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John Neugent probably knows more about bicycle wheels than anyone else alive. Maybe more about bikes as well. He's spent his life in the bike business, at every level. He now owns Neugent Cycling, a firm devoted to delivering world-class equipment at the lowest possible price. If you are in the market for a set of wheels, please, check out John's site. He really knows his stuff. —Chairman Bill

John Neugent

Bill & Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, 2020: The Tour During Covid-19, Better Late Than Never is available in both Kindle eBook and Audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

John Neugent writes:

Around the turn of the century, mostly based on the interest of Schwinn, I decided to make high end wheels in Taiwan. The hottest high-end wheels of that time were Mavics.  The hottest Mavic wheels were the Ksyrium wheels with the big aluminum aero spokes.

There was nothing available that had that same appearance so in my next trip to Taiwan I visited Richman spokes (who started making a high-end version under the name Pillar) – a major spoke maker in Taiwan – and asked them to make some big aero spokes that looked similar to what Mavic was making.

I had them make spokes in steel and in titanium. They were unique in that they made them out of 2.3 mm wire (most are made of 2 mm). Since I was going to be making the hubs, the larger spoke hole diameter would not be a problem. I also had them neck down the threaded end to 2 mm so I could use a standard spoke. They were heavy (9.5 grams) but I could use fewer of them since they were (and still are) a lot stronger than a 2 mm spoke.

I built up two sets, one with steel and one with titanium spokes and sent them to Jim Langley who was and is one of the top product people in the industry. I saw him at the bike show in Vegas and he told me he got about 5 miles on the titanium-spoked wheels before he broke a spoke. So, I just used steel spokes.

Rght from the beginning it was a huge success I still have people sending back their hubs and spokes to get a new rim installed and I haven’t sold wheels with those spokes for about 15 years. Almost all the front wheels have held up with no need for a new rim.

John Neugent was was one of the first to establish quality hand building in Taiwan around the turn of the century. He now owns Neugent Cycling, a firm devoted to delivering world-class equipment at the lowest possible price.