A pair of wheels and a pile of sticky notes
A customer wants a custom wheelset for their gravel bike. Rim depth and width, hub brand and engagement, spoke count and lacing, disc mount type, axle standards front and rear, freehub body for their cassette, and a colour. It takes half an hour at the counter, and the details end up on a notepad and in a follow-up email thread.
Parts are ordered from two or three distributors. The hubs come quickly. The rims are back-ordered. When they finally arrive the wheel builder finds the spoke lengths were never calculated because the rim's effective diameter was not known when the order went in. Then someone notices the freehub body ordered does not match the customer's cassette.
A wheel build is a small project, treated as a sale
A custom wheel build has a specification, several suppliers, dependent steps and skilled labour, but most shops handle it as a line in the till with notes attached. The detail that matters lives in whoever took the order.
- The specification is split between a notepad, an email and a conversation.
- Axle standards and freehub types are easy to get wrong and are not checked twice.
- Parts for one build arrive at different times and are stored in different places.
- Spoke lengths wait on rim measurements that are not recorded.
- The customer hears nothing between ordering and collection.
Where wheel builds lose money and goodwill
A wrong freehub body or axle standard means a return, a new order and a longer wait. A build that stalls because one part is missing ties up the others on a shelf. And a customer who spent a good sum on wheels expects to be kept informed; silence makes a premium purchase feel careless.
Wheel building is also skilled time you cannot easily replace. If your builder spends a morning sorting out mismatched parts and chasing a missing rim, that is a morning not spent building, and any other builds queue behind. In spring, when the same person may also be your most experienced mechanic, that delay reaches the whole workshop.
A wheel build record from spec to collection
We build a wheel build order record for the counter and the workshop.
- At the counter, the order is taken on a structured form: rims, hubs, spokes, nipples, lacing, axles, freehub, brake mount, tubeless setup and any colours. Required fields cannot be skipped.
- The form checks obvious clashes, such as a freehub body that does not match the stated cassette, and asks someone to confirm.
- Each part becomes an order line with its supplier and expected date, tied to the build, so you can see what the build is still waiting for.
- Rim and hub measurements are recorded when known, and the wheel builder's spoke length calculations are saved on the record.
- When all parts are in, the build moves to the wheel builder's queue with everything in one place.
- The customer receives updates as parts arrive, the build starts and the wheels are ready.
| Part | Supplier | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rims | Distributor A | Back-ordered, date given |
| Hubs | Distributor B | In stock, bin 14 |
| Spokes and nipples | Own stock | Reserved for build |
| Freehub body | Distributor B | Checked against cassette |
Wheel builds that go together first time
Specifications are complete and checked before parts are ordered. The builder has what they need when they start. Customers can see progress without ringing. And the saved records mean a customer who wants a matching set next year, or a replacement rim after a crash, can have it built to the same spec without starting again.
Recorded builds also give you a useful catalogue of what you have built before, which helps a salesperson guide the next customer through choices that are easy to get wrong.
Do custom wheel builds cause you trouble?
- Wheel specs live on notepads and in email threads.
- You have ordered the wrong freehub body or axle standard.
- Parts for one build sit in different places waiting for the rest.
- Spoke lengths are worked out at the last minute.
- Customers ring to ask how their wheels are coming along.