I helped a friend design and build something for an exhibition in San Fransisco and he came back with these
to thank me. I want to build them (myself) into a strong wheelset to ride around town. At BLB around the corner, they got all excited and shouted about colour co-ordinating them with velocity deep V's but I'm a bit sceptic... It's not because half of London is riding around with deep V's that they're the best choice, no? They're not too expensive, so that's cool, but are they strong enough? Any experiences? David told in 'best&worst 2007' about his CXP33's: what's the difference? Should I get those? Where? £???
I'm currently riding (not too long anymore) a gold-ish frame
and although I'm not the kind of guy color-coordinating my pants with the caps on my valves, I don't want to ride around with big decals or purple rims either... thinking silver or subtle color to go with the orange anodised hubs. (I'm running a front break and the hubs are 36 holes)
Also, this is my first build, would like to give it a try, any tips or helping-hands-for-Belgian-beers? Tips on spokes or which lacing also welcome.

I think the CXP33's look really good without being over the top as the deep v's can be.. especially if your hubs are 36, you don't need rims that heavy to build a decent, very strong wheel. You'd probably be good with Open Pro's as well, but they're not "aero" hehe.

If you go for CXP33's (or any other rims really, I'm sure it'd work just the same), check cyclebasket.com for whatever price they charge and then get chainreactioncycles to price match. It worked for me, even with the rims being out of stock at cycle basket. Saved about 8 quid + postage (free on CRC, 6 quid on cycle basket..).

Wheelbuilding in itself is easy, email me if you need help or links to good guides. The hard bit is knowing when to stop tensioning the spokes, which is something I don't think I have mastered yet! A good idea would be to build and tension the wheels and then ask your local wheel builder to have a look and give you some feedback :)

I can't help you with the rims - but, damn, I want to lick those hubs!

open pro's in cd finish or black
dt 2.1's with double eyelets (i think it's called a 2.1?)

DT Swiss RR1.2 I think.. they look pretty sexy.

woohoo, another in the holdsworth clan. man you're a tall prick as well! :p

i just did open pro's on goldtecs, nice and easy to work with. open pro's for light-weight and have extra eye-lit thing compared to cxp33's or deep v's. not sure on get 36H ones though?!

Some weights for you.

The DT swiss 1.1s are plenty strong - actual weight (not the claimed weight) is 419g per rim - not particularly aero at 20.8mm deep but fantastic build quality.

The DT swiss 1.2 s are pretty hefty (and very strong) at a claimed 585g per rim - with a deeper 30.3mm rim section.

Deep Vs (powder coated versions) come out at 582g - not sure what the depth of the rim sections is ?

CXP33 = 460g

Open Pros = 435g

I just picked up a mon chasseral front wheel (white DT swiss RR 1.1 rim) looks nice !

i'd go black open pros and two tone (black and silver) spokes.
Thats just me tho

I think that if you want a strong wheelset, you could use deep section rims but that shouldn't be necessary, and you'll end up with extremely stiff wheels, use any mavic or ambrosio rims, and if you wanna build the wheels yourself the 3x at the back and radial at the front, for a stronger front wheel you could do a radial with a twist.
Have fun!
p.s. mind you at london fields cycles they can build you some funky wheels. ;P

If it's your first build I'd go for the classic 3x on 36h. DT DB spokes are reliable and pretty cheap at Edinburgh cycles.
If you want something fancy at the front go 3 leading 3 trailing. There's some advice on the web, but don't go for the build advice where you cross every junction (you'll find this in one of the build guides when you google 3 leading 3 trailing), just cross the 3 spokes furthest from the hub one each side (just 3 crossings per side). If you want some fun, build them up with the inner spokes silver and the outer spokes black (or vice versa).
3 leading, 3 trailing uses the same spoke lengths as 3x.

thanks for all advice. I was looking into CPX 33 and DT swiss 1.2 but couldn't find 36h anywhere? Does anyone know where to buy them (shop 'cause I guess postage will be expensive buying online)?
@dogballs: I'm the guy who gave you Unxetas' dustcaps at Polo

condor should have 'em if not just order them thru blb or any shop like evans or cyclesurgey should do it.

you can buy cxp 33 in 36 holes from here

didn't think the dt swiss do the rr1.2's in 36 hole, When I was looking into building up some wheels it seemed they only went upto 32.
but a quick search proved me wrong

http://www.cyclesurgery.com/ProductDetails/mcs/productID/1025463/groupID/11/categoryID/105/v/c99609b5-8817-485f-9af1-1f624e9286d4

36 hole in silver and black, about £40

I ride Deep V's. I am sure they are strong, but they also punish your wrists because they are so stiff.

can you do 3 leading 3 trailing on 32 h rims/hubs? also do deep vs come in 32 h?

32 / 3 = 10.66666 = :(

2 lead, 2 trail, for 32H

hey meneer, ah, i forgot about this thread.

I'd go for Open Pros or CXP33s. I think that Deep vs are way too heavy and you don't really need such a beefy rim to build a strong wheel. I can't work out whether black or silver rims would look nicer - I'm edging towards silver cos I think it would look better with the frame and would make the coloured hubs a slightly subtler highlight.

I'm not sure 2 leading 2 trailing would work. On my 3x 3 build I could not get the wheels to hold tension without at least one crossing per group of spokes. Without that, the first time you hit a serious pothole the wheel would probably pretzl on you!
2leading 2 trailing would probably be tricky to get a nice cross without looking odd.

I'll go and take a look at cyclesurgery this weekend, they seem the cheapest for both CXP and DT, will probably go for silver CXP 'cause orange and black 'll be a bit too Halloweeny.

I was going to post exactly that! (For some reason I was thinking about your hubs this morning)

Tasty hubs!
I have a set of Campy Omega V shaped Alloy 6082 T6's with Campy 'Sheriff Star' C Record hubs(freshly purchased from Jos) need to build them up now.
Also have a set up of Pauls Components black hubs with black CXP 33 - bombproof!!

wooden rims.