Sooo...A little background. I got the wild idea about a week ago to build the lightest wheelset I could for the least money. I'm shooting for 1200g and $180. These wheels are not supposed to make any sense, especially considering I just built some 32h Record hubs on some blingin' ano-red Ambrosio rims. They're great wheels, but they weigh 1800g. Great for crit racing...and everything else, as far as I'm concerned. So this is a pet project at best, and a game at worst. And whatever the case, for $180, they'll be worth it in the one HC TT I do per year.
Because they sponsor my team, I can get IRD Cadence rims for pocket change, and the ugly ano-silver versions for even cheaper. Check. Spokes are easy: Mike at oddsandendos.com. Check. Hubs were a bigger problem... American Classic sucks at everything they've ever done, and I won't even consider another one of their products. Record hubs are my first choice for everything, but I want minimal spoke counts. Mike's Speedcific rear hub is a lot heavier than Record, so I wouldn't be saving any weight (or much money) over 28h Record rear. So I started trolling eBay...
I'm 150 lbs in the middle of winter, so I want to go with as few spokes as I can get away with. Though they don't post it on their website, IRD does make a 20h Cadence. Nice. I found a 20h Campy WCS rear hub on eBay for $30, and bought it on a whim, knowing nothing about its internals or even its apporximate weight. Luckily, it's 248g - about Record's weight...but with 20 spokes. So the plan is WCS rear hub, Speedcific front hub - both 20h; IRD Cadence rims, 20h; AE15 radial front; AE15 2x non-drive, and 14g Marwi Ti 2x drive-side. ...Yeah, they're expensive, but when you're only buying ten of them, not so bad. And they'll be stiff as heck and capable of very high tension for not much weight. Brass nipples on the DS, Al everywhere else.
As for the Ritchey hub, if you can still find any, they're pretty nice. Loud as hell out of the box, but they come apart with a 2.5mm wrench, a quick smattering of Prep-M, and I can't even hear them anymore. I rode some almost identical (inside, at least) Pro-Z Disc hubs on my rigid SS mtb for about two years with zero issues, so I expect this to be a remarkably good hub!
Because they sponsor my team, I can get IRD Cadence rims for pocket change, and the ugly ano-silver versions for even cheaper. Check. Spokes are easy: Mike at oddsandendos.com. Check. Hubs were a bigger problem... American Classic sucks at everything they've ever done, and I won't even consider another one of their products. Record hubs are my first choice for everything, but I want minimal spoke counts. Mike's Speedcific rear hub is a lot heavier than Record, so I wouldn't be saving any weight (or much money) over 28h Record rear. So I started trolling eBay...
I'm 150 lbs in the middle of winter, so I want to go with as few spokes as I can get away with. Though they don't post it on their website, IRD does make a 20h Cadence. Nice. I found a 20h Campy WCS rear hub on eBay for $30, and bought it on a whim, knowing nothing about its internals or even its apporximate weight. Luckily, it's 248g - about Record's weight...but with 20 spokes. So the plan is WCS rear hub, Speedcific front hub - both 20h; IRD Cadence rims, 20h; AE15 radial front; AE15 2x non-drive, and 14g Marwi Ti 2x drive-side. ...Yeah, they're expensive, but when you're only buying ten of them, not so bad. And they'll be stiff as heck and capable of very high tension for not much weight. Brass nipples on the DS, Al everywhere else.
As for the Ritchey hub, if you can still find any, they're pretty nice. Loud as hell out of the box, but they come apart with a 2.5mm wrench, a quick smattering of Prep-M, and I can't even hear them anymore. I rode some almost identical (inside, at least) Pro-Z Disc hubs on my rigid SS mtb for about two years with zero issues, so I expect this to be a remarkably good hub!
