At Holland Cycles, we offer hand-built wheels that are as custom as our frames. We also offer a selection of some of the finest production wheels available. All of our wheels are carefully inspected and tuned to ensure that they are properly true, round and dished prior to delivery. Whether you prefer lightweight climbing wheels, stout crit wheels, or a pair of each, we can provide wheels that will optimize the performance of your new bike.
On our hand-built wheels, hubs, rims, spokes and nipples are carefully selected based on your individual needs, with particular emphasis on reliability. We believe that high performance wheels can and should be both durable and serviceable over the long run.
Why Custom Wheels?
Attention to Detail
With the advent of modern wheel systems available to satisfy many cycling disciplines, it is fair to ask, “why would a discerning cyclist choose conventional hand-built wheels?” At Holland Cycles, we believe the answer is twofold: reliability and serviceability. Not only can hand-built wheels match the performance of the best production wheels, they also offer considerable additional benefits in terms of their longevity and ease of maintenance and repair.
Holland Cycles understands the dynamic stresses a bicycle wheel undergoes. A hand-built wheel with conventional J-bend spokes paired with quality hubs, rims and nipples can be as reliable as any production wheel system currently available.
Spoke tension, however, is critical due to the stresses a spoke experiences as a wheel revolves. At the top of a rotating wheel, a spoke is in its maximum state of tension. As it reaches the bottom of the rotation, it experiences its most relaxed state. Throughout this cycle, spokes are moving ever so slightly, particularly at the spoke head/hub flange interface. It is this movement that work hardens the spokes over many cycles, causing them to become brittle and eventually break. Spokes under higher tension experience less movement than those at lower tension, and so are less likely to experience such fatigue. Imagine bending a wire hanger back and forth; the wire eventually becomes brittle and breaks, much like a loose spoke can in a poorly built wheel.
Service and Reliability
Hand-built wheels, when properly tensioned, are consistently more reliable than their production counterparts. The caveat “properly tensioned” is at the heart of the matter, and is our central obsession when building and tuning your wheels. When building wheels, we use high quality spoke tensiometers, and check every spoke for optimal tension to insure that we build the most reliable bicycle wheels possible.
Further, we recommend components that are durable, serviceable, and have readily available parts. For example, an important advantage of J-bend spokes is that, should you break a spoke, these are readily available at most any bike shop. Likewise, using off the shelf rims makes for readily available replacement should a rim be damaged beyond repair. Hubs, too, should be easy to service, again with readily available parts.
It is often the case that service and repair parts for production wheels can be difficult to source, particularly as the wheels get older. By contrast, Holland Cycles hand-built wheels are generally easier to service and use readily available parts. Nothing will complement your Holland frame like careful selection of your wheels. It is the wheel after all, that puts the bi in bicycle.
Attention to Detail
Holland Cycles understands the dynamic stresses a bicycle wheel undergoes. A hand-built wheel with conventional J-bend spokes paired with quality hubs, rims and nipples can be as reliable as any production wheel system currently available.
Spoke tension, however, is critical due to the stresses a spoke experiences as a wheel revolves. At the top of a rotating wheel, a spoke is in its maximum state of tension. As it reaches the bottom of the rotation, it experiences its most relaxed state. Throughout this cycle, spokes are moving ever so slightly, particularly at the spoke head/hub flange interface. It is this movement that work hardens the spokes over many cycles, causing them to become brittle and eventually break. Spokes under higher tension experience less movement than those at lower tension, and so are less likely to experience such fatigue. Imagine bending a wire hanger back and forth; the wire eventually becomes brittle and breaks, much like a loose spoke can in a poorly built wheel.
Service and Reliability
Further, we recommend components that are durable, serviceable, and have readily available parts. For example, an important advantage of J-bend spokes is that, should you break a spoke, these are readily available at most any bike shop. Likewise, using off the shelf rims makes for readily available replacement should a rim be damaged beyond repair. Hubs, too, should be easy to service, again with readily available parts.
It is often the case that service and repair parts for production wheels can be difficult to source, particularly as the wheels get older. By contrast, Holland Cycles hand-built wheels are generally easier to service and use readily available parts. Nothing will complement your Holland frame like careful selection of your wheels. It is the wheel after all, that puts the bi in bicycle.
