Cuyuna Wheel Lab

This one has a story.

During COVID, we took a bike in on trade that happened to have a set of limited-edition bourbon Chris King hubs. We sold the bike with different hubs and held onto the Kings, knowing they deserved the right build.

At the same time, a 2020 Kona Honzo CR frameset was hanging on the wall at Bonzai. That year, the Honzo CR was sold as a frameset only, so this bike was going to be built from the ground up.

Blake walked in, saw it, and immediately fell in love with it. His business was slow because of COVID, so I asked if he wanted to come work at the shop for a while. He did—and worked off the frame, wheels, and parts that would eventually become this bike.

In 2021, we put it all together.

The fork lowers were custom painted to match the frame. I designed custom decals for the fork. We added oil-slick decals to the rims and built the wheels around those limited-edition bourbon Chris King hubs.

Blake always called it “My Mona Lisa.”

Not long after we finished it, Kona featured the bike as one of their Dream Builds on their website and social media.

Years later, Blake sent the frame back to me for my son, Rory.

Rory is only 6, so he's got a while before a medium Honzo is going to fit him. I normally ride a large, but with a drop-bar setup, I think I can make it work for me in the meantime.

So the Mona Lisa gets another chapter.

Today, though, I'm taking apart the wheels we originally built for it.

The bourbon Chris King hubs aren't being retired. I'm rebuilding them into a new set of wheels for Blake, this time with Reserve carbon rims for his Yeti MTe.

And when they're finished, I'll box them up and send them right back to him in Texas.

The frame came back to me.

The hubs go back to Blake.

And someday, the Mona Lisa gets passed down to Rory.

Some builds are just bikes.

Some carry a little more with them.

This is one of those.

A wheel can be perfectly true and still not be centered.

This ENVE was about 1.5mm out of dish, meaning the rim wasn't centered over the hub. A small, even adjustment to the spoke tension brings the rim back where it belongs.

Then it's back in the stand to check trueness again.

Because with wheel building, every adjustment affects something else.

I've been building wheels for decades… and I've never done this. 😂

I've seen a few comments lately from wheel builders who stand on their wheels during the de-stressing process—or people who learned from someone who did.

My normal process has always been setting the spoke heads, squeezing spoke pairs, and loading the rim to help everything seat and relieve residual stress.

But this time? I figured I'd give the old-school standing method a try.

The result?

Back in the stand afterward: within 0.1mm laterally AND radially.

Would you stand on a freshly built wheel? 👀

A little spoke prep before the build. 🛞

I’ve been using Wheelsmith Spoke Prep for decades. It lubricates the threads while building, then helps add resistance to the ni***es backing off once it dries.

There are plenty of ways to prep spoke threads—and if you want to go really old school, there’s always boiled linseed oil.

What are you using on your spoke threads?

Sometimes the spokes you need don’t come in the length you need.

These start life as 310mm Sapim blanks. For this Onyx Vesper / Teravail Fluent 29 wheel build, I need 280mm and 287mm — so it’s time for the Morizumi.

Cut to length. Roll new threads. And just like that, we’ve got exactly the spokes this wheel needs.

Next up: prep and lacing. 🛞

This toolbox has been through some things. 😂

It lived in my first shop from 2008–2022, where it was definitely better organized than this… not perfect, but better. 😂

Then it moved from the shop to my house in Texas, halfway across the country to Minnesota, and this year moved AGAIN into the house we bought.

And somewhere along the way to its new home in the basement… I’m pretty sure it may have gone down the stairs like the toolbox in Home Alone 2. 😂

After years of wrenching, multiple moves, thousands of repairs, and tools getting tossed wherever they fit, it's time to finally make this toolbox the way I want it.

Stay tuned for the transformation. 🔧

Part 3 — mystery solved. Now let’s fix it. 🔧

With the missing upper race found, it’s time to put this headset back together the way it’s supposed to be.

Bearing orientation, compression ring, dust cap, proper preload — and most importantly, making sure everything turns smoothly with no play.

A little time in the shop and one of the neighborhood kids is back on the bike. 🤘

Part 2 — so where did the upper headset race go? 🤔

It definitely wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

Pull the fork out and… there it is. Sitting upside down at the bottom of the fork. 😂

Well, I think we found our loose headset problem.

Now that we know what happened, Part 3 is all about putting it back together the way it’s supposed to be.

One of the neighborhood kids needed a little help with their bike. The headset was loose.

How bad could it be? 🤷‍♂️

Well… let’s start taking things apart and find out.

Everything looks fairly normal at first, but by the end of Part 1, things are starting to get a little weird.

Any guesses what we’re going to find? 👀

Part 1 of 3.

🔊 Let’s play NAME THAT SOUND!

Something doesn’t sound right… and it changes depending on what gear the bike is in.

There are a lot of things that could cause a noise like this, so let’s take a closer look.

Think you know what it is? Drop your diagnosis in the comments before the reveal. 👇