In my search for a Powertap wheel, to track my training more accurate on a mountain bike, I recently came across the guys from Strada Wheels. I found out that all their wheels are hand built locally by Darren, who trained with Mavic in the UK and DT Swiss in Switzerland. The fact that he has 10 years experience in hand wheel building and has built over 1500 wheels in the last 3 years gave me comfort that he knew a thing or two when it came to building wheels. On top of that the build prices looked very competitive so I decided to get in contact.
My main requirements where something that would be strong and durable as I would be using this for a lot of training miles, but not too heavy that I wouldn’t be able to use it in races either. Jonathan the owner was quick to make a few recommendations based on my riding style and what I wanted out of the wheels. In the end we settled on a Stans’s flow rim built onto a MTB Powertap hub with Sapim Race spokes.
Within a week I had my new wheel and started using it during my daily commutes to work. Got to try it out off-road at round 1 of 1st Gear XC race where it performed flawlessly. However the real test came in the form of the Black Mountains 3 day event. This had us riding some of the best trail in the Brecon Beacons over various terrains from energy sapping mud to white knuckle rocky descents.
It has only been a month that I have used these wheels but they are still running 100% true, even after the Black Mountains 3 day event which is a good indication of Darren’s skill as a wheel builder.