
You have two options: buy a prepared wheel-set or build your own. I’ll assume this guide is for beginners so I’ll skip the wheel-building part for now.
Good Wheel-sets are available on eBay usually including Velocity or Weinmann rims and Formula hubs.
Brand to search for:
In this case you can’t search for a unique brand because all the wheels are assembled with components (rims, spokes, hubs) form different manufacturers. So just check to have a wheelset that include these brands:
For the rims: Velocity, Dodici, Weinmman, Mavic, Fiamme, Suntour, Ghisallo and Brusati wooden rims.
For the hubs: Campagnolo, Gipiemme, Zeus, Harder Beacon (rare), Maxcarr (rar,e France), Grancompe, PaulComponents, Sueze, Miche low and high flange.
Before you buy:
- Always double check if the wheel-set comes with the cog and the lockring, otherwise you have to buy them both accordingly with the hub thread. If you own a french cog you can’t use it on a british hub.
- Rims can be very different and there are two main categories: Machined and Not-Machined. This means that the first have the side wall machined in order to work better with brakes, the latter are usually meant for track bikes where the brakes are not required. I prefer the Not-machined, because you can actually use both type even if you are planning on using brakes on not-machined rims.
- Another thing to check if you are planning on using brakes, is the shape of the rim. As said you can use a not-machined rim with brakes but the rim wall should be straight and parallel in the point where the brake pad touches the rim.
