Meet Steve - The Wheel Builder




I built my first wheel in 1979, lycra had not been invented and steel was real.  I built wheels for myself and some friends after learning from a small book someone in the cycling club loaned to me.  From the word go I started to try out different spoking patterns and wheel/rim/hub combinations. 


In those days you had two types of spokes;

  • Rustless - Zinc galvanised spokes which actually corroded quite badly!
  • Chrome - essentially the same spoke, chromed plated.  These looked amazing when new and created spectacular patterns in sunlight, but terribly brittle and used to snap regularly.
I started working in bike shops for a living in 1983 and soon got more wheel building experience under my belt.  'Stainless' spokes started to become more available, although some of the early ones were no stronger than chrome spokes, and were more expensive to boot.  Stainless steel spokes have now become standard of course, and broken ones are rare if you buy a quality brand such as Sapim.

Spells in bike shops in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh all helped to add to my experience, although I continued to experiment in my spare time building 'specials' for my own requirements, be that touring with heavy loads, or for ultimate low weight/top speed racing.

In 2008 I left employment in the bicycle industry and started to form a plan to concentrate on what I feel I can do best.  The result of this is the WheelRoom, a business dedicated to producing lovingly made, hand crafted bicycle wheels.  Now that I do not work under any time constraints other than those applied by me, I can make beautiful wheels with properly set spokes, the rims are stressed regulary during building to make the finished wheel as good as I can get it. I work slowly and steadily, I take great care in every step of the wheel building process to make sure the end user gets as good a wheel as is possible to produce with the components selected.

After 30 years, I still get the satisfaction and a buzz every time the jig gives birth to another wheel.

Cycling history

Cycling for me started at the age of 3.  I have toured, cycled for pleasure, raced on road, track and timetrials to International level for Great Britain. 

From the beginning I have ridden my own wheels and won championships on them.  I still race today in timetrials, mostly I use a pair of wheels with IRD Cadence Aero rims and regulary outperform those on discs and trispokes.

I believe a properly handbuilt wheelset can be as fast or faster than the current trend for exotic carbon fibre, factory manufactured wheelsets.


To hear more about Steve listen to Velocast episode 61.

IRD rims, hand built wheels, Interloc Racing Design, Interloc,Interlock bikes, IRD, Interloc frames, Interloc bikes, mountain bike frames, cyclocross frames, Shotblast, stainless steel,Scandium, pedals, wheels, seatposts, handlebars, MTB, handlebar, cycling, Teflon chain, Teflon cassette, PTFE, cable systems, Purple Extreme, Golden degreaser, Yokozuna, gear cable, gear cables, brake cable, brake cables, gear, brake, Cadence, Cadence aero, Sapim, Clyde, CX Ray, forks, Royce, Titanium, ultra light, mid flange,


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