Today I cooked up my first batch of chain wax. Ingredients:

• 60% paraffin oil
• 25% paraffin wax
• 10% mineral spirits (paint thinner, xylene, toluene, etc.)
• 5% friction modifier (PTFE powder)

Note: use gloves and wash your hands thoroughly after making this. PTFE is toxic, though it is an optional ingredient. It is an extreme pressure barrier lube, improving (reducing) wear. Commercially made waxes do have PTFE or a similar friction modifier, though the chain lube works well enough without it.

This recipe is similar to fancy expensive brands like Silca. The procedure is simple, similar to de-crystallizing honey:

• Fill a large pot half full of water and get it simmering (just below boiling) on a stove
• Put the ingredients into a glass jar and put the jar into the hot water
• Stir it occasionally as it heats for about 15 minutes

The hot water stabilizes the temperature and ensures it won’t get too hot. Ideally it’s around 180* F.

The ratio of paraffin oil to wax determines the viscosity and is adjustable. This batch, when sitting at room temperature, becomes semi-solid. After vigorous shaking it becomes fluid with a viscosity similar to 20W motor oil, which seems about right for dripping onto a chain. Thus it does require shaking well before use – like all liquid chain waxes do.

Mineral spirits are a solvent that helps keep it mixed, and they help it penetrate into the chain when applied. The wax tends to cling to the surfaces of the container, which seems as designed – similar to what it will do to the chain surfaces when applied. I couldn’t avoid getting some on my hands and it is very slippery – so much that the lid of the jar doesn’t want to stay screwed on!

Back in 2021 I wrote about my terrible experiences with Schwalbe tires and said they were garbage. My intent was to help fellow cyclists avoid the flats, manufacturing defects, expenses and hassles that I encountered. Fast forward a few years to 2025 and I just got a reminder that this is still true.

I resurrected a 1980s mountain bike for a friend and for an upcoming multi-day gravel ride suggested he get a set of Continental Cross King tires. I’ve been using them for a few years and they have been excellent: tough and knobby enough to handle technical downhills (Tiger Mountain), while lighter and faster than common downhill knobbies like the Maxxis Minions. The Cross King is a good XC tire for all-around riding – the best that I have used.

My friend ignored this advice and instead got a set of Schwalbe knobbies based on positive reviews he found on the internet. Over the next 2 weeks he got 4 flats on a mix of pavement & gravel riding, nothing even technical. He brought the bike back to me for other maintenance and the front tire was flat, so call that 5 flats.

Fortunately that big gravel ride is still a couple of weeks away so I put those Schwalbe tires where they belong (the garbage bin) and installed a set of Cross Kings for him.

Friends don’t let friends buy Schwalbe tires – ‘Nuff said!

In late 2021 I bought a new road bike, a Fezzari Empire. One of the reasons I bought it at that time is because that was the last year that Shimano offered its best components (Ultegra and Dura Ace) with mechanical shifting. Since then, they are only available with electronic. SRAM has also gone to the “dark side”.

Why don’t I like electronic shifting? Everyone else seems to love it. They say it works perfectly. Perhaps it does (when it’s not failing due to dead batteries) but mechanical shifting works perfectly too. It’s been perfected over decades and it is simpler, cheaper, lower maintenance, more reliable and durable.

My reasons include:

Electronic shifting has batteries that can die on a ride. To be safe, you need to add a spare battery to your ride kit. These batteries also must be charged periodically, and replaced when they wear out.

Mechanical shifting, once adjusted properly, works perfectly for several years and thousands of miles without needing adjustment or maintenance (other than periodic cleaning, which electronic shifting also requires).

Electronic shifting is less durable and reliable. Consider a multi-day stage ride. Electronic shifting requires you to bring extra batteries or find a way to charge them. It’s extra hassle with no corresponding benefit. Lachlan Morton, who won the Tour Divide in 2023, had electronic shifting. The batteries were a hassle during the ride (charging and replacing), and later it failed, forcing him to jerry-rig his derailleur with a spare spoke.

Electronic shifting is also considerably more expensive.

Electronic shifting has no real benefit to justify the expense and hassle. It’s not lighter, nor more efficient, nor faster, and it’s actually less durable and reliable.

Getting philosophical, electronic shifting contradicts the classic purity of what a bicycle should be: a simple, elegant, purely mechanical machine. No batteries, no electronics, no software. The only power source should be the person riding it.

In short, electronic shifting is a complex, expensive, fragile solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

So why do so many riders like it? It’s high tech, more expensive making it more exclusive, and the latest trendy shiny object. Pros use it, which can make sense since their bike only has to last 1 day, they don’t care how much it costs or how long it will last. But for those of us who aren’t GC contenders in the Tour de France, I’m surprised so many cyclists drink the kool-aid and can’t see that the Emperor has no clothes. And bike companies love it because they can charge you 3 times the price for the equipment, lock you into their “ecosystem”, get a new revenue stream selling batteries, and every few years forcefully deprecate old systems forcing people to upgrade.

No thanks, I have mechanical, the shifting is sublime, it’s simple and user-serviceable, and it will last me the next several decades until (God forbid) I’m too old to ride bikes anymore.

MTB: Yes

Tubeless tires are great for mountain bikes. They address the 2 biggest limitations of the tube+tire technology that had been used for more than 50 years: traction and puncture resistance. On MTB trails with tubed tires, you must run high enough pressures to avoid pinch flats. And those pressures are high enough to greatly reduce traction. For example, on typical 26″ x 2.3″ tires you would typically need 50 PSI to avoid flats, which makes the tire almost as hard as the rocks you’re riding over. And that only avoids pinch flats. You would still get flats from thorns or sharp rocks.

With tubeless tires you can run about half the pressures, 25-30 PSI, on those same size tires. This is a vast improvement in traction. And despite these lower pressures, the tires are even more flat resistant than before. It really is the best of both worlds.

Tubeless has its drawbacks. It makes tire mounting messy, more labor intensive, and requires a compressor. It also requires more maintenance, as the fluid must be replaced every few months. And once or twice a year you also need to completely remove the tire from the rim to clean out all the old dried up sealant.

But when mountain biking, the benefits are are well worth these hassles.

Road: No

None of these benefits apply with road bikes. With their skinnier tires, the ideal pressures for rolling resistance, traction and comfort are already high enough that you would run the same pressures whether tubeless or not. On road bikes, pinch flats with tubes are not an issue and flats are much less common.

Yes, tubeless is more puncture resistant. But road riders don’t get punctures nearly as often as MTB riders used to. And when those punctures happen on the road, the tubeless sealant doesn’t handle them as effectively as it does with MTB tires. Several times over the years I’ve stopped to help road riders with tubeless tires fix flats when their sealant just sprayed everywhere making a mess instead of sealing the leak. They didn’t have a spare tube because they thought tubeless tires were “flat-proof”.

On my road bike I use latex inner tubes and Conti GP5000 tires. I ride it at least 5,000 miles per year, usually more. If I switched to tubeless:

• My wheels would not be any lighter.
• My wheels would not be any faster.
• My tire pressures would not change.
• I would still have to carry a spare inner tube with me.
• If I did get a flat on a ride, it would be more of a hassle than just swapping an inner tube.
• I would spend more time (not less) maintaining my tires because I would have to clean out & replace the sealant more often than I get flats today.
• That maintenance would also take longer and be messier, due to dealing with sealant and a compressor.

In short, road bikes don’t need either of the 2 key benefits that tubeless tires provide, so all it does is create hassle and mess.

Introduction

Truing bicycle wheels is based on 4 basic operations that anyone can learn in 10 minutes. From there, it is only a matter of practice to become proficient.

Overview

Here’s the bottom half of a bike wheel viewed from directly ahead looking back, or directly behind looking forward.

Each spoke has a nipple that passes through the rim. The nipple is a nut threaded to the end of the spoke, which can be viewed as a long thin bolt. The nipple has a screw head on the outside of the wheel (under the tire where you can’t see it), and a square head that emerges at the opposite side of the rim inside the wheel. Normally, you adjust the nipple by using a spoke wrench (a kind of square-head socket) from the inside of the rim.

When you tighten the nipple it shortens the spoke, increasing tension. This tension pulls in 2 directions: to the side of the hub where the spoke attaches, and toward the hub reducing the radius of the rim.

When you loosen the nipple the opposite happens.

Spokes and their nipples use a standard right-handed thread. But this is from the perspective of being outside the rim “above” the nipple looking “in” to the wheel. When truing wheels, the usual perspective is the opposite: with your head to the side of the rim looking down at the inside of the rim. Thus when truing wheels, the spoke appears to be a left-hand thread. This is show in the diagram.

Spokes are usually adjusted in pairs. With 2 spokes and each moving tighter or looser, we have 4 situations to describe.

Move Right

This diagram shows how to shift the rim to the right by adjusting adjacent spokes.

Always ensure to loosen one spoke and tighten the other. Turn each spoke nipple the same amount in opposite directions. If you don’t do this, your adjustment will also shift the rim up or down, creating a bump or flat spot.

Of course, if the rim also has a bump or flat spot at the same point you need to shift it right, then you can tighten one side or loosen the other, but not both.

Pro tip: always loosen first, then tighten. This avoids excess tension in the wheel and makes the adjustments easier. And it helps avoid stripping the spoke nipples when they are tight.

Move Left

This diagram is the opposite of move right. The same text applies in reverse. ‘Nuff said!

Move Up

Here we’re talking about when the wheel isn’t round. A flat spot is a section with smaller radius than the rest of the wheel – pressed “in”. A bump is a section with a larger radius than the rest of the wheel, pressed “out”.

Moving up is how to correct a bump. It’s simple: tighten both adjacent spokes. This applies more tension pulling the rim inward against the bump. It doesn’t shift the rim left or right because the tension is equal on both sides.

Move Down

Move down is the 4th and last operation. You guessed it: loosen both adjacent spokes. This reduces the tension, allowing the rim to move outward. You may intuitively grasp that while the other 3 operations apply tension to force the rim in the direction you want, this operation does not. If so, your intuition is correct.

Spokes can only apply force in tension, not in compression (they can pull things together but they can’t push them apart). So “move down” is different from the other 3 operations. It is a passive operation – it reduces tension, freeing the rim to move outward, but it doesn’t apply any force to actually move it there. This leads to another important topic.

Wheel Tension and Stress

Before working on any wheel, and periodically as you make adjustments, you should grab a pair of spokes on opposite sides with each of your hands, squeeze them together tightly so the spokes bend, and release them. Then rotate the wheel and do the same with the next 4 spokes. And again until you go all the way around the wheel. A typical 28 spoke wheel will take 7 squeezes.

As you squeeze a pair spokes on opposite sides, you pull the rim inward at that point which exerts stress all around the wheel. Now this relates to the 4th operation “move down” – after you loosen a pair of spokes, squeezing every other pair around the wheel exerts forces to push the rim outward, and the point where you loosened the spokes is where the rim will “take out the slack” and bulge out just a bit as allowed by the spokes you loosened. Thus, after performing a “move down” operation, you need to tension the wheel in order for the change you made to take effect.

Another way to stress the wheel and equalize spoke tensions is to lay it on its side on a hard floor (take care to protect the axle end cap and rim from being scratched), lean over the wheel with your hands on opposite sides of the rim, and your knees holding the rim nearest your body down on the ground 90* apart from each of your hands. The wheel is touching the floor at the axle (its center) and at the rim under your knees. Now apply your full body weight to your hands as if you were trying to fold the rim in half. You can even gently bounce your full body weight on the rim. Then rotate the rim 45* and do it again, etc. 7 more times all the way around the wheel. Now flip the wheel over and repeat all the way around.

This applies forces to the rim to move it into a shape that matches and equalizes the spoke tensions. If you don’t do this, your spoke adjustments will tend to over-adjust the wheel, then the wheel will have pent-up stress that will redistribute when it is ridden. So after the first ride the wheel will be out of true or round again and need another adjustment.

Adjust – How Much?

No wheel is perfect. When you spin the wheel checking for left-right (trueness) and up-down (roundness), you will always find something. Once you get variations down to a millimeter or so (it doesn’t even have to be that good) they’re essentially perfect since that’s not enough to make any difference through the flexibility of the tire. And as the bike is ridden, stresses are distributed through the rim and spokes, which can shift things a bit. All perfectly normal.

Generally speaking, truing (side to side) spoke nipple adjustments are 1/8 to 1/4 turn on each spoke and rounding (up-down) adjustments are twice as much, or 1/4 to 1/2 turn. Of course, this is just guidance and how much you adjust depends on the wheel.

Adjust – Exactly Where?

Suppose you find a left-right or up-down “burble” in a rim that you will correct with one of the above 4 operations. Exactly which spokes should you adjust? Some burbles are small and span only a couple of spokes. Others might run for 1/4 or 1/2 of the wheel circumference. Remember that the rim has some rigidity of its own, so if a single spoke is too tight or loose, it will affect a section of the rim several spokes long. So don’t adjust spokes all the way along the burble, but only the innermost spokes. For example, if the burble visually spans 6 spokes, don’t adjust all 6, but only the middle 2 to 4.

For simplicity, the above 4 operations were explained in terms of symmetric spoke pairs on opposite sides of the rim. But your adjustments don’t have to span an even number of spokes. For example, consider a left-burble 5 spokes long that you need to pull to the right. You need to adjust the inner 3 spokes of the burble: 1 center spoke on the left, and the 2 spokes next to it (one fore, one aft) on the right. In this case loosen the middle spoke by 1/4 turn and tighten the other 2 spokes by 1/8 turn each. This will keep the rim’s up-down unchanged as you shift it right.

Spoke Tension – How Tight?

Wheels are not, and should not be, perfectly rigid. They are slightly elastic which makes them stronger. Spokes apply forces in tension but not in compression. The weight of the bike & rider is a force applied at the axle pulling down on the spokes at the top half of the wheel. Intuitively, the bike is hanging from the upper spokes. Thus as the wheel rotates, each spoke sees higher tension as it rotates through the top and lower tension as it rotates through the bottom.

Stiffness and strength are related, but not the same thing. When you start out with very low spoke tensions, tightening them increases both stiffness and strength. Spoke tensions too low / loose is obviously bad. We want nice tight spokes.

One of the factors determining the lifetime of a spoke is the difference in tension between max (spoke at top position) and min (spoke at bottom position) as the wheel rotates. The tighter the spokes, the less difference between this max & min. Put differently, looser spokes experience greater changes in tension forces with each wheel rotation, which increases stress on the spoke. Perhaps counter-intuitively, a spoke that is too loose / low tension can fail earlier due to greater tension differences as it rotates around the wheel.

So tighter is better – up to a point. Past that point, getting spokes too tight makes tension so high that it can make the wheel weaker even if it feels stiffer. Spokes that are too tight are likely to stick / freeze in place and strip the nipple when you try to turn it. The high tension can stress crack rims at the spoke holes (especially carbon rims). It can shear off the heads of spoke nipples. And it can make wheels suddenly break under load instead of flexing.

A 5th Operation: Dish

OK so I lied. Or at least I oversimplified. There’s another wheel adjustment operation called “dish”.

Wheels must be centered to the axle. But that doesn’t mean they are centered between the spoke attachment points on the hub, because many hubs are asymmetric. Rear wheels have a cassette on the drive side. Front wheels with a disc brake have the disc on one side. With these hubs, the spokes on one side attach closer to the end of the axle than on the other side.

To the left we depict a typical rear hub with the drive side cassette on the right. As you may guess intuitively, the spokes on the drive side that are close to perpendicular to the hub, have much higher tension. Normally, these drive side spokes are also shorter. When you squeeze the spokes you can feel the difference in tension.

To change the dish of a wheel, loosen or tighten all the spokes on one side by equal amounts. This will shift the entire rim left or right without changing its trueness or roundness. If you loosen one side and tighten the other, do it in that order – loosen first – in order to make it easier and avoid over-tightening the spokes.

Tools & Equipment

A truing stand is nice, but basic wheel adjustments don’t require one. If you do use a truing stand, don’t waste your time with a cheap one; you’re better off doing the work with the wheel mounted in the bike. The Park TS-2 (with variants like TS-2.2) is one of the best, a classic that most bike shops have used for more than 40 years. Also get a high quality spoke wrench because otherwise you’ll strip and destroy the nipples on high tension wheels. Replacing a stripped spoke nipple is a real PITA, better to not strip it in the first place.

Conclusion

Most wheel work involves adjusting true and roundness as wheels get stressed during riding. This is easy to learn. As you gain experience you’ll do it with increasing precision & speed, and develop a feel for proper spoke tensions. Mastering this prepares one for moving on to more advanced tasks like wheel building and more serious repairs.

Spokes (and matching nipples) come in different widths or thicknesses. 14 gauge or 2.0 mm, and 15 gauge or 1.8 mm are the most common. A 14g spoke nipple might seem to fit a 15g spoke. The threads will mesh but they’ll be loose, so don’t let that happen.

Also, nipples can be aluminum or brass. Brass nipples are stronger and essential for carbon rims since aluminum reacts with carbon via redox (reduction-oxidation), gradually corroding the spoke nipples until they break. It might take a few years, but it will happen. There are methods to slow down or mitigate this, but they are just kludges – no matter what you do it’s going to happen eventually and the only way to truly prevent it is to use brass. So I always use brass nipples, period. Not only for carbon rims, but also for tandems and mountain bikes, since you need the strength. Yet this means the only application for aluminum spoke nipples is road bikes with alloy (metal, not carbon) wheels. In this case, what’s the point? You only save a few grams, and if the rim is metal it’s not a lightweight wheel to begin with. Might as well use brass all the time. Aluminum spoke nipples are a weight-weenie marketing exercise to publish wheel weights a few grams lighter, at the expense of durability and longevity.

Introduction

I’ve blogged before about all the problems I’ve had with the Reynolds carbon wheels on my MTB. Summary:

• In Oct 2020, the rear hub pawls sheared, stranding me in the desert near Moab.
• In early 2021, the spoke nipples started breaking due to corrosion. Shame on Reynolds for using aluminum spoke nipples with carbon rims. I rebuilt the wheels with brass spoke nipples.
• In 2021, the front hub developed a bit of slop/play. It wasn’t the bearings, but between the axle end caps and the hub shell, due to slight distortion of the latter.
• In June 2021, the rear rim carbon delaminated, Reynolds sent me a new rim under warranty and I rebuilt the wheel the day before a big ride.
• In Sep 2022, the rear axle broke, stranding me in the middle of nowhere on the John Wayne Trail.
• In Oct 2022, the rear Hub shell was distorted (ruined) due to forces from the pawls. This hub has the pawls in the body and the ratchet on the freehub, the opposite of how it’s normally done.

The root cause of most of the problems is the Reynolds hubs – they just aren’t durable enough to stand the test of years & thousands of miles. Bearings, pawls, etc. are wear items but the hub shell/body should be a lifetime part. Clearly, these are not.

The only solution was to replace the hubs. But with what? After doing my homework I decided on DT Swiss model 350, front and rear.

Front:

• 28 spokes: DT comp straight-pull, 14-15-14 gauge, length 283/282
• Straight Pull
• 100mm dropout distance
• 15mm through-axle
• 6-bolt disc
• Rim: OEM Reynolds AR Carbon, 584, ERD 556mm

Rear

• 28 spokes: DT comp straight-pull, 14 straight gauge, length 278/277
• Straight Pull
• 142mm dropout distance
• 12mm through-axle
• 6-bolt disc
• SRAM XD freehub/driver
• Rim: Reynolds Blacklabel 287 Carbon, 584, ERD 547mm

Preparation

Straight-pull hubs are less sensitive to spoke length than conventional flanged hubs. A big difference in hub offset radius is a small (often 1mm) difference in spoke length. But, straight-pull hubs can only be laced one way – they take away all the freedom that flanged hubs provide. And straight-pull spokes twist up much worse the J-bend; a spoke grabber is essential. However, every broken spoke I’ve ever had broke at the J-bend. It’s a natural weak spot in the spoke. I’ve never broken a straight-pull spoke. To me, that’s worth the tradeoffs. Most likely, I’d be able to reuse my existing spokes.

Note: the DT Swiss 350 hubs have a different spoke lace pattern from the Reynolds hubs. Both straight-pull, both 28 spoke, symmetric 14 per side. But the spoke outlets alternate differently. More on that later.

After removing the spokes I scrupulously cleaned them with isopropyl alcohol. Then I chased the threads with fresh spoke nipples (DT brass, black), screwing each nipple all the way to the end of the spoke threads, where the end of the spoke sticks out of the back of the nipple by about 2-3 mm. Sometimes the nipple/spoke interface is so tight, this can’t be done by hand and takes a spoke wrench. Then unscrew the nipple and use it only for exactly that spoke.

Before inserting each new spoke into the wheel, I dip the spoke threads in boiled linseed oil. This lubricates the nipple-spoke interface, and after a week or so the linseed oil turns into a gummy paste that acts as a gentle threadlock.

All this adds an extra hour of labor to each wheel build. So why do it? New spoke nipples are tight, all that friction binds up, which often strips the spoke nipple’s square nut section before the nipple is properly tight. When this happens while you’re building the wheel, it’s super annoying. When it happens a year down the road while you’re truing the wheel, it’s a major hassle with tubeless MTB wheels. This extra hour on each wheel makes the build process seamless and efficient, and helps ensure trouble-free maintenance for years to come.

Front Wheel

Out with the old!

In with the new!

The front rim is the OEM, circa 2014 Reynolds AR carbon. It’s symmetric with center-line spoke holes, so the DT Swiss hub’s alternative spoke pattern didn’t matter. Due to the disc brake, the front wheel has a bit of dish and different length spokes on each side.

This was my second time to rebuild this front wheel. Hopefully, the last. After installing it in the bike, there is no more free-play. Problem solved!

Rear Wheel

Out with the old!

In with the new!

The rear wheel made me think thrice before lacing it up. The rim is asymmetric with all spokes offset from the centerline. This means the rim can only go on the wheel one way – you can’t flip it around – the drive side must be the wide side. And, the spoke access holes on the rim outer edge are offset to alternating sides. This makes the wheel stronger, but removing both of these degrees of freedom forces you to lace the wheel in exactly one way – no flexibility.

The problem is, the spoke access holes were on the wrong sides. In more detail: the standard way to build a wheel is to lace the wheel with the hub logo facing the valve stem, and put parallel spokes along the valve stem for easier pump access. The spokes next to the valve stem always go to opposite sides of the hub. Yet this wheel’s offset spoke access holes force those sides – you don’t get to pick. Problem is, the Reynolds and DT Swiss hub have opposite lacing patterns. Because they don’t have a flange, you’re forced to align the spokes a specific way. One of these hubs could not be properly laced to this rim.

On closer inspection, the spoke access holes are offset to the opposite side the spoke should go. Not the same side, as rims of yore did it. Why? Because carbon rims (unlike rims of yore) are deeper. When you insert a spoke screwdriver from outside the rim into the spoke access hole, that hole being offset to the opposite of the side of the hub the spoke attaches to, aligns your screwdriver straight-on with the spoke nipple head.

Because the inside spoke holes are not offset, but all aligned (off rim center, but still aligned), you could lace the wheel either way. But lacing it one way, it’s harder to screw the spoke nipples from outside the rim. Fortunately, that’s the way I built this Reynolds wheel a year and a half ago. I had no choice, the hub and rim design gave me no other option. Apparently, Reynolds changed their offset patterns after my OEM hub was made, and before my warranty replacement rim was made. But for the DT Swiss hub, it lined up as it should.

A newborn rear wheel, still on the stand. So beautiful!

Wrapping Up

My original front rim (AR) has a 23mm inside width, and the warranty replacement (Blacklabel) measures 27mm. I ran out of rim tape for the front, so I had to order another roll. I had only enough 27mm rim tape to wrap the rear once, and I prefer to wrap it twice. So the tires are not yet installed. But I did mount the rims back on the bike. Perfect fit, perfect dish, no bearing play.

One thing I don’t like about this DT Swiss rear hub is it has a lot of drag when coasting. More drag than standard pawls & ratchet. Perhaps that’s a small price to pay for the higher durability and longevity of the unique DT Swiss ratchet mechanism. Maybe it will loosen up as it breaks in. I might also replace the ratchet grease with a heavy oil like chainsaw bar & chain oil. We’ll see…

Conclusion

To their credit, reynolds admitted the reason their hub shell deformed is due to flawed design. Here’s the freehub pawl pocket distortion:

So Reynolds offered a warranty hub replacement, and confirmed that their new hubs use the conventional design of ratchet in the hub shell and pawls in the freehub/driver, which is more durable. But their offer was a joke. Mail your wheel to them, they’ll rebuild the rim onto a new hub, with new spokes, and charge you $200 for parts & labor. Well, it costs about $100 to mail a wheel. So that’s $300 for each wheel, or $600 total. Sure it’s a lot cheaper than a new set of carbon wheels. But you’re not getting a new set of wheels. You’re getting your same old rims back with new hubs.

I asked them if they could simply mail me replacement hubs under warranty and I’ll rebuild the wheels myself, reminding them that when the rim failed they mailed me a naked rim and I rebuilt the wheel myself. They said no.

So I bought a pair of DT Swiss 350 hubs, total cost $425. Plus an extra $10 for new brass spoke nipples, because now I’ll have black rims, black hubs, black spokes, so I wanted black nipples. Because black is cool. It cost me less than Reynold’s “warranty” offer, and I got a better set of hubs that should last a lifetime.

The only discouraging part of the process was during the wheel build. Theoretically, if you start with a rim that is round & true, and equal length spokes (each side may have different lengths, but the lengths of all spokes on each side the same), then each side of a wheel built true and round will have equal spoke tensions all around. Conversely, if a wheel is true and round but the spoke tensions are not equal, then the rim is bent or has pent up stress. This theoretical ideal is usually achieved with new rims. But when rebuilding a rim that has thousands of miles on it, all bets are off. When building these wheels, I noticed that the spoke tensions were not as equal as I would like. I do stress the wheel when building to seat spoke & nipple heads and release/equalize stress. But apparently that wasn’t enough. They’re great wheels, so I hope the spoke tensions equalize as I start riding them again. They usually do.

Post-Build

I put about 70 miles on these wheels since I rebuilt them, 12 of which on rugged (black diamond) MTB trails. They were perfect from the get-go: no pops or clicks from spokes settling, no need for truing or rounding. The front wheel’s hub play is eliminated – steering is precise and the bike feels & sounds solid over the bumps & jumps. On the rear wheel I cleaned both drive ratchets and lubed their outer circumference (where they engage with the hub & freehub) with chainsaw bar & chain oil, which is only a tad thinner than the OEM red grease (which appeared to be #0 or #1 viscosity). Engagement is rock solid and confidence inspiring. When coasting, it’s nearly silent. The bearings are dead silent and butter smooth in feel. Overall, it’s exactly the repair / modification I needed.

A month later the non drive side spokes felt a bit loose, so I tightened all the spokes 1/4 turn. Some of the drive side spokes are reaching their tension limit, any more and the spoke nipples will strip. Spoke tensions are as tight as they can reasonably get.