Latest Custom Builds — Sapim

We passed Dave at speed on the local trails. He called out and we caught up briefly - he needed a new rear wheel. He wanted a wider rim to hold the tyre sidewalls better, for more cush and grip. The Spank Oozy Trail 295 is the current alloy rim of choice - nicely finished, 25mm wide internal, 30mm external, and well priced. We rebuilt his Giant hub onto one of these using Sapim Race double butted spokes and brass nipples, for a high performance economy solution.

Following a recent driveway catastrophe (involving a wheel, a car and concrete) a new front wheel was required. We searched through our old stock and found this new Magura Pro front hub. These were made for Magura by Hugi in the days before DT Swiss purchased the hub company. In fact, it's still quite commonplace for DT Swiss to manufacture hubs for other brands - Roval, Bontrager and Giant are notable. The Magura Pro is a silver Hugi 240 (DT Swiss 240s) and a prefect gravel hub (now that most MTBs have moved across to 15mm thru axles. Laced onto THE...

We built some wheels for Calvin some time ago. He claims they are the only wheels he's owned that have never required any attention. We're happy with that! This time Calvin needed a pair of bikepacking and gravel wheels for his new ride. We discussed at length the differing options, and Calvin was really keen to ensure utmost reliability. As a result, we decided the White Industries CLD hubs were a natural choice - super reliable, super tough and absolutely beautiful! For rims, the Spank Oozy Trail 295 was selected. Such a versatile rim! We have been using these rims for purposes from XC...

AB has been riding our wheels for a while and needed a new pair to suit her new frame. She has moved to Cannondale and their new Ai (Asymmetric Integration) frameset. The Cannondale concept requires specific rear wheel dish to sit properly in the rear triangle of the frame, but all in an effort to ensure greater lateral wheel stiffness and better wheel reliability.  Cyclinic, the local Project 321 distributor contacted us with this project and we agreed the Zelvy RBL 29er rims would be perfect for this build. They are super duper light, and still quite stiff under a...

John has been riding these Mercury carbon wheels for a while. They have seen some use, and need a little love, so he decided to have XLR8 fix a few problems that had emerged. The front hub bearings were loose in the hubshell, and would not stay put. Plus, the rear wheel had started to break spokes. The general rule here is that if a wheel breaks a couple of spokes, it's worth investing in a full rebuild. John's on a budget, and saving up for an XLR8 custom build. To help him out, we used an inexpensive but perfectly functional Shimano...