Wheelset – RBW Silver Hubs, BTO

Built to order (may take3-4 weeks before shipping). Further custom details can be arranged with Rich.

Silver hubs are usually $225 per set, but if you buy a BTO wheelset with them, we’ll discount the price $25.

Hand built by Rich (Hands on Wheels)

Size: 26″ (559), 650b/27.5″ (584), 700c/29er (622)

Built with our new for 2024 Silver Hubs. These are high end hubs, with cold forged shells, four pawl quick engagement, and swappable end caps from 135 to 130. Rears come stock spaced for 135, so buy this endcap if your bike takes a 130mm rear. The freehub body is steel to better resist getting chewed up by big pancake cassettes with tons of leverage. 

11 speed compatible, but they’ll ship with a small freehub spacer for everything lower than that. They also come with nice internal cam skewers.

They’re louder than a Deore hub, but you can grease the pawls and quiet them a bit. 

Our rim selection, explained:

• Velocity A23 – Lightest, road-specific rim. 23mm wide. Rich builds all the A23 wheelsets with an off-center rim for the rear, optimizing rear wheel “dish”. This rim is for 80-90% road use.
• Velocity Dyad/Aeroheat – Next lightest, all-around riding, 24mm wide. Tougher than the A23, with a similar profile (but no O/C rear). Good for bigger road riders. Adequate for road or off-road riding. Note: Dyad and Aeroheat rims are the same rim — the 650b/700c version is called Dyad and the 26″ version is the Aeroheat.
• Alex DM21 – between the Dyad and the Atlas, all-around riding, 26.4mm wide. Tougher than the Dyad. Adequate for road or off-road riding. Great for wide tires.
• Velocity Atlas – Heavier rim, 25.4mm wide. Even tougher than the DM21. Great for wide tires.
• Velocity Cliffhanger – Heaviest, 30mm wide. Super tough, great for multi-terrain touring, all-around trail riding. Super wide tires.

We now offer 3 varieties of 14g (2.0mm) nipples – please email Rich your preference:

• Nickel-plated silver
• Nickel-plated black
• Raw brass

Rim tape and skewers included.

$60 shipping

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions or want something different than the options presented.

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Our wheelbuilder, Rich Lesnik, is as good a wheel builder as we know, or have ever known. Every one of us rides his wheels, and we ride them hard and long, and are constantly amazed at the abuse they seem to slough off. Rich is meticulous and uses only the rims and spokes he likes and trusts. He doesn’t build superlight wheels, either (except for Mark here), so don’t ask.

All of our wheels are 3x (three-cross), use butted DT or Sapim spokes, and…well, they’re just No Nonsense wheels for all-around hard use riding.

Sometimes somebody will think, hey, I’m getting some special wheels….might as well get super expensive hubs. That’s reasonable, but actually is unnecessary. The Shimano LX and XT hubs we have are rock solid, smooth, problem free, and keep the price down. If you want fancier (Phil, White Industries, DT, Onyx), we can do that, too. Rich can, that is.

There’s an almost endless combination of hubs, rims, and spokes to assemble into wheels so for now we just have the standards listed below, but if you want something special by all means call or email [email protected].