We started to build our Landrace wheels during the lockdown of 2020, supply was challenging and the products on offer from our suppliers didn't quite hit the target.
For the gravel and all-road bikes the rimes were nearly all flat-bead and the hubs of poor quality.
We wanted great value for money wheels with good quality hubs and hooked beads for inner-tube and tubeless set-up.
At the time we were selling a lot of Open Cycle's U.P and WI.DE gravel builds that could fit 700c and 650b wheels.
Having found a great supplier for the rims in both sizes we could now specify DT Swiss or Hopetech hubs on both sizes of wheels to ensure that the gears and brakes worked perfectly when the wheels were swopped out. There are many cheaper wheels on the market but the hubs are less durable, we needed our wheels to survive wet UK winters.
And we have been building wheels ever since without a single warranty return!
Landrace wheels have been ridden across continents, raced in UCI gravel events and fitted to mountain bikes (a 700c rim is the same diameter as a 29" MTB rim and our gravel rims with their internal width of 25mm are fine with 2.3" tyres).
The wheels in the image above are destined for London Academy team bikes (the hubs are Hope Pro 5 in orange with 45mm RDEE rims).
All of our wheels are built to order at the Landrace Studios on Store Street and we often have stock available to order.
Wheel building is an art and assembling a wheel to run true requires patience and focus. Here are a few tips from our master builder Barna:
- Never build when you are tired or grumpy. The wheel will suffer
- Always use the best components. Poor components are a false economy. They take longer to build and the ride will suffer. Great rims, great hubs and spokes you trust
- Take your time. Lacing hand built wheels take longer than machine-built
- Do not interrupt the wheel builder, each spoke must be adjusted in turn and it it is vital not to lose where you are.
- Always balance 'hop' as well as 'true' - the best wheel will never be far from equilibrium at anytime in the build
- Bring the wheel to full tension with patience - this is the bit that sets the best builders apart
