# Customer Wheel Build Labor Costs?



## boleiro (Jun 11, 2010)

So I'm going to put my tax return to good use and spring for a some nice wheels. Researching everything on the subject has been great, overwhelming at times, but very interesting. I've turned so many corners, having originally started my research on factory built wheels, I'm now looking into custom build options. I'm down to a couple of different build specs, but have found sourcing the actual builder a bit more challenging. 

Wanted to find out some sort of consensus on labor rates? I've been quoted $50 per wheel by someone local who just got their DT Swiss Wheelbuilders Certification. But I have no idea if this is a good deal or not. Looking around some wheelbuilding sites, I haven't found any labor rates, just complete wheel pricing. 

any input welcome, thanks.


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## RussellS (Feb 1, 2010)

http://www.starbike.com/php/product_info.php?lang=en&pid=1305

Starbike charges 22.50 Euros per wheel. Which is about $28 if VAT is removed. And $33 if VAT is not removed.

If you go through Excel Sports build a custom wheel menu, you get $18 labor per wheel.

Looks like Colorado Cyclist does not list labor separately. They give you a total price for a wheel you pick out. So you could back into the labor by finding the price for the individual components. For fun I did this with a DT 465 Record wheel. Labor for the front is $44 and labor for the rear is $40.

So roughly $20-45 is about what you will pay per wheel to be built. Some builders may not charge you anything extra because they make it up on the parts. They buy parts at a discount, then charge MSRP to the cutomer. Labor to build is part of the total profit on the wheel.


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## TomH (Oct 6, 2008)

I think 50 bucks per wheel is on the high side of normal. Not outrageous, but not a deal either.

It better be very good work for 50 bucks a wheel.


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## SBH1973 (Nov 21, 2002)

My LBS mechanic charged me $60 to build up a set of carbon tubulars. He usually charges a bit more when people source their own parts, but since I let him supply me with CX-Rays for full retail price, he didn't add anything because I supplied the rims and hubs. I actually thought $30 a wheel was a deal and expected $40-50.

But going with someone local has advantages. Ask him if he'll true/retension them at 500 miles or so as part of the cost. And if he does a crappy job, you can always spread the word on local group rides! But chances are, he'll try to keep you happy so you'll come back for more and spread the word. And, of course, you get to put some money back into the local economy, never a bad thing.


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## Jay Strongbow (May 8, 2010)

So you plan on buying the parts and shopping for labor separately?

Financially speaking that's probably the not the way to do it.

You will pay more than pretty much any builder for parts because you won't have the buying power to get volume discounts. You can't really tell what a lot of builders charge for labor because you don't know what they pay for the parts.

The best way to shop is probably just get a quote for the whole two wheels (well, aside from looking for quality). Money is money so I don't imagine you care if it goes to labor or parts just as long as it's good deal.

Unless you get a killer sale, buying your own parts and then paying $50 per wheel will get you a pretty high price over all.

I've only had two sets built but both times it was cheaper than buying my own parts retail alone. So esentially labor was free from my perspective. Of course it wasn't and the builder made money because he got the parts much cheaper than I could have.

Shop for quality above all though. When you factor in how many miles and years you plan on using a set of wheels and extra $30 (or whatever amount) per wheel doesn't have any significance compared to getting a quality build or not.


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## boleiro (Jun 11, 2010)

thanks all, I really didn't have a clue how that pricing fell in the scheme of things. Now I have a frame of reference and can ask better questions thanks to the info. 

I did plan on getting the rims myself, maybe hubs too. He seems to be very DT Swiss centric (understandably as he's DT Certified). I don't mind going with dt hubs, but I really wanted to get some Kinlin rims. I'll definitely let him source the spokes/nipples. I'll get a quote from him and see how it looks. 

thanks all.


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## rruff (Feb 28, 2006)

TomH said:


> I think 50 bucks per wheel is on the high side of normal. Not outrageous, but not a deal either.
> 
> It better be very good work for 50 bucks a wheel.


I spend 6-8hrs just building a pair of wheels. Yes, I know that is slow. Oddly I haven't gotten any faster since the first pair I built... now I just do a lot more stuff.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

rruff said:


> I spend 6-8hrs just building a pair of wheels. Yes, I know that is slow. Oddly I haven't gotten any faster since the first pair I built... now I just do a lot more stuff.


Me too and I don't care. If I could find a way to add more "betterness" then I'd take even longer. I also refuse to start and finish a set of wheels on the same day. I think the spokes need to get to know each other in a relaxed state overnight before they get all tense and eventually get even


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## RussellS (Feb 1, 2010)

SBH1973 said:


> But going with someone local has advantages. Ask him if he'll true/retension them at 500 miles or so as part of the cost.


If the wheels need retruing and tensioning at 500 miles then the build was poor quality. It does not add much to have a poor quality builder retrue a poor quality wheel build.


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## boleiro (Jun 11, 2010)

I'm thinking that since this guy has just become certified, he is most likely not terribly experienced yet. Maybe I'll try to find another local wheelbuilder.


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

just to throw another price out there, we charge $75/wheel if you buy parts from us, $10 more if you bring parts in. between myself and our other wheelbuilder, we have over 40 yrs experience. given that it takes a minimum of an hour to build a good wheel, it's basically the same as our 'hourly' shop labor rate. we build excellent wheels and provide lifetime truing...and if you break a spoke, we fix it for free as well. if you can get good wheels built for $50/wheel, and the builder will back them up, i think that's a great deal. 


of course, if you fall over, bend your hanger and shift into the spokes and we have to replace all of the driveside pulling spokes, that's another story...


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## Zen Cyclery (Mar 10, 2009)

boleiro said:


> I'm thinking that since this guy has just become certified, he is most likely not terribly experienced yet. Maybe I'll try to find another local wheelbuilder.


That may be a good call. In my experience, certifications don't usually mean much. I have met some of the most "certified" wrenches who simply cannot turn a wrench. If you are one of his first builds you may be in for a bit of added labor down the road.


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## logbiter (Sep 14, 2005)

Another data point. ~$45/wheel, depending on which local shop & what they're supplying. Last one, I supplied rim & hub, it was $40 labor. This from a guy who's run a family shop for 40+ yrs & recently closed it down. He likes building wheels & is still working part time at our local "recycled cycles" shop.


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