B'Spoke Model R : titanium road bike
optimized for 700 X 25 to 30mm tyre
Standard Build Price
B'Spoke Model One : titanium all-rounder bike
Optimized for 700 x 32 to 40mm tyre
Standard build price
B'spoke Model G
Titaniun gravel bike with front suspension
Optimized for 700 x 43 to 50mm tyre
Standard build price
B'Spoke Custom wheel
Second-Generation Master Wheel Builder
If you are a high-mileage Australian cyclist, you already know the harsh reality of our roads. Between the brutal vibration of coarse-chip bitumen, coastal salt air, and the high cost of bike shop labour that drives many to neglect regular servicing, standard bicycle wheels simply disintegrate. Global wheel brands fall into two flawed camps: over-priced, over-hyped Western brands that target newer, uneducated riders with flashy marketing and status instead of real-world structural optimization; or flimsy, under-engineered e-commerce wheels from China that snap components within a few thousand kilometres.
We built a better option. Every single wheelset I deliver is hand-built by me, Andy Choy. My approach to wheel building isn't learned from a modern factory manual; it is rooted in a multi-generational legacy of mechanical engineering. During the 1950s, my father worked in Hong Kong's famous Hillman garage, where his job was fixing and building high-performance wire car wheels. In the 1960s, he transitioned his expertise into a bicycle business, before expanding into a motorcycle shop in the 1970s. As a young kid during my summer holidays, I sat in his workshop, learning the timeless laws of spoke tension, truing, and structural integrity by lacing heavy-duty motorcycle wheels.
By the early 1980s, I established my own bicycle business in Hong Kong, right at the dawn of the high-performance wheel revolution. Long before the era of massive corporate acquisitions, I was importing independent, cutting-edge rims and hubs directly from original pioneers like Zipp and Roval to create bespoke high-end custom builds.
As an Australian Hong Kong Chinese business owner, I have witnessed the global manufacturing landscape shift entirely. For years, I proudly ran what was likely the last Australian bike business selling true, premier American-made craftsmanship: Lynskey titanium frames. However, as US manufacturing declined, I stopped importing them in 2019 and turned my attention toward the meteoric rise of Chinese manufacturing.
The reality of modern factories is a massive double-edged sword: they simultaneously produce both the best and the absolute worst products in the world. Fortunately, as a mechanical engineering dropout with decades of hands-on industry expertise, I don't judge a product by a flashy consumer price tag, nor do I carry a blind bias for or against any nation's flag. I select my components from a pure, unadulterated mechanical engineering point of view. Price and country of origin are completely irrelevant to me. I look strictly at grain structures, material tolerances, stress distribution, and raw structural integrity. If a component is mechanically flawless, I use it; if it is compromised, it never enters my workshop.
Today, I bring those decades of custom-building history, global sourcing knowledge, and a zero-compromise mechanical foundation to Australia, crafting carbon wheelsets specifically engineered to handle the unique demands of this continent. Here is the exact engineering blueprint behind every wheel I build.
1. The Foundation: 4D Dynamically Drilled Carbon Rims
Standard rims feature straight-drilled spoke holes that force the spoke to bend or kink sharply where it exits the rim bed. Under high mileage, this kink becomes a structural stress point that leads to inevitable spoke fatigue and snapping.
- Dynamic CNC Alignment: Our carbon rims utilize 4D drilling technology. The factory CNC machine dynamically alters its drilling angle on two planes for every single hole, matching the exact left/right and fore/aft angle of the spoke's path from the rim bed to the hub flange.
- Eliminating Stress Risers: By ensuring the spoke exits the rim in a perfectly straight line, we eliminate the structural bending that destroys carbon wheelsets.
2. The Interface: DT Swiss Squorx Pro Head Nipples
Even with a 4D drilled rim, standard flat-headed nipples can tilt, bind, and dig their sharp edges into the carbon rim bed, creating intense friction and inaccurate tension readings.
- Spherical Seating: We use genuine DT Swiss Squorx Pro Head nipples. The underside of the Pro Head is rounded like a ball-and-socket joint, allowing the nipple to smoothly pivot and self-align perfectly with the 4D drilled path.
- Hand-Saving Ergonomics: The Squorx system features a deep internal Torx-style socket on the inside of the rim. Driven from the top with an internal driver tool while holding the spoke completely still with a blade holder, we completely eliminate spoke twist (wind-up) and prevent stripped or rounded nipple flats.
3. The Metallurgy: Mixed Materials, E-Bike Spec, & Phil Wood Cold-Forging
We source 100% genuine stainless steel spokes directly from authorized local distributors and trusted European channels to completely bypass the high risk of counterfeit marketplace steel.
- Differential Spoking: We use custom gauges tailored to the rider's weight and the wheel's asymmetric tension gaps. By running thicker spokes on the high-load drive side and thinner spokes on the non-drive side, we balance the structural elasticity of the wheel so it never drops tension under hard cornering.
- The E-Bike & Heavy-Duty Standard: For e-bikes or heavy-duty builds facing immense torque and weight loads, we adapt our strategy to use 100% brass nipples across the entire wheel. Brass handles structural stress and friction far better than aluminum, ensuring the wheel remains absolutely bulletproof under high-powered motor assistance or heavy cargo.
- Galvanic Corrosion Defeat: Carbon fiber is electrically conductive and will rapidly oxidize bare aluminum. On our standard builds where weight optimization matters, we use durable brass nipples on the high-tension drive side and alloy nipples everywhere else, completely isolating the alloy heads from the carbon rim bed using a heavy, waterproof synthetic lubricant barrier to eliminate galvanic corrosion.
- Phil Wood Cold-Forging: We cut and roll every single spoke in-house using the industry-standard Phil Wood Spoke Cutter. Instead of roughly shaving away metal, the Phil Wood dies use pure cold-forging to compress the grain structure into custom 10mm deep threads.
- No Bottoming Out: Because thin spokes can elongate by up to 2mm under high tension, our deep 10mm thread bed ensures the nipple can track fully down the spoke without ever running out of thread or seizing.
4. The Chemistry: Adaptive Thread Engineering
I completely reject standard assembly methods where threads are left dry or improperly coated. Thread retention is a balancing act of friction management, and my workshop adapts its chemistry method based strictly on the mechanical blueprint of the build:
- Custom Sun-Cured Spoke Prep: For builds requiring an elastic, non-hardening mechanical brake, I use a custom-formulated Wheelsmith Spoke Prep. I thin the paste with pure water so it flows flawlessly into every microscopic groove of our hand-rolled 10mm threads via capillary action, then dry the spokes under the Australian sun. This evaporates the water and leaves behind a uniform, rubbery jacket that allows for precision multi-day adjustments without ever turning to a brittle powder.
- DT Pro Lock Fluid Integration: For specific high-vibration configurations that benefit from an anaerobic chemical bond, I utilize DT Swiss Pro Lock nipples. Because I know that forcing a cured chemical glue bond will damage components and cause spoke wind-up, my building timeline changes entirely for these wheels. The entire tensioning and stabilization structure is executed seamlessly while the compound remains wet, ensuring a permanent chemical seal that locks the wheel straight.
5. The Truth About Stress Relief: Rejecting the "Hydraulic Press" Shortcut
If you watch factory tour videos or follow certain boutique builders online, you have likely seen them proudly show off massive hydraulic pre-stressing presses. They slam tons of sudden, violent pressure onto a freshly laced wheel, claiming it "instantly seats the components." While it looks high-tech on camera, they are actually destroying the rim and the spokes simultaneously.
- Crushing the Carbon: A carbon rim is built to handle the uniform, outward pressure of an inflated tire—it is not designed to take sudden, localized hydraulic crushing forces. This violent factory slamming can introduce microscopic fractures into the epoxy resin matrix around the 4D holes, weakening the rim bed before it ever rolls.
- Fatiguing the Steel: Shunting tons of hydraulic shock through the wheel compresses premium stainless steel past its elastic limit. This creates hidden stress fractures in the cold-forged wire, drastically shortening its fatigue life.
- The Lazy Alternative: Factories use these heavy presses for one reason only: speed. They need to pump out wheels in minutes and cannot afford to wait. We completely reject this destructive shortcut. Instead, we rely on the natural physics of material creep relaxation.
6. The Final Phase: The Multi-Day Stabilization Process
Rather than forcing materials into submission with raw hydraulic power, we give our builds the time they actually need to stabilize organically.
- The 24-Hour Rest: Once laced, we bring the wheel to a light tension and leave it to rest on a rack for 24 hours. This allows the carbon rim bed to naturally relax under the load and lets the spherical Phil Wood-rolled threads mate flawlessly with the 4D carbon holes.
- Repeated Cycles: We retension, true, and repeat this 24-hour waiting process multiple times over several days until the spoke tension is completely, permanently stable. Because our thread coatings are chosen purposefully, every fine adjustment is perfectly preserved.
7. The Guarantee: Engineering Reality vs. Corporate Accounting
You have likely seen many mainstream carbon wheel brands loudly marketing a "Lifetime Replacement Guarantee." To the average consumer, it sounds like an incredible promise. To anyone with an engineering background, the truth is obvious: it is just clever accounting.
These corporate brands know their mass-produced factory wheels are prone to fatigue and failure under real-world conditions. To protect themselves, they double or triple the initial retail price of the wheels. They have already factored the cost of your future replacements straight into the original price tag. You aren't buying a superior wheel; you are just pre-paying for a corporate insurance policy.
I do not play accounting games with my pricing, because I do not build wheels designed to fail. My warranty is a realistic reflection of pure, reliable mechanical engineering:
- Lifetime "No Broken Spoke" & "Not Out of True" Guarantee: I guarantee every wheelset I build against spoke breakage and tension loss for its entire operational lifespan. Because our assembly workflow is mathematically optimized, these spokes simply do not snap and these wheels do not drop true. (Note: Warranty service is Return-To-Base and requires the tyre and tubeless sealant to be completely removed beforehand).
- 2-Year Rim Warranty: Every premium carbon rim structural matrix is fully backed by a 2-year structural warranty against manufacturing defects.
- Half-Price Crash & Accident Replacement (Labour Free): If you crash, case a jump, or suffer a severe accident outside of warranty conditions that breaks a rim, I will replace the damaged rim at half the retail price, and I will perform the complete rebuild entirely labour-free.
- Hub Warranty: All hubs are fully covered directly according to the original manufacturer's specified warranty windows (e.g., DT Swiss, Hope, etc.), backed by our local supply line.
The Verdict: A Real Wheel for Real Miles
From a 1950s automotive garage to early 1980s custom exotic builds in Hong Kong, through the golden era of American titanium, and straight into the heart of modern high-tech manufacturing, the engineering laws of spoked wheels have never changed: durability requires patience, technical insight, and the right materials.
Because I filter components purely on structural merit—disregarding origin, politics, and consumer markups—the result of this uncompromising workflow is a wheelset that is truly "set and forget." It delivers the ultra-high performance of a premium carbon wheel, combined with the honest, bulletproof durability required to survive tens of thousands of kilometres of high mileage, rough bitumen, and low maintenance.