Wheel build. What's it normally cost in SoCal?

[trailninja]

I am looking to build a 26er wheelset from scratch with carbon hoops, DT Swiss 350s and DT Aero bladded spokes 32 hole. Does anyone know the typical cost for a wheel build labor for a full wheelset? Any local recommendations in the OC area?

On another note The Path bike shop was going to charge me $110 (WTF!) per wheel just to replace my spoke nipples with brass one's because they were apparently going bad on my other enve wheelset which is only 1.5 yrs old. The price seems really expensive just to replace the nipples. I opted out of the work because the price did not seem right.

 

[mtnbikej]

Learn to do it yourself....it's free.

I've generally heard $45-$70 per wheel labor.

 

[trailninja]

Learn to do it yourself....it's free.

I've generally heard $45-$70 per wheel labor.

I don't think I would trust myself riding a wheelset I built for the first time. Haha.

 

[1TrackMind]

I don't think I would trust myself riding a wheelset I built for the first time. Haha.

Funny quote coming from a "quality engineer"!

Call Bill @Cycleogical in Dana Point. They built my last two wheelsets (Chris King to Light Bicycle and Ibis741 to I9Torch)and are much more price competetive than the path...good peeps there!

 

[trailninja]

Lol. Dude thanks for the reference!

 

[thephat]

I think there was a misunderstanding. We charge $50 per wheel to build a wheel at The Path. $110 sounds like the labor for both wheels, and the cost of the nipples.

 

[bconneraz]

I'll add that I've have 3 sets of wheels built at the Path, all with fantastic results. Perfectly tensioned and true.

 

[portlypeddler]

I'm with baconneraz, they've built several wheels for my bikes at the affordable price "the phat" mentioned. Always happy!
Steve

 

[Fearless Fly]

Build them yourself and then take them to the path for a complete rebuild, that way you appreciate the price. Building a wheel is skilled labor and costs money.

 

[trailninja]

I think there was a misunderstanding. We charge $50 per wheel to build a wheel at The Path. $110 sounds like the labor for both wheels, and the cost of the nipples.

Nope the quote was per wheel with brass nipples. Nevertheless thanks for the clarification.

 

[trailninja]

Build them yourself and then take them to the path for a complete rebuild, that way you appreciate the price. Building a wheel is skilled labor and costs money.

Nah! Prices are jacked up at the path. This wasn't the first time. Last time they had a Pivot 429 trail for sale the msrp listed on the bike wasnt even the correct spec of the bike. Salesman tried to sell my buddy the bike with a discount when the actual build at that msrp was totally different. They admitted to placing the wrong msrp on the bike the next day. Just saying.

 

[thephat]

I remember when our receiving guy had some confusion about the XTR build vs the XTR/XT build on the 429 trail. That was an embarrassing labeling mistake, but not reflective of how our pricing structure works. It was corrected pretty quickly. I would say this confusion is definitely not the norm at The Path, but I can see how you may have lost some trust. Not sure where the communication broke down on the wheel build quote, but we charge $50 labor to build a wheel ($60 for UST wheels, and some other more time consuming options).

 

[dstepper]

So frustrating people will go out of their way to point out something negative without truly understand the situation. But won't step of the curb to give thanks, I could never work in a customer service industry and keep my cool.

Dean

 

[jazzanova]

Enve wheels are under 5 year warranty.
The nipples were exchanged for free. Its a known problem and it is covered by the warranty. Of course a whole wheelset had to be bought from enve in order to have them replaced.