In the early 1990’s a long-term transition began when Mavic released the first factory-built road racing wheelset, the Cosmic. This wasn’t the world-changing event they had hoped for, and most competitive riders carried on having their wheels hand-built by their local wheel builder. Then in 1995 Frenchman Laurent Jalabert won Paris-Nice on a bright red set of Mavic mass-produced Helium wheels, and although his wheels would have been hand-built for him, the world’s perception changed, pre-built wheels became popular, and the local wheel builders days were numbered - this leading to today's mass-produced imported wheels that have become the convenient norm.
Today hand-built performance carbon wheels are in the exclusive domain of the elite rider. A high-level wheelset can cost many thousands of pounds to buy and own, and they are out of reach for many club and competitive riders until now that is, as Aeroc has set out to change the world of wheel buying again! Today we allow all types of riders easy access to the Pro-racers world of high-level hand-built carbon wheel systems.
Our wheels are created with passion, pride, and pro-level performance but with the ‘oh so easy’ convenience of buying online. But the big question still is: are hand-built wheels better than mass-produced imported wheels? Well let’s try and answer this with an analogy – we believe our full-carbon racing wheels are comparable to a top-performing stringed musical instrument. Every instrument is uniquely different, and similarly every wheel component is never the same, so the wheel builder needs to use the precision of the human eye to spot those anomalies or imperfections that could affect performance or durability. It is also paramount that the spokes are tensioned and tuned to flawless equality, and as with the stringed instrument, each spoke plucked should create a perfect equal note, and the human ear is best at achieving true perfection; you wouldn’t let a machine or novice tune a Stradivarius, and this is why we only let Certified Master wheel builders near our world-leading performance wheels.
There are many reasons why having your wheels hand-built by our Master wheel builders is better than imported pre-built wheels, so let's name a few:
· Our hand-built wheels have tighter tolerances, meaning the wheels will be stiffer and perform at a higher level.
· They are precision built - meaning the trueness and roundness is more precise and will stay within our world-leading tolerances for longer.
· Our hand-built wheels are built with greater care and attention than mass-produced wheels, with every wheel being signed off by the builder with passion and pride.
· We can custom build our wheels to the rider’s style, power and weight, creating wheels more suitable for the individual rider.
· Our hand-built wheels are more durable and easier to maintain due to the world-leading components and readily available spares.
· Pre-built Imported wheels have higher shipping & import costs meaning cheaper components are used, to help keep the retail price lower.
· Imported wheels also have a higher carbon footprint, mainly due to the pre-built wheels packaging size and transportation on polluting container ships.
A Better Service - Your Aeroc Certified Master Wheel Builder is the best choice for servicing your wheels, helping them perform at the highest level for longer, and they are also there to advise and answer all your questions or concerns – an unbeatable service!
Thank you for reading
Team Aeroc
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