I am thinking of purchasing a new wheelset for my road bike. Do wheels ordered online usually arrive ready to ride, or do they require some construction?
Depends on where/how you purchase them and the quality of the wheel, but generally pre-built wheels need a check-over for appropriate spoke tension/truing out of the box. You can either check this yourself or pay a bike shop to do this for you.
You can avoid these checks at your own risk, obviously. But, I wouldn't recommend it, especially if they aren't high quality wheels to begin with.
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Ok, thanks. I was thinking about buying either the Mavic Aksium One or Aksium Elite wheelset. I was mainly wondering about this because my local shop says they have an order coming in, but can't give me a timeline. I am fighting my desire to have them immediately. – jcbrou Apr 22 '15 at 19:39
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Higher end wheels like that are typically good. Test tension with by hand. – paparazzo Apr 22 '15 at 19:42
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I'd probably wait -- if you don't have a tensiometer to properly check the tension, you're probably paying the shop a visit anyway. If you're getting nice stuff, it makes sense to use the right tools to check everything is good. – Batman Apr 22 '15 at 23:12
