I dont generally like to badmouth people (at least in public) but one of the worst set of wheels I ever owned were built by a famous wheelbuilder (with the initials JY). Some years ago, I ordered a Campy Hi-Lo hubset from the original Bicycle Classics (before they moved to Boulder) and had them ship the hubs to JY to build the wheels. Within a couple of weeks these wheels were wobbling all over the place, with several obviously loose spokes. After I retrued them, they lasted until the rims wore out. I wasnt even fat back then and I never had similar problems with wheels built by local unknowns for far less money.
For the past two years, Ive been using some vintage Wheelsmith wheels (picked up on eBay for less than the cost of JYs labor) on my commuting bike and they have remained absolutely perfect, although I had to devote an hour to removing the hideous WHEELSMITH lettering from the rims. Presumably my poor experience with the JY-built wheels was an anomaly and I hope your wheels hold up better than mine did.
Gary Chottiner Northeast Ohio
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Today while working in the back room with Bill Barrow at his bike shop the
conversation turned to wheel building. I remarked that I had a bike coming
with wheels built by Joe Young and that he was the hot wheel builder of the
moment.
Bill is usually a man of very few words unless he feels strongly about
something. He said that while there are certainly bad wheel builders that
wheel building is a matter of deciding what you want the wheel to be like
and building it that way. He feels that this is either done or not done. I
mentioned that there were some very famous wheel builders like Spence Wolf
or the early Wheelsmith wheels that were sort of legendary. He again said
that good wheels are good wheels and that if we wanted to talk great wheel
builders that he had seen a very short woman years ago at the Schwinn
factory who was as wide as tall, but could build a great wheel in seven
minutes. He felt that was the greatest wheel builder he had ever seen and
that was unlikely to be topped. Forty years in the bike business makes Bill
a pretty knowledgeable guy. I certainly did not know enough to argue with
him.
What I'd like to know is just what is it that gives famous wheel builders
such as Joe Young or Spence Wolf such a cache among the classic biking
community. Are their wheels actually better than other good wheel builders
and , if so, how?
Please, don't just tell me they have "Mojo"!
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi