We quote 7 days for custom wheels providing all parts are available, to cover us during busy periods, but this is usually less. Northern John, Will Jackson, John Spurr, Ben Hennon, Jay Openshaw, Carlo Griggs, Mark Noble (editor of Ride) just to mention a few have all relied on our custom wheels. If there is a rim or hub we do not list do not hesitate to contact us. You can order these via telephone, in our new shop or online at www.alansbmx.com (just select rim, hub and spokes as wheelbuild’ and we’ll build it for you).

Wheels are one of the most important parts of your bike and one of the first riders try to upgrade - new wheels can add strength, save weight, improve performance (roll faster) and reduce maintenance (sealed bearings). We offer a wide range of ready built wheels off the shelf ready to ship same-day but we also offer a custom wheelbuilding service so you can select the perfect wheels for your budget and type of riding. * Wheelbuilding charge is just a nominal £2 when you buy the hub, rim and spokes at the same time.

We have also started to put examples of the custom build wheels that we have made for customers up on the site, to give you an idea of what the wheel looks like with that partciluar rim and hub combo, but you can order these as well.

Spokes
If you just want to order spokes on their own for you existing wheel and do not know the lnegth, just select the new See Comments option in the pull-down menu - then at checkout tell us: 1. Make and model of rim you have.
2. Whether it is 36 or 48 hole.
3. The make and model of the hub you have.
All our spoke lnegths are for 3 cross 36H and 4 cross 48H. With this information we will send you the right length. Due to the work involved calculating spoke length we can only provide spoke length when you are actually ordering them.

Front Wheel
This is one area where you can definitely make some weight savings, so lots of people are building lighter front wheels - look at using 10mm axles, smaller flange hubs, 36 spokes and lighter rims. After all your front wheel usually takes less abuse than the rear (unless things go very wrong). If you are running pegs and hard on axles, it might be worth sticking with 14mm axles. 36 spokes are OK on the front, but remember 36H wheels do require more tightening and re-truing than 48 spokes and the weight saving is not dramatic, so if you want less maintenance stick with 48 spokes. We would definitely recommend a lighter rim on the front - the Odyssey Hazard Light, Sun Rhyno Lite or our old-school Araya Aeros are some of the lightest, but as you can see there are tons to choose from. If you have forks with 14mm dropouts and want to run a 10mm axle do not worry, we have solutions for this. Primo Andys Nuts are 10mm axle nuts that have a sleeve incorperated to fit snugly into 14mm fork dropouts - these come in Short or Long (for pegs). If you run pegs on one side then get Long as these have washers and can be run with or without pegs. Secdondly there are the KHE axle adaptors. Oh, and Odyssey Pro Dirt forks come with 10>14mm adaptors in the box. A popular set-up for lighter fronts is the Odyssey Vandero hub laced to the Odyssey Hazard Light rim (we keep these ready-built in stock).

Rear Wheel
Back in the 80s when we all used single-walled Araya 7X rims eveything was 36H. If you wanted to do freetyle, then you bought Skyway Tuff Wheels. The 36s were not that strong due to the rims and hubs not being that great so 48 spoke wheels were invented. Fast forward to 2006: Technology has moved on and modern hubs and (especially) rims are a lot stronger. Rims are double or Triple walled. But what does this all mean?!?!? It means that, if you are prepared to tighten your spokes and replace them if you broke one, 36s are a viable option once again. However, if you hang up a lot, cannot be bothereed mainatining your wheel all that much, then stay with 48s.

All modern street frames use 14mm dropouts, so that is what you will need unless you have a race bike. For street/park riding we would say stick with 48s on the back; while your axle size will be dependent on your frame dropouts (10 or 14mm). For trails 36 might be OK and 10mm if you have a race/trails frame. There is a massive choice of rims and what you choose depends on your type of riding, but again Hazard Lights (available in 36 or 48H) are proving to be massive hit due to their light weight and strength. For a good all round rear rim try the Sun Big City. If you run a rear brake only, most riders go for chrome rims as the braking surface is superior to anodised colours (unless it is wet!).

Hubs
Hubs are an area that we could probably take up this whole page discussing, so this is the short version. Rear axles - these will be 14mm if you have a street/dirt frame. The main choice now is Cassette or Freewheel. Cassette hubs have the mechanism on the isnide of the hub and you just have removable cogs or a one-piece driver to change the size. This is type of hub is used by pretty much every Pro. Now the prices for cassettes have come down, this is the most popular type of hub we sell. Plus if you want to run anything lower than a 13T then you will need a cassette.

Regular (or Freewheel) hubs use a traditional screw-on freewheel. There are a few combinations of threads though to confuse matters - so listen carefully! There is a small and a Large thread. The Large thread takes 16T and larger frewheels, while the Small Thread takes 13, 14 or 15T freewheels. Hubs that have small threads both sides will take Left or Right hand drive. Hubs with a Small thread one side and a Lage thread the other - generally - will be RHD.

One thing you have to determine if you want to go with anything smaller than 36-13 is whether it will clear your brake. Frames with chainstay AD lugs (which is about half the frames out there) will not allow you to run gearing smaller than 12 on the rear as the chain will hit the brake lugs (even if you remove the brake!). An exception to this rule is the Fly Pantera which has lowered lugs so you can get away with 25/9. There are some other exceptions (S&M LAF will take 28/10). You can always check with us first. Also some older frames.

Cassette hubs (where the freewheel mechanism is part of the hub): if you want to run 33/12 gearing (or smaller) this is the way to go. The idea is to keep the standard 44/16 gear ratio by using corresponding smaller sprockets. The ratios are as follows: 44/16, 39/14, 36/13, 33/12, 30/11, 28/10, 25/9. We did not mention 15T as there is not much point running one of these (unless it is on a race bike) you may as well go straight down to a 14 or 13T. Remember however that some new frames may be designed to only accept a 39 or smaller front sprocket (as a 44T wont clear the chainstays).

So it is worth doing some forward thinking if you plan on changing your frame in the near future. The final hub category is the Freecoaster. Used primarily by flatlanders but used by some street riders the freecoaster hub allows you to fakie (rollback) without pedalling backwards. These also use a cassette mechanism.

• We can supply hub parts - bearings, axles, etc for most hubs we sell.
• If there is a hub/rim combo you don’t see here just give us a call.

Gear ratios
The idea with smaller sprockets is:
They are more out of the way and less prone to damage. You won’t hang up on them when droppoing in on a ramp. They are lighter. They use less chain.