Cogs & Freewheels

I buy most everything online these days. There are a few online stores that 'do it right' - like Amazon, ModernBike - and I have found another one - ProWheelBuilder.com. I am a rather hard core 'recreational' rider - centuries and work commuter (36 miles per day) and have been riding my carbon fiber geared bike now for the past 6 or 7 years. I traded a friend a pair of pedals for an old Raleigh chromoly steel frame and thought I would jump into building up a commuter single speed bike. I also thought while at it, why not build my first set of wheels. I didn't know what I was doing - still learning every day - and have spent more time on Sheldon Brown's website than I have with my wife the past 6 months. With enough knowledge to be dangerous, I started dealing with ProWheelBuilder. I had lots of questions and was and continue to be very impressed with the patience shown me by both Debra and Richard Craig - the owners. They are responsive to email and phone questions and concerns, they are honest and they possess just enough of a sense of humor to get through it all. I made some mistakes in my initial ordering and Richard came through with another solution for me very professionally and to my complete satisfaction. I love this site and have had so much fun putting this bike together - I know I will be building another and another and I will buy all my wheel stuff from ProWheelBuilders. I highly recommend these guys. Thanks Richard and Debra and keep up the excellent work and customer service!!!

I've done factory wheels and built my own wheels in the past, which has lead to a preference for a good quality, hand built set of wheels on each of my bikes. This time, I was looking to do something unique, and possibly custom, for my road bike.

After a fair bit of searching, comparing and general navel gazing trying to figure out what I'd build, I found that ProWheelBuilder.com (PWB) would give me the best bang for the buck on the parts I had decided on. I ended up having PWB assemble the wheels too...it was a free service with the parts purchase and the incremental cost for duties (wheelsets vs. parts have different duty rates when bringing them into Canada) more than makes up for my time in assembling them myself.

My going more custom than just selecting the parts threw a bit of a wrench in the system, but the gang at PWB made sure things got sorted out in short order. My custom colored, custom engraved Onyx hubs with a leading / trailing pattern of colored spokes were well built into my selected rims. Obvious quality and attention to detail were evident from the packaging of the rims for shipment to the wheels themselves. Straight and true hand built wheels done using the parts I wanted and in the way I wanted them put together...who could ask for more?

Whether for parts or complete wheels, I recommend PWB.