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Surly Rims Custom Hand Built Wheels
Custom Wheels on Surly Rims, Built by Hand
Pick a Surly rim, choose your hub, spokes and color, and we lace and true the wheel ourselves, one at a time, in our Georgia shop.
Why build your wheel around a Surly rim:
- Two Surly rims to start from: My Other Brother Darryl and Clown Royal Symmetric
- Builds for MTB single speed and fat or plus bikes
- Spokes are cut to the length your build needs after we measure real ERD
- Laced, tensioned and trued by hand in our Georgia shop
Build your custom Surly wheel for:
From our truing stand
Surly wheels we’ve built
Every one of these was laced and trued in our shop.
Start with the rim
The Surly rims we build with
Each card opens the builder with that rim already chosen. Scroll for all 2.
How it works
From parts bin to your doorstep
1Pick your parts
Choose a Surly rim, then the hub, spokes and nipples. The builder only offers parts that fit together.
2We measure and prep
Rim and hub are measured here: real ERD, real flange geometry. Spokes are cut to the length your build needs.
3Laced by hand
One builder laces your wheel on the stand. No machine builds, ever.
4Tensioned and trued
Brought up to even tension, stress-relieved, trued round and true, and checked again after it settles.
More about Surly custom wheels
Specs, pairings and FAQ
Custom hand built wheels with Surly rims
Surly builds for touring, fat bikes and loaded travel, where robustness beats every other consideration.
We lace Surly rims to the hub of your choice and build the wheel by hand in our Georgia shop - tensioned evenly, trued flat and round, and stress-relieved before it ships. You pick the hub, spoke gauge and color, nipple material and lacing pattern; we make sure the combination is one that can actually be built.
Why Surly rims are different
- Width that adds float. My Other Brother Darryl is 80mm across the outside. Surly says the wider footprint gives more flotation and traction than a narrower rim.
- A 100mm rim made for one tire. Surly designed the Clown Royal for the 6.2 inch Molenda tire on the Moonlander. It chose a 24 inch diameter to get the most tire volume that frame can hold.
- Two drilling choices on the Darryl. It comes as a 32-hole symmetric rim, or with Surly's 64-hole Dual pattern, which lets a builder lace a centered wheel or an offset one. Surly lists a 15mm rim center offset.
- Cutouts to shed weight. A rim this wide carries a lot of metal, so Surly cuts windows through the bed of both models. On the Clown Royal, extruded channels beside each bead add strength.
- Tubeless with a strip and tape. Both rims go tubeless with a no-stretch rim strip and tubeless rim tape, and Surly sells a kit for it, so you can leave the inner tube out.
The Surly rims we build with
Every Surly rim we build with is aluminum. That is not the budget option so much as the practical one: an aluminum rim can be trued back from an impact that would write off a carbon rim, and it is far easier to justify on a bike that gets ridden in winter.
What to pair with a Surly rim
A wheel is a system: the rim decides the tire and the braking, the hub decides the drivetrain and the axle fit, and the spokes have to suit both. Start from whichever end matters most to you and the configurator will keep the other end compatible.
Popular Surly rim and hub pairings
Hubs our customers build with each Surly rim, led by the pairings they choose most often in our build records since 2009. Every hub listed is in the builder today in a drilling and brake type that fits; tap a rim to start that build.
- Surly My Other Brother Darryl with Hope Pro 4 Fat Sno, Bitex FB MTF, Bitex FB MTR, Onyx Fat Bike, Velocity Fat, Industry Nine Hydra 2 Single Speed
- Surly Clown Royal Symmetric with Hope Pro 4 Fat Sno, Bitex FB MTF, Bitex FB MTR, Onyx Fat Bike, Velocity Fat, DT Swiss 350 Big Ride
We also build with Surly Hubs, if you want the whole wheel from one maker.
Popular hubs brands for these builds:
- Bitex Hubs
- Boyd Hubs
- Chris King Hub
- DT Swiss Hubs
- Hope Hubs
- Industry Nine Hubs
- Nextie Hubs
- Onyx Hubs
- Paul Hubs
- Philwood Hubs
- Shimano Hubs
- Son Dynamo Hubs
- Surly Hubs
- Velo Orange Hubs
- Velocity Hubs
- White Industries Hubs
- Wolf Tooth Hubs
Want to check spoke lengths for a Surly rim before you order? Our free spoke length calculator has the measured dimensions for it.
Surly custom wheel questions
Can you build a wheel with a Surly rim I already own?
Yes. Choose the supply-your-own rim option in the configurator, ship it to us, and we will lace it into a new wheel with new spokes cut to the right length for that exact rim. You pay for the parts you need and the build labor.
How many spokes should a Surly wheel have?
It depends on your weight, the terrain and the rim, not on the brand. 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 picked.
How long will my Surly wheel take?
Build time comes down to parts availability rather than bench time. Your estimated ship date is shown in the configurator before you check out, so you know the date before you pay.
Not sure what to pick? Email info@prowheelbuilder.com (fastest) or leave a voicemail on 470-253-0929 — you will be talking to the people who build the wheels.
Not sure which rim or hub?
Tell the Build Assistant how you ride and what you want to spend, and it ranks complete builds for you.
Open the Build Assistant →