokes always look classy and help to recover some of the additional cost of going carbon - not that the additional cost over premium alloy...

Dan has been riding his Zerode Taniwha (Māori pronunciation: "tanifa") on 26" wheels for some time now, and felt the need to move up to 27.5". The bike is quite special, utilising a centralised 12 spd pinion gearbox that offers a very large spread of gears beyond today's 1x systems. A special Singlespeed rear wheel is required (as there is no rear derailleur). Dan wanted a bombproof hub, that is Singlespeed specific, with instant engagement, and silent. It's not easy to find all those things in a hub, but Project321 offered everything he needed, just not in s Singlespeed version. Yet. We contacted Project321...

Bugs races XC, and needed some new MTB wheels to update an older ride. Having ridden carbon hoops before, he wanted to revert back to alloy, as he felt that (at least with skinnier XC tyres) alloy rims offered a more "comfortable" ride. He'd seen a pair of wheels we built some time ago, and decided a very similar package would suit him. Novatec D811SB QR15 front hub and the XLR8 MD rear MTB hub, in 12mm thru axle guise. The XLR8 hub is a solid choice. It's convertible back to QR and 10mm thru axle. The freehub can be converted...

If you have been paying attention, you will remember Richard. He had us pull some Chris Kings hubs out of a 26" wheelset we built him a few years ago, and rebuild them into some new 27.5" Syntace rims. Generally we don't rebuild onto used rims - but there are some exceptions. In this case, Richard's old rims were originally built by us, and in good shape (apart from a few cosmetic dents). Of course, being disc brake rims, brake track wear is not an issue, so all being well the rims should do another round rather than sit unused...

Richard gave us a call after buying a new frame. He described the wheels we built him a couple of years ago as "flawless" and wanted more of the same for his new bike. So similar in fact, that he asked if we would transfer his used Chris King hubs onto new 27.5" W35 rims (from his original W35 26" hoops we had built previously).  Of course we could! He sent us up the old wheelset, and we were happy to see that the wheels had beautiful even tensions despite having been ridden really hard across Sydney's Northern Beaches rock gardens - a punishing place...