Latest Custom Builds — Sapim

Brock was having some woes with his Easton EA70 rear wheel. He'd pulled a spoke through the rim. We find the Kinlin XC279 is an excellent replacement rim for this kind of wheel - super robust, not heavy and wide at 23mm external. Being a few years old, and having some some miles on them, the spokes and nipples were seized. We rebuilt the fine Easton EA70 hub onto the Kinlin using Sapim Race double butted spokes on the non drive side, and Sapim Leader plain gauge spokes on the driveside. The heavier gauge spoke acts to somewhat equalise lateral...

Elite riders are no stranger to XLR8. Listed as repeat customers are plenty of Ironman competitors, an ex-German National Champ, National level road and MTB racers, and over the last few years a very vocal Aussie MTB racer. She's ridden both MTB Marathon XC Worlds and more recently UCI MTB Worlds in Cairns. She's been riding our hoops for several years now, quietly. Not like her really, but I suppose that's what happens when you are sponsored by a multinational bike company! Driven in all aspects of her busy life, she has a "take no prisoners" riding style, and recently cracked...

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...

Jeff is restoring a late 80s Shogun Alpine touring bike. He planning on using it for what it is intended, and needed our help to build the right wheels - tough, lightish, and smart. We favour the Alexrims DM21 and (it's slightly slimmer brother) the DM18 for builds like this. These rims are very tough, have a nice box section profile and build very stiff wheels. Both are reasonably wide (23mm and 19mm respectively) so work well with modern touring and training tyre widths (28c or more). They are both eyeleted for strength, and (for a wheelbuilder) are an absolute...

Chris had seen our retro inspired builds and sent us a photo of the beautiful blue Colnago that he was "restomodding". He had decided to compliment the beautiful steel frame with a modern 11s Campagnolo Potenza groupset, and needed some wheels that would fit in with the classic aesthetic. We discussed several rim options (including the fantastic Hplusson TB14) but in the end he selected the Hplusson Archetype in polished silver. Primary reasoning? It's a beautifully finished rim, with an aero profile inspired by the late 80s Campagnolo Omega Strada rims. That and they are light, strong, and excellent value! We...