Truly Handbuilt versus Machine-built & Bike Shop Wheels
by Jake Brennand
This article is long overdue. And it’s going to maybe ruffle some feathers. But so be it. The premise of this article is also the basic premise of my company, Hogtown Spokes Elite MTB. We offer a premium, exhaustive handbuilt bicycle wheel assembly process for buyers who want no expense spared in terms of time, care, effort, and follow-up servicing in the creation of their handbuilt wheels. We build primarily MTB wheels, but also wheels for gravel and road. Every wheel gets the same invested treatment. The purpose of this article is to briefly lay out what “handbuilt wheels” actually entails in terms of the real assembly process, from start to finish, and the contrasts between handbuilt wheels and machine-built — usually big manufacturer — wheels. I also explain the situation of wheelbuilds offering elements of each. The latter is often the domain of the local bike shop offering a custom wheel experience.
What does “handbuilt” actually mean?
Handbuilt, in essence, means that every step of the build process — measuring dimensions of the hub and rim (if needed; that is, if manufacturer-supplied data is suspect or lacking), lacing the wheels, tensioning the wheels, checking tension on the wheels, de-stressing the wheels, and then checking tension and de-stressing again and possibly applying a threadlocker to the nipples— is carried out by human hands, ideally the exact same specialist technician from start to finish. The pure handbuilder is virtually unencumbered by deadlines and other arbitrary limiters of quality control, free to indulge in as much time as is needed to do the job immaculately. The handbuilder becomes intimately familiar with every nuance of the parts being worked on: the quality of the joining of alloy rims (how the microimperfections in welds or sleeve joints affect lateral and radial true); the quality of the finish and deburring of spoke holes on carbon rims; the relative softness of hub flanges during bedding in of the spokes under higher tensions, creating “witness marks”; and the quality of the overall true along with various maverick factors in a build, such as certain rear wheels needing exceptional “dishing” — centering efforts — or certain rims playing better or worse with high finishing tensions and nipple friction.
The handbuilder is a dedicated expert with wheels and ideally only or almost exclusively works on wheel assembly and wheel-service tasks. In my last blog, I compared professional wheelsmiths to the special operatives of bike mechanics. This military analogy is a fitting one. But another appropriate analogy would be with the medical specialist. All doctors get some form of professional emergency trauma training, but for specialized surgeries or car crashes or gunshot wounds you would want to be dealing with an expert surgeon focused exclusively on what’s critically ailing you. It’s the same with elite wheelbuilding. Malcolm Gladwell famously wrote that becoming a savant at anything takes about 10,000 hours, minimum, of dedicated practice and repetitions. Wheelbuilding is a 10,000-hours vocation. No one has the time in a day to be a dedicated general-purpose mechanic as well as a wheel specialist — or a suspension specialist, for that matter. Elite wheels and custom suspensions, therefore, are typically the pursuits of self-driven specialists and specialized businesses within the bike industry (including Hogtown Spokes). That being said, most specialists at either discipline got their start doing the generalisms of everyday shop bike work — drivetrain tuning, bike assembly, parts swaps, brake bleeds— and can easily perform those tasks if called upon. The US Army Rangers can still huck it with Big Army from time to time.
During the critical de-stressing/pre-stressing process for wheels, the key to ensuring a retained true out on the trails or on the tarmac, handbuilders will use various methods to ensure that this process is performed correctly and thoroughly. Handbuilders of competence will very carefully step on wheels, repeatedly squeeze pairs of spokes together at near-maximum hand force, or use a plastic tire lever to leverage windup out of pairs of spokes at full tension. Many handbuilders might do all three or two of three. Handbuilders, again, have no timelines for this tedious process and will repeat it until wheels show no deviation on the stand or tension metre and gauges before and after extensive de-stressing activities. De-stressing also tests the safety and resiliency of high-tension spokes; wheel parts need to be able to survive these stress tests in order to be safe for use. Furthermore, in certain cases — for example with high-pressure road wheels, which put a lot of compressive force on rim structures, or in any case where the customer has specified that the builder install tires on the wheels — handbuilders will use the effects of adding a tire to a wheel to further pre-condition wheelsets to withstand and sustain final, dynamic riding tensions. Handbuilding is demonstrably geared at “proofing” a product nearly perfectly. It’s a mixture of science and some art.
Handbuilders will have access to and use a variety of butted spokes, including more exotic models (Sapim D-Light, Sapim Force, Sapim Laser, DT Swiss Alpine), as well as fine bladed spokes (Sapim CX-Ray, DT Aerolite, Pillar Wing). Handbuilders employ a range of nipple types, but many of us prefer extended-head models in which the ending thread section extends into the internal section of the rim, namely Sapim Double-square and DT Squorx-head. This choice is informed by experience dictating that fuller thread engagement lasts longer and that such nipples are often the only way to reliably stand by alloy nipples as a durable product resistant to breakage in the most vulnerable section of any nipple— where the nipple first enters the rim structure. Ironically, according to Sapim’s website, Double-square was originally developed in order to aid with machine-building. But I would argue that such nipples have now overwhelmingly become the alloy implement of specialized handbuilders, hardened by field experience and a commitment to working with only the parts that actually last.
Handbuilders specialize in tailoring the parts used to the customer. Spokes and nipples are chosen for their application and the rider’s weight and even height (height often affects leverage). Hub-hole counts are matched to the same. Engagement of the hub is rated to the rider’s needs as well. Everything comes together as a custom system for the end user. One size is never made to fit all. Aesthetically, handbuilders such as Hogtown Spokes will offer personal style and colour touches in completing custom builds.
Handbuilders, including Hogtown Spokes, will work to exceptionally tight tolerances: spoke-to-spoke deviations of less than 5% Kilogram Force (KgF) per side, lateral trues under 0.15–0.30 mm and radial trues less than 0.35 mm, and perfectly centred dish measurements. Virtually the only limitations on handbuilt wheels are caused by the quality of the wheel parts themselves. Handbuilders work to a standard that allows microimperfections in the rims, spokes, nipples, and hubs to surface. This is when the work stops and the job is judged completed and the customer billed.
True hand-building wheelsmiths carefully amass a treasure of trusted parts and equipment, sparing no expense — but also not necessarily buying the most expensive gear, just because — in their quest to find what works the most accurately and repeatably. Truing stands are the “pro” model — or they may be a sworn-by, modest heirloom and a pro model. Many handbuilders find a spoke key brand that works for them and practically wear it on them with the regularity of a wedding band on the finger of a faithful partner.
Finally, all reputable handbuilders will offer follow-up service and expertise with their builds. They will be specialists in these tasks, including bearing adjustment and replacement, re-greasing and cleaning, spoke servicing, and complete hub disassembly. Wheels are built to be “set and forget” — but this is never callously relied on as literal. If and when wheels need maintenance (and all wheels will), they will get it performed to the same standard as the original assembly. This assurance partly explains the higher pricing with handbuilt wheels. Handbuilders keep systematic data on their clients’ specs to aid in future servicing tasks.
What does “machine-built” mean?
Machine-built wheels are the fare of most big online sellers or big OEM bike brands, and most riders across the entirety of the cycling universe are riding on machine-built wheels. Big and reputable bike companies — from various Asian operations making their own or OEM wheels to Barnoldswick, UK, based Hope Tech, in the case of their factory-built wheels, or Santa Cruz, with their Reserve carbon wheels — rely on sophisticated assembly machines to perform a number of the steps in the traditional handbuilt process. It’s a misperception if anyone thinks that machine-built means never touched by human hands. A person or persons will be involved in some aspect of all machine-built wheel assemblies. But substantive tasks are automated, with the goal of increasing efficiency and reducing costs as the main drivers of building even quality wheels in this way. (It should be noted that Santa Cruz and Hope perform final handbuilt checks on their machine-built wheel products.)
Typically machine-building starts with a person assisting a pneumatic device, with the core parts spread out on a wheelbuilding jig, and the device then lacing the spokes to the nipples as part of the pre-tensioning step. From here, the wheel will follow a factory assembly of engineered checkpoints, dedicated to performing automated tension adjustments while checking spoke tensions using digital runout gauges and tension instrumentation. Tolerances are set at a fixed bandwidth (estimating: in the range of 0.25–0.45 mm each of lateral and radial true), and when the wheelset is suitably within this range the wheel is ready for the next phase of the assembly line. In this final phase, typically, either a person or a machine will deliver the wheel to a drum-press station, where a large drum-like attachment under hydraulics will apply compressive force to one or both sides of the hub, with the aim of de-stressing the spokes. The spokes should be (but may not be) returned to the drum press after compensating adjustments are made and vice-versa. The drum method, cloaked in the apparent respectability and infallibility of a factory-engineered step, applies high loads to the wheel — a good thing during any de-stressing effort — but the force is largely concentrated on the real estate of the hub itself and where the spokes proximately exit the hub holes. Arguably, de-stressing in this manner is most affective at eliminating spoke windup, but it fails to achieve what squeezing spokes together achieves: conditioning spoke steel to settle in place, stably and reliably, at high tension ratings that will yet manage to avoid relaxing or fatally yielding. In the end, any reliable de-stressing method is a product of handbuilders’ working metallurgical and engineering knowledge. Passed down from the original wonks of the hand trade, this dictates that spokes need to be conditioned and stretched into safety and reliability and made resistant to the “memory” effects of elastic deformation.
Machine-built wheels often use straight-gauge or unexotic butted spokes (usually confined to 2.0–1.8 mm tapers; Sapim Race and DT Competition are the common favourites) and basic nipples: 12 or 14 mm brass or alloy.
Machine-building ensures a reasonably high-quality product with a minimal output of human capital and labour costs. The bike industry wouldn’t survive, as a whole, without machine-built wheels. A major drawback, though, is that machine-built wheels almost never include follow-up service terms. Rather wastefully, the most probable interaction that a buyer is likely to have with a machine-built company after purchasing is a warranty claim offering a full replacement of the wheel(s) in the case of a covered defect or damage.
What are the “in-betweens,” including bike shop wheels?
This is where things may get spicy in this piece. But people deserve the facts. A main reason why I formed Hogtown Spokes, in early 2019, was because having worked at a number of high-end bike shops and been extremely underwhelmed by the frequency and expertise in wheelbuilding, I decided that the local market needed an expert voice. At one shop where I worked, wheelbuilding was treated like some rarefied form of quiche, with only the most senior mechanics getting the curious and coveted taste of an occasional build. Even here, these guys were relying on largely hand-me-down, say-so methods of assembly and doing really average work; I don’t think I ever saw the tension metre touched once. At another shop, the lead mechanic absurdly claimed to have assembled every strong wheel in Toronto and to be so good that he didn’t require a tension metre! This was an absolutely nonsensical statement — I saw him build or sell exactly zero wheels in my brief but eventful time there. Other local stores implausibly claim to offer dedicated wheelbuilding expertise, but determining how they build, what they use to build with, or even seeing their finished work products is close to impossible for the consumer inquiring about a potential project.
Nevertheless, most bike shops and some large wheel brands employ what amounts to a modified, “in-between” version of the wheelbuilding process — whether they realize this or not. They borrow elements of the handbuilt and machine-built processes, the latter mostly in terms of the timeframe for builds and the parts employed.
Bike shops and some large brands will perform the wheelbuilding task entirely in human hands, but they may or may not use professional quality-assurance equipment such as accurate tension metres and truing gauges fitted to their work stands. Stands may be the pro version, but many bike shops never take the time to calibrate their stands (a must for continued accuracy). Other shops, perhaps a small minority overall, may religiously calibrate theirs. Oftentimes, the amount of time in a workday devoted to a build is set by company managers or supervisors. Even where timelines are less formal, it’s seldom possible — without drawing the ire of higher-ups — for a shop builder or large retail builder to take hours and hours on a single assembly, with the only firm stop point being near perfection caused by the limits of the parts themselves. Bike shops often bill by the hour or, for many wheelbuilds, charge a flat-fee. Neither assessment method is conducive to charging what the work actually deserves in terms of time and care. If charging either way according to the time actually taken to perfect a hand wheelbuild — sometimes 20-plus hours on a single wheelset — and within the consumer context and pre-set consumer expectations of the bike shop environment, a typical bike shop would simply find itself without enough customers willing to actually pay. As a result, rates are kept deliberately lower for complete assemblies and the work, in my experience, shows for this.
Many bike shops are also limited to the parts that they will supply for their handbuilds. Most bike shops keep a handy supply of straight-gauge spokes, most often DT’s veteran Champion 2.0 mm spoke and occasionally Sapim’s Leader 2.0. Straight-gauge is strong enough, hard to wind up, and cheap and easy to supply, and for these reasons Champion or similar spokes are common currency in bike shop cupboards. However, straight-gauge spokes don’t flex in the same way as quality butted and bladed spokes do, and thus have shorter fatigue lives, lower yield ratings, and can in many cases be too stiff for carbon rims or high-tension alloy builds (leading to premature cracking or bulging at the spoke holes). Similarly, bike shops tend to supply brass nipples as their handbuilt go-to, because 12 mm or 14 mm brass nipples are easy to get, are cheap, and it’s essentially the low-hanging fruit of building to quickly tell a customer that “only brass lasts.” This, of course, is hardly true, and the bike shop builder will often fail to mention that higher-tension wheels are typically stronger wheels but that higher tensions are very difficult to achieve when using brass on non-eyeleted rims (the friction is enormous and pitched creaking results). At higher tensions, quality alloy nipples often move more freely when tensions approach finishing levels. When bike shops do have access to alloy nipples, they tend to be basic 12 mm models that lack the key structural reinforcement of Sapim Double-square or DT Squorx-head alloy.
Bike shops sometimes work to very high handbuilt standards — but good luck trying to independently verify the quality of the average build. Most shops, in my experience, will look at you funny if you ask for detailed information on what the builder uses for his or her trade, let alone asking for detailed specs and metrics with the finished work. (Hogtown Spokes, by contrast, every time supplies the customer with Metrics Sheets for handbuilt wheels. These accurately break down each relevant point of assembly and construction. Accountability and transparency mean everything to us.) During de-stressing, bike shops may or may not use reliable and effective procedures: the careful foot-pressure method, use of plastic tire levers, and the critical spoke-squeeze method recommended by Park Tool, among others. A staple of bike-shop builds, instead, seems to be the folkloric practice of trying to cross-leverage the edges of a rim, usually using the builder’s knees, the ground, or a table ledge as a fulcrum. This looks sufficient, but unfortunately it achieves next to nothing other than letting out the most exceptional spoke windup — which should never be there in the first place with a handbuilt wheel!
Bike shops may or may not offer follow-up servicing on the spoke tensions and hub internals with custom builds, while the quality of such servicing can vary greatly, from highly proficient to barely competent. General mechanical skills do not, as noted, automatically transfer to wheels and suspensions.
Conclusions and summary of differences
It’s pretty clear — could there really have been a different outcome? — that we, at Hogtown Spokes, heavily recommend the handbuilt wheel experience for the best mix of customized parts suitable to the rider in question, for exhaustive careful assembly, and for industry-leading accountability. It’s the most expensive but most reliable way to achieve high-performance, reliable wheels. To this day, Ferraris are all built largely by hand (nothing is 100% non-automated in cars anymore) for good reason. Handbuilders of repute deliver the most premium assembled wheel products in cycling.
Machine-built wheels represent the automation of the historical handbuilt process, leaving out steps or time in an effort to supply a quality product that will be sufficient and pleasing for the average rider, at a cost-effective sticker. Most machine-built wheels are sold online from big-box retailers or through bike shops either as inventory or OEM catalogue items. These will ride well enough and the industry, as a whole, greatly depends on them to keep the lights on, but parts selection is limited and follow-up service typically non-existent apart from formal (and potentially wasteful) warranty terms. A machine-built wheel is like buying a Kia or, if you’re lucky, a Honda Civic. Machine-built premium OEM wheels are like buying a Civic at a Maserati price point, in these exclusive cases reversing the typical cost-benefit analysis and win for the average cycling consumer. Buy machine-built Maseratis at your own peril!
Bike shop wheels — the “in between” wheels of the bike world — can vary greatly in quality, while nominally being assembled using the handbuilt method. The sheer unpredictability of the bike shop experience may actually make such wheels the riskiest proposition in terms of consumer expectations. A wheelset may well be first-rate using a pleasantly surprising array of quality parts. Or it may be essentially the machine-built process in terms of generic parts and a limited timeframe, just done by hand and without the formal assurance of a manufacturer’s warranty terms. Where bike shop wheels thrive, in reliable cases, is an individual builder working to a high-level of professionalism and being able to rely on flexible owners and management and a clientele largely built on the basis of strong referrals. When custom bike shop wheels go south, though, it tends to be that the “brick and mortar” — the superficial attractiveness of a shop’s setup — lures customers into believing in an expertise at building strong and durable wheels that just isn’t there in practice, with the customer learning the hard way. Similarly, in many other cases, customers (understandably) are simply unaware of the specialized nature of wheelbuilding and that general mechanical skills do not qualify someone to trade in the reputation of being a true hand-builder.
Ultimately, the choice is up to the consumer, and one of the facts of B2C selling is that no business will ever win over the inveterate cheapskates (or should frankly want to). But for the customer who, within reason, values quality, durability, and a personal custom experience above all else, and is willing to stretch his or her budget to pay for such things, handbuilt wheels pay for themselves time and again. The handbuilt space may yet be broader and more inclusive than some customers think. For instance, the person who can afford an $8,000 e- or enduro bike has every technical reason and every financial means of broadening their horizons and thinking about handbuilt wheels for their next wheelset. Whether provided by Hogtown Spokes or a number of other national and international quality hand-builders, the overall experience, we as humbly as possible suggest, is superior.
