This is written in a stream of consciousness style, so please excuse me if there are parts that feel awkward in context.
As I started to enjoy wheel building, I've built and used wheels myself, and after using finished wheels as well, through some comparative analysis, I've come to clearly understand the advantages and disadvantages.
First, in the case of maker wheels, since most must accommodate many users, there tends to be generous tolerances in specifications.
For example, unless the hub has a particularly unique structure, the rim and number of spokes, etc. are the factors that determine the system load, and maker wheels are mostly formed with a system load of 120kg or more.
The advantage is that if QC is done properly, it can reduce the variables that may occur during use.
And another aspect that can be both an advantage and disadvantage is the case of using specially-specified parts to improve durability.
Not all manufacturers are like this, but one of the reasons I rate Campagnolo wheels highly is that in the case of hubs, all data is open so that users can access them for basic maintenance, and it doesn't require particularly high technical skill.
And measures against troubles that can occur while riding, such as nipple loosening, are very solid. The spokes are surprisingly off-the-shelf parts, but the nipples used are much larger in diameter than standard nipples.
The advantage of using larger nipples is that the stress at the rim hole is distributed over a wider area, thus increasing rim durability and significantly reducing nipple loosening.
However, the disadvantage is that the specification itself is not easy to obtain, so the cost is high, and when problems occur, both time and cost to solve them increase somewhat.
Now let me talk about what I think are the disadvantages of finished wheels.
The performance gain is minimal, but they require significant cost.
Examples include one-piece carbon spokes from Lightweight, carbon spokes from Mavic CCU, and carbon spokes from Corima MCC series.
They look very beautiful and impressive, but when problems occur, there's nothing the user can do about it.
Problems may arise from the rim, spokes, hub, etc., but often the entire wheel set needs to be replaced rather than individual components, significantly increasing costs.
From a physical perspective, one-piece systems don't need nipples and have solid contact, so it's natural that the weight savings gained and mechanical stiffness increase. However, if the question becomes whether these advantages justify the high initial purchase cost and high maintenance costs, and whether the performance gains are clear, personally I am very skeptical.
This is especially true when viewing a wheel as a system where individually separate components—the hub, rim, and spokes—come together to achieve complete performance.
From a similar perspective, but compared to assembled wheels, finished wheels generally have relatively higher prices.
From production to sale of a single product, the costs of running organizations for production, marketing, logistics, and sales relatively increase.
Another factor is that when using proprietary parts or proprietary molds, significant costs are invested there, so the advantages held by Chinese manufacturers with economies of scale and specialized division of labor in production and logistics are clear.
Let me talk about assembled wheels.
There are finished wheels like assembled wheels, but the assembled wheels I'm talking about mean fully custom builds.
This is the biggest advantage—users can specify the specs of the hub, spokes, nipples, rim, etc.
If you want to specialize for ultra-long-distance riding or dirt road use, you can increase spoke count and choose a stronger rim. Conversely, if a user is light and wants to build lighter, you can configure with 20 holes, or compromise with 21-hole triplet. Similarly with the rim, starting from rim width, spoke hole direction, number of spoke holes, whether to use internal or external routing, whether to drill rim holes or make it tubeless—the combinations are endless.
By combining each element, you can create a wheel that develops personal attachment as your own possession.
In terms of performance, you can use asymmetric rims that finished wheel manufacturers rarely use due to inventory management constraints, and can achieve good left-right tension ratios, resulting in builds that can satisfy both mechanical durability and performance aspects.
And there's the completeness of the build.
When checking the final build results of machine-built finished wheels, basically there are no major issues with lateral or radial true, but it's very common to find one or two spokes that differ by 15% or more from average tension.
Of course, generally if the variance doesn't exceed 20%, it doesn't cause major problems in use, but some dissatisfaction is inevitable, and considering the price, it's even more disappointing.
With assembled wheels, if you invest time and effort, you can create a wheel with tension variance within 5% while maintaining good trueness.
Even better, depending on user weight or preferred style, you can freely tune the wheel through tension variations within parameters, which is also an advantage.
The disadvantage is the risk that comes from using unverified components.
Products from brands or makers you're trying for the first time inevitably become beta testing whether intended or not.
Of course, if you want to avoid such risk, using products from manufacturers with a certain price point, even Chinese brands, is safer, but then the price advantage diminishes significantly.
In my case, I mainly built around 400 grams at 50mm standard, but I ordered one set of 340-gram wheels and am currently testing them.
Since I don't have the rear rim ready yet, I'm only building and testing the front wheel. The rim allows about 100kg system weight, which is nearly maxed out for me at about 90kg including the bike. But after riding rather harshly, the wheel maintains true better than expected, and the anxiety that comes with the lightweight rim seems to have largely disappeared.
However, unless someone can always check tension or true after riding, for wheels built for others, ultra-lightweight might be something to worry about.
The disadvantage is that the ride feel is worse, and for assembled wheels, considering labor costs for assembly, you'd need to budget around 1 million won to make a decent wheel, so the price advantage doesn't seem great compared to Chinese brands like Elite, FastSports, and Winspace.
In that sense, Chinese wheel brands seem truly impressive.
Most manufacturer rims are also produced in China, hub systems have already been technologically equalized, and most other components are supplied by specialized companies, so I believe that performance differentiation between traditional brands and Chinese wheels has already become meaningless.
Some may disagree, but if the shape is similar, the weight is comparable, and material quality differences are not significant, I think it's reasonable to expect similar performance.
Of course, I think it's less prevalent than in other fields, but I wish pseudoscience with weak evidence—like claims that heavier wheels have superior cruising characteristics—would disappear. Compared to the past, the choices available to consumers in the wheel field have become truly enormous, and thinking back to when I paid over 1 million won for Shimano aluminum wheels over a decade ago, nowadays being able to choose decent full-carbon wheels at that price point when currency value has decreased seems really desirable for consumer choice in wheels.
Ultimately, purely full custom builds seem to have meaning when you fully embrace customization, and while they've faded in cost advantage compared to the past, they're quite an interesting field.
These days, I find building more enjoyable than riding bikes, so I sometimes wonder if I'm building wheels just to have an excuse to ride a bike.
