General: track wheels vs road wheels

all based on hub. you can use any rim.

tdubs! Do not be afraid to ask questions because you actually are trying to learn! When the attitude start then some of us get pissy.

You have to remember that a bike with track ends are usually spaced 120. Sometimes 110. Everyone has their own theories on rims. I am a sucker for Mavic Open pros. Also, your weight has a bit to do on your selection. The more specific you are with your questions the better the answers from all of us will be.

Selah!

cool... thanks for the help. and thanks for the kind words. since you are offering, one more quick question. the bike i bought has 175mm crank arms. i know the Pista has more traditional track geometry (therefore a higher BB) but are those still too long? i've had a couple pedal strikes on that conversion ive been riding and would love to avoid those as much as possbile. terrifying at any speed. and i don't want to go too short, 'cause well, it seems i would lose efficiency throughout the spin... and battling these hills in seattle has been hard enough.

thanks again

you would probably be better off using 165 to 170. and to compensate for the loss of efficiency you could lower your amount of teeth on the front gear. what size chainring does it have(the front gear)?

thats what i was thinking. but you would be fine for now just be carful to not lean to far to the side when you ride

170 would be good and a 46-48 tooth would be a good match depending on how flat your city is

170 is a great choice. great leverage advantage over 165.

Yeah 170 is an all around solid choice for pretty much any modern "track style" frameset. I ride with 165s but only because a) had em laying around and b) with my 60cm frame I actually avoid toe overlap with the 5mm shorter crank arms. For power efficiency 170s will do you just fine.
Like others have said in terms of rims you're pretty much dead on. Non-machined braking surfaces are track specific but otherwise any 700c rim will be just fine laced to a track hub. The Mavic Open Pros are tough to beat in terms of strength vs. weight and should pretty much last forever. Velocity Deep Vs are also obviously fairly popular on track bikes being ridden on the streets and a lot of the popularity has to do with how they look but they are a truly quality rim and can handle most of what the streets can throw at 'em.

And yeah, you got the right idea about asking questions so feel free to ask as many as you like. You'll notice certain commonalities about the new threads that get torn apart here and yours does not share in those at all.

The leverage of a crank arm isn't much of a factor since you can change the gearing. It determines if your pedals will strike, if you'll get toeverlap, how much your legs rise and fall, and the optimum position for your saddle, though.