Many road bike wheels are still designed for use with rim brakes, which means the rim must offer a consistent braking surface.

This is why good quality aluminium rims claim to offer a ‘machined’ surface, which generally guarantees an even braking surface at manufacturing.

Over time, braking in gritty conditions will not just wear down the brake pads, but the rims too. A worn brake track can be dangerous because the high pressure of a road tyre can cause the rim to crack and explode.

Look for a small dimple or groove on the surface of your rim – this is a wear indicator. When it starts disappearing, it’s time to get your rim or wheel replaced.

Carbon rims typically don’t perform as well when braking, especially in the wet or in extreme conditions such as descending long, steep mountains and need specialist pads. Keep this in mind if you’re considering a carbon wheel for everyday use or are swapping between carbon and alloy rims, as you’ll need to swap the pads too.

Spokes

Spokes lace the hub to the rim. Generally, wheels with higher spoke counts are stronger and more durable, but this comes with a weight and slight aero penalty.

Typically a spoke is made from a piece of stainless steel wire that’s been cold-forged and then had a thread added to it. Some higher-end wheels may use spokes made from aluminium, carbon fibre or even titanium.

When it comes to a quality wheel build, correct spoke tension is critical. Too loose and the spokes can unwind, and the constant flex will eventually lead to broken spokes or cracked rims. Too tight and there’s an increased risk of the rim cracking at the spoke attachment point or a nipple failing.

Factory vs. handbuilt wheels

The merits of factory vs. handbuilt wheels are often argued.

Confusingly, factory wheels are, in fact, commonly built at least partly by hand. The key distinction however is that factory wheels are built to an exact specification and you buy them as an off-the-shelf item, often with proprietary spoke and rim designs.

Handbuilt wheels take a more classical approach, where the hubs, spokes, nipples and rims can be bought separately and chosen to best suit a rider’s individual needs.

Generally speaking, race wheels are mostly sold as factory options. The big wheel brands dominate this space due to their research, development and marketing through sponsored teams.

Handbuilt wheels are commonly kept for training, long-distance and everyday uses. However, there are of course examples where the opposites are true.

Buying second-hand road bike wheels

Wheels can be expensive and second-hand items are commonly available for sale. Just as with a bike, the actual use and repair history of the wheels is crucially important when buying used.

Your first step is to check how straight (true) the wheel is. Give it a spin and ensure it’s not buckled. Also, check for any ‘hop’ within the height of the rim – nobody wants an egg-shaped wheel.

• Rims: Check for wear of the brake surface (on rim brake wheels), which should be flat and without any concave shape. Look for any sign of chips and then inspect the whole rim for cracks, especially around the spokes.
• Spokes: Check that all the spokes are straight and without gouges or scratches. Squeeze the spokes two at a time – all the ones on the right should feel roughly even in tension with each other. Now do the same for the left, which should feel similar. Unevenness is a sign of a bent rim that’s being held in shape by spoke tension.
• Hubs: Spin the wheels by holding onto the hub axles. The bearings should spin freely without any drag or notching. Check that the freehub spins yet grabs when you rotate it forward. Also, be sure to double-check freehub compatibility with your gears (as outlined above).

Road wheel glossary

• Asymmetric rim: As the rear cassette sits on the right side of the hub, the point at which the spokes attach from the rear hub is offset to the left. With this, an asymmetric rim is designed to give a more direct path from these offset spokes to the rim, with the desired result being a sturdier and stiffer wheel, and more even left–right spoke tensions
• Axle: The hub spins around the axle, which is attached to the dropouts of the frame and fork. On a road bike, the axle is always hollow and designed to work with a thru-axle or quick release skewer
• Bladed spoke: A flattened spoke that’s designed to cut through the wind with less resistance. Bladed spokes are common in high-end wheels and also help to provide an edge for a tool to hold onto, which can allow for a higher spoke tension to be achieved. Top spoke brands DT Swiss and Sapim both claim that their best bladed spokes are not only their lightest option, but also the strongest and most durable
• Butted spoke: A process that sees the centre of the spoke being made thinner than the outer sections. When done correctly, this encourages the spoke to flex away from weak points, therefore leading to improved durability at a lower weight. Double-butted means two different thicknesses and triple-butted means three thicknesses
• Cartridge bearing: In this system, bearings are contained in a cartridge that features the ball bearings and inner and outer race as one unit. The outer race is a tight press-fit into the hub shell, while the axle contacts the inner race. These items are considered disposable, where old ones are tapped out and new cartridges pressed in place
• Centrelock: a Shimano spline system for mounting a brake rotor onto the hub
• Clincher: The most common type of tyre system on a road bike. Here a bead on the tyre locks with a lip on the rim. Non-tubeless clincher tyres use inner tubes to hold air
• Cup and cone bearing: The alternative to cartridge bearing hubs is cup and cone. It’s most common on entry-level wheels and all those sold by Shimano. These feature loose ball bearings that run on a permanent outer bearing race, with a cone-shaped inner race that can be adjusted
• Disc brake: Brake technology that’s now common in cycling that fixes a thin metal plate braking surface (rotor) at the hub with a caliper attached to the frame that clamps onto it to slow the bike down
• Dish: The relative position of the rim to the hub. On nearly all frame designs, the rim must be perfectly centred over the hub
• Double-wall rim: This refers to the internal cross-section of a rim. Where a single wall rim has one layer of material for the spokes to connect to and the tyre to sit on, a double wall rim adds an additional level of material separating the two. This additional layer creates a box type section, which greatly aids in rim stiffness and wheel durability
• Eyelet: A reinforcing ring in the spoke hole of a rim. An eyeleted rim typically allows for greater spoke tension and therefore a more durable wheel. A rim that claims to feature double eyelets will have the eyelets travel through both walls of the rim (see double wall rim)
• Freehub body: The mechanism on the rear wheel that allows a rider to coast or pedal backwards without resistance
• Hub: Sitting at the centre of the wheel is the hub, which contains the axle, bearings and rear freehub and holds the spokes
• Machined sidewall: A finishing process to a rim brake wheel after the rim is made, which helps ensure its braking faces are parallel and even
• Nipple: The nipple is the nut of the spoke. Typically the nipple sits at the rim, though some wheel designs place the nipple at the hub
• Open-tubular: A type of clincher tyre system that replicates the construction of a traditional cotton tubular, but in clincher form. Open tubulars differ slightly in their manufacturing technique, which is generally to a level similar to high-end tubulars
• Quick-release: A tool-free mechanism for attaching a wheel to a bike. It consists of a threaded rod connected to a lever-actuated cam assembly. The rod slides through a hollow hub axle and a nut on the opposing side allows tension adjustment
• Radial lacing: Where the spoke leaves the hub and meets the rim in a straight line. This is the easiest form of wheel building and results in the shortest length (lightest weight) spoke possible. This style is popular for rim brake front wheels, but does not resist torque appropriately for use on the driveside of a rear wheel or with disc brakes
• Rim: The outward hoop of the wheel that holds the tyre and acts as a braking surface for rim brakes
• Rim tape (AKA rim strip): Protective tape used to cover the multiple spoke holes in a rim. Without this, an inner tube would expand through the rim holes and puncture. Some top wheelsets from Shimano, Fulcrum, Mavic and others do not require rim tape. Tubeless setups often require tubeless-specific rim tape because the system must be made airtight, so make sure to check you have the correct tape for your tyres
• Sealed bearing: Another name for cartridge bearing
• Sleeve joint: A method by which an alloy rim is joined to form a circle. Sleeve joints are a form of rivet; they are cheaper to produce than a welded joint
• Spoke: Wire rods that connect the hub to the rim. They can be made from steel, stainless steel (most common), titanium, aluminium or carbon fibre
• Spoke flange: The section of the hub that the spokes attach to
• Spoke gauge: This refers to the thickness of the spoke. Most common is ‘14G’, which commonly equates to a 2mm diameter, ‘15G’ is thinner at 1.8mm. Therefore, ‘straight gauge spokes’ feature a single diameter, whereas the most common double-butted spokes with a 2/1.8/2mm diameter across the length are sometimes referred to as ‘14/15G’
• Three-cross: This refers to the lacing pattern of the spokes where each spoke crosses past another three times. This pattern is most common on 32 or higher spoked wheels
• Thru-axle: A large axle that slides through a closed frame dropout and the hub, screwing into threads on the far side of the wheel, allowing for a stiffer and more secure wheel connection. Thru-axles are commonly used on disc brake road bikes
• Trueness: This refers to how straight a rim runs, adjusted via spoke tension (hence the expression to ‘true’ a wheel)
• Tubeless: An airtight clincher tyre system that uses a tight tyre fit, air pressure and tubeless sealant to hold the tyre in place. No inner tube is required. Tubeless wheels are backwards compatible with standard clincher tyres and tubes, but tubeless tyres require tubeless-specific rims
• Tubular: A type of tyre, also known as a ‘tub’, a ‘single’ or a ‘sew-up’. The inner tube is stitched into a carcass that has tread on the outside and is glued to a concave rim
• Tubular glue: A specific glue used to bond a tubular tyre with a tubular rim. There are different kinds of tubular glue for aluminium and carbon rims
• Tubular tape: A substitute for tubular glue, it’s effectively a double-sided tape that’s cleaner and easier to apply than tubular glue – although some argue it’s not as good as glue
• Two-cross: This refers to the lacing pattern of the spokes where each spoke crosses past another twice. It’s most common on wheels with 20-28 spoke counts
• Valve hole: A hole in the rim for the tube/tubular/tubeless valve to fit through
• Wear indicator: Grooves or small holes on a rim’s braking surface to show rim condition. When the grooves or holes become flush with the rest of the rim, replacement is advised
• Welded joint: A method by which an alloy rim is joined to form a circle. Welded rims are typically more expensive than sleeve joints because this method results in a stronger and lighter connection