In reading auction descriptions on Ebay and elsewhere phrasing such as "hand built" or "custom-built" wheels is used repeatedly.
Are there such things as machine built wheels? On the one hand, I cannot imagine companies such as those that sell complete bikes to K-Mart or Wal-Mart hand building wheels. The cost to pay someone to lace the wheels alone would preclude selling the bike for eighty dollars or whatever they charge. On the other hand, however, I try to imagine the machine that would lace, tighten, and true a wheel, and it escapes my imagination.
If such machines exist, are they capable of building a decent wheels? How long have such machines been around? And are they used for "decent" wheels?
Thank you.
Cheers.
Tom Hayes
Chagrin Falls, Ohio