Latest Custom Builds

Matt loves his Commencal hardtail. He's riding it all the time, but what he does not like is the lower spec hubs in the OEM wheelset. Particularly the 30 degrees engagement of the freehub. That's a lot of "dead pedalling" when he really wants to get the power down. We rebuilt his rear wheel with a Hope Pro4 Boost rear hub. He now only needs to rotate the freehub by 8.2 degrees to pick up the power. A significant improvement, with added hub reliability and quality from Hope as well. We used Sapim leader plain gauge spokes on the rear driveside, and...

Luke got in contact, and claimed that he'd been "breaking wheels for ten years now". His most recent purchase had been an Italian mid level factory wheelset, and he came to us after these had broken quite quickly. He's a bigger guy, and uses his wheels for both commuting and weekend rides. He needed 100% reliability, but was on a bit of a budget. We worked with him to come to a spec based on a Bitex lightweight front hub, and a Shimano 105 11s rear hub. We love Shimano hubs. The cup and cone system works really well and...

Neil had a 24h DT Swiss 350 hub lurking in a drawer, and a new Specialized Axis alloy rim, also 24h. He got in contact thinking these two should be mated for a spare rear wheel for his disc road bike. Being a bigger guy, we advised that a plain gauge spoke would be the best solution on this rear wheel, in order to control lateral felxure of the wheel under load (both pedalling and cornering). So Sapim Leader in black it was. He's a sucker for the all black aesthetic, so we used Sapim black 12mm brass nipples for...

Jett is a little 11 year old who loves to run, surf and ride. As a result, he's pretty bloody quick in Triathlon, even riding his MTB! Keen for more speed, he came to us and asked what we could do. We found an old 650c road bike on the local classifieds, and stripped and rebuilt it with smarter and lighter parts (but nothing too special, as he will grow out of this bike pretty soon). Being in an age group where he's not yet allowed to use aero bars, fast wheels and tyres are his only real aero advantage....

Michael is a local rider that we've ridden with over the years. He's certainly handy on the bike and uses his equipment hard. He contacted us when the alloy nipples started cracking on his Spank Oozy Trail 395 wheelset (supplied as original equipment on his bike). This is not uncommon, especially with the lower quality alloy nipples used as OEM (Original Equipment of Manufacture). It is certainly exacerbated when the nipples and spokes are not prepared correctly, nor the threads sealed following the build process. Keen for a pragmatic solution, that ensures better long term reliability, we suggested plain gauge Sapim...