Thread: Custom wheelset or prebuilt?

Pricing some close-out hubs on Ebay and was wondering what people generally pay to have a wheelset built. Trying to decide on whether to get a prebuilt Stan's ztr crest 29er or picking up some close-out hubs from Ebay and getting some more affordable light weight rims and have a set built-up. Thoughts?

In the past I've always been a custom wheelset fan, but there are some impressively good prebuilt options out there right now. I would have a pretty tough time building a custom wheelset that rivals the prebuilts - at a given price point, the (good) prebuilts are generally lighter without giving much up in terms of stiffness. That's also based on pricing where I'm building my own wheels. If you're paying someone else to do it, the comparison is even less close.

I wanted a certain look that the prebuilds weren't offering. Since I was building what at the time was a dream build, wheels were something I wasn't cheaping out on.......since I wanted that look.

Spoke with Dave at SpeedDream.....never looked back...awesome wheelset he built me.

If you go custom Dave ^^ is the man.

I had my custom set put together at http://www.bicyclewheelwarehouse.com

They were super fast and the built well.

I pay a bud $60 per wheel.

Those house brand Pure parts look sweet. MTBR seems to approve.

Is it just me, or are some of their builds stupid cheap?
Would be nice if it showed the weight more.

If going custom I would suggest chad at red barn bicycles in Montana. Great service and prices and love the new wheel set he built for me with hope hubs.

I like to be able to offer warranty on complete wheelsets to my customers so we have been selling more pre-bilts the last few years, both road and mountain. We charge $35 per wheel for hand-built with spoke prep and tensionometer reading.

how much for wheel builds with no spoke prep and no tension readings?