Professional Wheelbuilding: The Manual
Professional Wheelbuilding: The Manual by David C.R. Hunt (now Meadows) is an electronic book that is available to purchase and download exclusively through this site.
A great advantage of custom wheels is having them tailored to your needs. That may mean purchasing them from a wheelbuilder or purchasing the parts separately and building them yourself. This book helps you to do either. There is a guide for lacing and finishing wheels as well as good practice and convention. This could be used to produce you own wheels to a high standard or assess the work of the wheelbuilder. There is also a section on repairing wheels.
Even within a riding type or style, riders’ needs vary. They will require longevity, strength, comfort, performance and stiffness in varying proportions. Their needs may even be aesthetic. This book explains how parts vary and the implications of that variation; what makes a part better, worse or simply different to another.
The book has 23 sections and a glossary that helps to guide you through universal principles that affect product performance. These are timeless truths that can be applied to any product. There are also case studies of product revelations as well as explanations for fashion trends. There are sections that help you to distinguish a well marketed product from a well manufactured one. The book systematically works through all wheel elements from the bearings to the tyres.