#wheelsmith

I read everywhere that new wheels are one of the best upgrades you can make for your bike.  After lots of research and much gnashing of teeth over the cost of wheel building tools, I finally bit the bullet and did my first wheel build.  The end result is a set of Stan’s Grail rims laced to DT Swiss 350 hubs:

Rim

I wanted a rim to match the do it all nature of the Salsa Vaya.  The Stan’s Grail was an easy choice.  It can handle tires from 25mm all the way up to tires like the 42mm monsters I have installed.  It can handle high pressures, it’s tubeless ready, it’s kinda light (460g) and kinda aero.  The only rim I really wanted more was the carbon ENVE XC, but they cost $800/rim instead of $100/rim.

Hub

Hubs are tough.  There are lots of options and you can pay huge amounts of money for brands, small decreases in weight and general shininess.  I really wanted a DT Swiss 240 or a White Industries CLD, but I just couldn’t justify the cost.  The DT Swiss 350 is much cheaper than the 240 and it’s basically the same hub, but it’s a little heavier because they don’t machine it as much.  There are a couple of negatives though.  The front hubs aren’t convertible to thru axles if I ever need that and the rear hub is only 10 speed compatible out of the box.  You have to buy a $70 freehub to switch to 11 speed (which I don’t need yet).  I also had a tough time deciding between 6 bolt ISO or center lock.  In the end I decided to stick with 6 bolt to match the BB7 brakes I have.

Spokes

I would love to use bladed spokes, but I don’t think the small weight decrease justifies paying 3 times more.  It was an easy choice to go with a cheaper double butted spoke.  For no particularly strong reason, I chose Wheelsmith DB14 double butted spokes over DT Swiss Competition spokes.

Nipples

The book I read said firmly to use brass nipples, so I went with Wheelsmith brass nipples.

Tires

I plan on using several tires with these rims.  The tires pictured are some new Soma Cazadero 42mm tires for a gnarly gravel race I’m doing in April with potentially awful weather here in Vermont.  I want as much grip as possible and I think these will deliver.  On the other end of the spectrum, I’m really interested in the Schwalbe Pro One 28mm tubeless tires for paved riding.  I also have some 40mm Clement MSO adventure tires and some 32mm/40mm Vittoria Hypers (basically wide, light slicks).

Conclusions

There are always a few lessons to be learned - especially when doing something for the first time.  In hindsight, I wish I had gone with a DT Swiss 240 front hub so that I could convert it to a thru axle.  I’m looking at building up a Salsa Colossal with a front thru axle and it would be great if I could also use these wheels on that bike.

I probably should have also gone with a center lock version instead of 6 bolt.  It seems like that standard is gaining traction and I want to eventually switch to Shimano’s Ice Tech rotors.

Those minor niggles aside, I love the end result.  These wheels are everything I wanted them to be.  They are lighter than the stock wheels by several hundred grams, they are tubeless ready, they can handle a ton of tire sizes and pressures and I think that they look great!  A great, versatile wheelset for a great, versatile bike.

I’ll follow up with some more thoughts after I get some significant miles on them.