A fixed gear bike doesn’t have many components. All the more reason to make each one count! That was the challenge I took on with BeastyBike.com: building this dream wheelset.

Components

Component Build at publication
Front Hub PAUL Components – High Flange (32H & Black)
Rims H+Son – HYDRA (32H & Black)
Cog Courage x Kronos – Olympic Steel Cog 18T
Rear Hub PAUL Components – High Flange (32H & Chrome)
Spokes P&A – 285mm (Black)

The Hydra

From my freestyle experience, the H+Son Hydra felt like one of the coolest rims for a fixie or gravel build. The G609 alloy, low profile and generous width were all part of the appeal.

  • Weight: 455 grams
  • Material: G609 Alloy
  • Height: 23 mm
  • Width: 25 mm
  • Joint: welded
  • Tubeless compatible
  • For disc brakes
  • ERD: 591 mm

I first fell for these rims in one of Matt Reyes’s sick edits. Watching that sequence felt like proof that rims you can really abuse do exist—and that I would probably need two lifetimes to break one.

Paul Components: beautifully made

CNC-machined and beautifully finished: this was my idea of hub perfection. Having always ridden hubs with axle nuts, I was happy to get the clean look and easy wheel removal. One less 15 mm spanner to carry is a small detail, but it makes a difference.

Building the wheelset

With all the components ready, it was time to make the dream real. Guilhem (@guilh.dx) and I sat by the Seine with some good jazz and got to work. I wanted to show him that lacing a wheel isn’t mysterious: it just takes focus. Get the pattern wrong and you can spend longer undoing it than lacing it 🙂

We followed le Dossier sur le rayonnage, which lays out a 32-spoke, three-cross build. Those two details matter: the pattern depends on both the number of spokes and the number of crosses.

After an hour and a half of lacing, we were halfway there. The wheels in the progress photos had not been tensioned yet. Lacing isn’t hard, but it takes time 🙂

Yay! A wild front wheel has spawned.

Two bare black rims standing on a wooden quay beside the Seine.
Black and polished silver high-flange hubs on wooden decking.
Two black rims lying on the wooden quay beside the water.
Black and silver hubs on the quay beside a mooring bollard.
Hydra rims and hubs arranged on wooden decking.
Hydra rim cross-section diagram marked 23 mm high and 25 mm wide.
Close-up of a black high-flange hub against a pale grid.
Polished Paul Components hub resting against a pale grid.
Exploded diagram of a Paul Components high-flange rear hub and its internal parts.
Rider carrying a pair of rims on a backpack while cycling through the street.
Rider standing with a fixed gear bike beside the Seine.
Hands threading spokes between a black rim and a silver hub.
Tools and wheel-building supplies on the quay, with a person in the background.
Hands fitting a spoke through a black rim.
Person holding a wheel beside a bicycle and tools on the riverbank.
Newly laced black wheel standing beside the Seine.

Thanks for reading! Find the components above and follow @beastybike.fr. If you like the pictures, have a look at @guilh.dx’s work. Questions? Send @el_fakijoe a DM.