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Custom Wheel Program
Custom hand built bicycle wheels, built one at a time
Every wheel on this page is built to order. You choose the rim, the hub, the spokes, the nipples and the lacing pattern, and a wheelbuilder laces, tensions, trues and stress-relieves it by hand in our Georgia shop. Nothing here is pulled off a shelf, and nothing is machine built. That is the whole point of a custom wheel: the rim that suits your tires, the hub that suits your drivetrain, and a spoke count and lacing pattern chosen for your weight and the way you ride, rather than whatever combination a factory decided to mass produce.
Pro Wheel Builder has been building wheels for over 50 years. The configurator above is the same parts catalog and the same compatibility rules our own builders work from.
How the custom wheel builder works
Pick your rim
Filter by wheel size, brake type, tire type, internal width, material and depth. Carbon or aluminum, tubeless or tubed, 20″ through 29″.
Pick your hub
Choose the axle standard, freehub body and drilling that match your frame and cassette. Front, rear or a matched pair.
Pick spokes, nipples and lacing
Spoke gauge and color, brass or alloy nipples, and a lacing pattern — radial, 2-cross, 3-cross — with our recommendation shown for your build.
We build it and ship it
Your wheel is laced by hand, tensioned evenly, trued flat and round, and stress-relieved before it ships. The estimated ship date is shown before you check out.
Every combination is checked before you can order it
Most of what goes wrong with a custom wheel order goes wrong at the parts list, not at the build. A straight-pull hub will not take J-bend spokes. A rim drilled for internal nipples will not take external ones. A 28-hole rim will not lace to a 32-hole hub. Front and rear hubs take different drillings depending on whether you run disc or rim brakes. Our configurator enforces all of it as you build, so an incompatible wheel is not something you can accidentally order:
- Spoke head — J-bend and straight-pull spokes are filtered to match the hub you picked.
- Nipple type — internal and external nipples are filtered to match the rim.
- Drilling — rim and hub hole counts are always matched, and only the drillings valid for your brake type and wheel position are offered.
- Lacing pattern — patterns that will not physically lace at your spoke count and flange geometry are removed, and the recommended pattern is highlighted.
- Spoke length — calculated from the measured ERD of your rim and the flange geometry of your hub, not estimated from the model name.
If you want to check spoke lengths yourself before or after you order, our free spoke length calculator runs the same math against a database of thousands of rims and hubs.
Recommendations tuned to how you ride
Tell the configurator what the wheel is for — road, gravel, cyclocross, cross-country, trail, enduro, downhill, touring, track, BMX or e-bike — and each rim and hub is graded for that use. A rim that is ideal for a 150 lb road rider is the wrong rim for a 220 lb rider on an e-bike, and the configurator says so rather than leaving you to guess. Spoke count and lacing recommendations shift with the same inputs, and a wheel strength indicator updates as you build so you can see what a change actually costs you in durability or weight.
Send us your own rim or hub
Already have a rim you love, or a hub worth saving from a wheel with a cracked rim? Choose the supply-your-own option in the configurator, tell us what you are sending, and we will lace it into a new wheel with new spokes. You pay only the missing parts and the build labor. This is also the route for a hub or rim we do not stock — if you can ship it to us, we can build with it.
Rim and hub brands we build with
We build with 35 rim and hub brands. Each page below covers building custom wheels around that brand specifically, and links straight into the configurator with that brand pre-selected.
Custom wheels by rim brand
Custom wheel building questions
How long does a custom wheel take to build?
Build time depends on parts availability rather than bench time. Your estimated ship date is shown in the configurator before you check out and again on your order confirmation, so you know the date before you pay rather than after.
Are hand built wheels better than factory wheels?
For most riders, yes, and for two reasons that have nothing to do with craftsmanship romance. First, a hand built wheel is specified for you — your weight, your tires, your terrain — instead of for the average of everyone who might buy that model. Second, it is built from serviceable parts: if you break a spoke or crack a rim in three years, the replacement is a catalog part, not a proprietary component that has been discontinued.
How many spokes do I need?
24 to 28 spokes suits most road and gravel wheels, 28 to 32 covers trail and heavier riders, and 32 to 36 is the choice for touring, tandem, cargo and e-bike use. The configurator recommends a count from your bike type and rider weight, and will not offer a count that cannot be laced to the parts you have chosen.
What lacing pattern should I choose?
3-cross is the default for most rear wheels and any wheel that transmits torque through a disc brake or a hub gear. 2-cross suits lower spoke counts and shallower flanges. Radial lacing is for front wheels with rim brakes only, where no torque passes through the spokes. Straight-pull hubs determine their own pattern by flange geometry, so there is nothing to choose. The configurator recommends a pattern for every build.
Can you build a wheel around a hub I already own?
Yes. Use the supply-your-own hub option, ship us the hub, and we will lace it to a new rim with new spokes cut to the correct length for that specific hub.
Do you build wheels for e-bikes, tandems and cargo bikes?
Yes. Select the matching bike type and the configurator will steer you to rims, hubs and spoke counts rated for the loads involved, and flag any part that is not.
What if I am not sure what to pick?
Text or leave a voicemail on 470-253-0929 or email info@prowheelbuilder.com. We build these wheels ourselves, so you will be talking to the person who would build yours.