Well, yesterday I retired the tired old Velocity Deep V rear wheel before the cracks did me in. I have now successfully built my first two bicycle wheel from scratch.
The new wheel consists of a Mavic rim (36H variety), DT Swiss spokes, a Shimano 105 freehub and 8 speed cassette. A more detailed post on these items can be found at Another wheely good post or two. After breaking two rear axles on my old wheel (which was a freewheel hub) I moved away from these types of hubs after a conversation with one of the mechanics at Pushys at Fyshwick. He explained the difference of where the bearings sit in relation to the load being placed on them.
See picture: 
The bearings are represented by the red circles. The bearing on the right side of the lower picture is where both of the previous axles broke.
Another advantage of the freehub, is that I can remove this cassette by using the Unior cassette remover instead on carrying a chain-whip around on tour. A lot of weight is saved. Plus the Unior tool can be used a spoke tool as well. And I can wear it as a Colonel Klink monocle if/when I get bored on tours. HOGAANNNNNN.
See below for the cassette:
And here are examples of the Unior Cassette removal tool (left) and a chain-whip (right).
Before I digress too far, this morning’s commute went fine, a few seconds of tinging as the spokes settled but then they weren’t heard from again. The brakes seem happier too grabbing a nice flat rim instead of the concaved / cracked Velocity rim. I have also made a front rim which is almost ready to go on the bike, it has a dynamo hub but I have no lights for it to run yet, plus I’m searching the LBS and the interweb for rim tape in 622 20mm size at a ‘non give up a kidney for’ price. My new rear is currently using the old velocity rim tape which is 16mm, and well no flats yet. 🙂
Next I upgrade I think I’ll do is replacement is of the front and rear derailleurs, I changed to a triple chainring a few weeks back but I am still using a double chainring derailleur and is at its limit of range of movement, probably have to replace the cable as well due to stretching from doing more than it should and I believe the current Sora rear is bent/twisted but not being an expert on these things I could be mistaken. (It has happened before).
