CX wheels

Benzy’s bike is super nice. Did the frame begin life as a Kinesis?

According to the ‘search function’… yes. :stuck_out_tongue:

I reckon the last 20 post of yours has been the above- getting tired of it yet?.. just sayin :slight_smile:

Sorry mate, that’s how I found it.

Likies.

Nice! or A23’s are the clincher version if not wanting tubs.

I have already built a set of those up also for spares and commuting. A little annoyingly, the brake surface isn’t quite the same height. But close. Put the brakes at a reasonably happy medium (for Cantis).

ok, lets talk lacing patterns…

What are everyone’s preferences, recommendations and reasonings?

I’m about to order spokes for my 32h build…

gears or ss? rim or disk brakes?

I’m building my wheels 32h/Rim Brake/SS on 10spd hubs with provision to be ridden geared in the future.

But I more-so want to hear peoples preferences for different/their own builds and why they chose them… whether there is a deep zen wheelbuilding guru theory or whether they just think it looks shit hot.

It’s one of the most important decisions when building a wheel and should probably be covered in this thread.

my dream cx wheels would be

front: radial, elbows out for maximum lateral stiffness - or at least that’s what sheldon tells me: Wheel Deflection Test Results Table

rear: radial on non-drive side, 3-cross on drive side with trailing spokes on the inside of the flange so they don’t get hurt if your chain drops into them

on semi deep dish rims so they cut through the mud rather than getting encased in it

whatever dan built me.

they have taken one hell of licking week in/week out… but need to be trued again after the M-R and some vigorous cobble riding.

A lot of it has got to do with how many spokes, and how big a flange a hub you are using. 32h, 2x or 3x.
Use a spoke calculator that looks at bracing angle and hub tangent angle, and check out the differences.
I have gone 2x on my Major Toms, 3x on my A23s, low flange hubs. Primary reason I because I have a lot of spokes and those lacing patterns were conveniently what spokes I already had. :wink:

I would not go radial for a front CX wheel, unless you like cracking hub flanges.

I’m guessing since the wheel is going to be caked in mud, weight is not really the priority.
In that case wouldn’t it be worthwhile going a bit of overkill on the spec- ie 32/36H, steel axle, deep section alloy rim?

exactly what I wanted to hear.
I like the idea of your rear wheel and I was thinking of following a similar route with mine.
Although for offroad/CX needs I’d agree with Gemm and steer away from radial front, especially if you are going to be getting rad and perhaps be trying to hop barriers/ride more aggressive single track.
I’ll probably build my front wheel 2x

No, not that there is anything wrong with 32h or 36h if you were a bigger dude/dudette, but by going overkill you’d just be compounding the issue and creating an even heavier wheel which will be harder to spin up to speed through the grass/mud, not too mention a heavier bike for shouldering over barriers/run-ups.

I feel for CX wheels (and any other type of wheel), that it is about finding a happy medium between weight and strength for the wheels’ intended purpose, ie: my wheelset will weigh roughly 1500g, respectable for a 32h wheelset that is going to be pretty durable and be ridden all year 'round both through mud in the winter and the dry trails of summer with a bunch of commuting aswell.

They sound pretty sweet- can you give us some specs? (1500g sounds pretty impressive for a wheelset you can potentionally thrash around)

I noted the list earlier in the thread, but here is the parts:
32h Token CA30 rims
Circus Monkey 32h Road Hubs
laced with DT Revs
alloy nips

1500g will be subject to lacing pattern and I suspect that they will be ever so slightly heavier once built. But hey, it’s not a weight weenies bike, they are going on my Pompino and I just want it to be reliable.

yep i think my wheels are a little bit on heavy side of things but practically define the meaning of “bomb proof”,
i haven’t weighed them yet but will soon

36h 3x front and rear, phil wood double sided track hubs, re-spaced - 130 on the rear, running 2 freewheels one gear for commuting, one for racing cross
laced to Hplus son TB14,s 23 mm wide for more grip in the mud , double eyeleted, welded join,
laced with DT comps

Mine just snuck under 1500g
Circus Monkey Hubs
DT Revs front, Rev/Comps rear 2x, DT alloy nips
Major Tom rims.
32h

Have also built up a 28h pair, 2X F&R, DT Comps/Alloy nips, with the Am-Classic copy hubs, they snuck in under 1500 also.

Have built up 3 sets of A23s for training/commuting, haven’t bothered weighing them, I have a set of 32h/Circus Monkey/A23/DT Comps/Brass nips I ride would guess they are around 1600g.

All the wheels are getting a trashing. All staying true.

Sounds nice. Alloy nipples okay for durability though?