Here is a list of most of the major wheel manufacturers and some info about them.

Alex: rims
Massive player producing a huge range of rims in the far east. Normally seen as OEM, generally difficult to source in the UK.

Ambrosio: rims
Made in Italy. Producing a wide range of products, some of which are very expensive, most of which are very good quality. They produce some good tubular rims too. The Balance rim builds into a nice fixed wheel for a fair price, the FCS28 or Ambrosio Focus rim is very nice, outstripping the DT equivalent on weight and aerodynamics as well as competiting heavily on price. This is also very attractive and has an internal shelf for the nipple to sit on. This allows the profile of the rim to be very tapered to provide an elegant and slick finish. The Excellight is manufacturered to the highest standard I have seen in any rim, with a beautifully machined sidewall and comes in at a humble 430g.

American Classics
Famous for superlight components American Classics are an interesting company. They don’t have a big presence in the UK and their products are prone to failure. This is unlikely to be a product of poor design and more that they are fragile components that are taking weight saving to the limits.

Araya: rims
Mostly made in Japan. Producing a range of rims, some of which are high end. Difficult to source in the UK.

Bontrager
A big player making rims hubs and complete wheels. They made Lance Armstrong’s wheels and are famous for producing some ultra light components. Their great achievements in high end racing carry their reputation and they can produce some poor products that sell on the back of that.

Campagnolo
Campagnolo are one of the best known brands in the whole industry. They have a huge history of producing high quality components. More recently they have been overshadowed by Shimano and even more recently Sram. Their wheels can be quite interesting, some with twice as many drive side spokes on the rear. Although to match they do the same on the front which makes for a well balanced rear and a poorly balanced front. Their record hubs are good value for the weight although they will not warranty radial builds.

Chris King: hubs
Made in the USA. Famous for high numbers of engagements on freehub bodies. High quality hubs that come with a 5 year warranty. Recently their R45 hubs have put Chris King into the road market. Less engagements making for a faster roll, significant weight reduction and their front hub is suitable for radial lacing.

DRC: rims
Italian made rims. A range of quality. A fairly small player in the UK market but a good range available. Good reports were written about the DRC ST19 rim. It was appreciated for being a gap in the rim market, narrow enough to go down to a 25c tyre but wide enough to hold large touring tyres too. By having a 17.5mm internal they are optimised around a 28-32c tyre – standard touring size. The ST19 is a good value option. Unfortunately bad reports have been made about loose eyelets which may be why they have not caught on in a dramatic way.

DT Swiss: spokes, rims and hubs
Major global player for high end spokes. Also famous for complete wheels, rims and hubs. They produce some ceramic bearing hubs that are particularly nice their 190s series. Their 190s and 240s front hubs are also suitable for radial lacing. They also produce some high quality carbon fibres MTB rims their EXC and XRC. The XRC comes in at 310g, yet by being carbon fibre it is also stiff and strong however they retail at £500 each. Almost all of their components carry a high price tag.

Exal: rims
Benefitted from some of the old alesa designs after their bankruptcy although the tooling was taken by the Rigida group. The rims are made in Belgium and have received fairly good reviews. They have only a small presence in the UK but they are a new company. Most of their products are well priced and offer good value for money. The Exal LX 17 is a better market filler for the touring bike than the DRC ST 19. It can cope with tyres down to 25c because it has that 17mm internal, it can still take much larger touring tyres too. It is lighter than a lot of touring rims at 575g. It is better value for money than the DRC rim and it does not have those loose eyelets.

Ghisallo: wooden rims
Hand made in Italy out of beech ply. Ghisallo have been making rims as a family business for generations. They are unlikely to ever be seen on a mass market scale and are best suited to period bicycles.

Goldtech: hubs
Very good quality hubs made in the UK. They carry a fairly hefty price tag and are rolled out in fairly small numbers.

Halo: hubs and rims
Halo is not a manufacturer it is a marketing company. Their rims are made in the far east by several of the major players. They have been particularly successful in the UK because of their range of colours, low prices and often well performing products.

Hope: hubs
Hope is a comparatively new company that has grown at a fantastic rate in recent years. Their products are surprisingly well priced and perform very well. Originally they were geared much more towards the MTB market but now have a road presence too.

IRD: rims
IRD make superlight rims by using a different tyre of aluminium alloy – Niobium, which allows them to avoid loss of strength. Their cadence rim is only 390g despite having a reasonable mid-section profile. Their VSR rim makes an elegant companion to the cadence, boasting the same weight but an off-set profile making it ideal for a rear wheel. The off-set profile allows the rim to be properly centred without needing to have such a disparity of spoke tensions. They come in at some remarkable prices too – the VSR and Cadence rims are available at £42 each from DCR Wheels.

Kinlin: rims
Another major far east player. Not particularly established as a brand but are generally rebranded and sold in large numbers in the UK. Recently they have introduced some interesting products such as their XR range which offer some of lightest deep section rims on the market.

Mavic: rims
Made in France. Mavic have been a huge player dominating the wheel market for years. They make complete wheelsets as well as rims. Recently they have taken wholesale supply in house to prevent their mass distribution at low prices on the internet. They make some of the best products on the market although their have been numerous complains of cracking rims. Perhaps this has something to do with the Maxtal alloy that they use on several of their rims, equally it could be poor builds.

Miche: hubs
Made in Italy. Miche offer some very competitively priced products considering their European manufacturing base. They make a number of other bicycle parts too. Their hubs are exclusively for the road and fixed gear market. Their hubs are sealed bearings and fairly reasonable quality, often not too heavy.

Novatec: hubs
Made in Taiwan. Novatec produce some remarkably good components, often copies of older kit which has had its patent expire. The a171/f272 set is a copy of some old Campagnolo hubs, except with sealed bearings and modern freehub mechanism. They also offer an excellent value dynamo hub.

Paul: hubs
Made in the USA. Paul is most famous for fixed gear hubs. Very pretty. Very expensive.

Phil Wood: hubs
Made in the USA. Famous for quality and longevity. Many hold these to be the best hubs available although they can be a little heavy.

Rigida: rims
Mostly made in Europe. Rigida have been making rims for many years. They have merged or taken over a number of manufacturers in that time. They produce a wide range of good products but they can be a little heavy and can be lacking in aesthetics.

Rohloff: internal gears hubs
Rohloff are a new company. Made in Germany. They have achieved something that no-one else has. A 14 speed internal hub gearing system. This also boasts some of the highest longevity available. RRPs range from £840-995 so they are exceptionally expensive. However they are also a complete gearing system as well as a hub.

Royce: high end hubs – made in Hampshire.
My absolute favourite. Beautifully finished. Lifetime guarantee on their titanium axles. A success story for British engineering. They are quite expensive but less so than many DT hubs, less so too than Phil Wood and Chris King.

Salsa
Salsa produce a fairly small range of components. They produce a surprisingly large range of 29er rims.

Sapim: spokes
Producing some of the best spokes in the world. They are well priced, there is a good range and their performance is very high. Their quality control is outstanding.

Schmidt and Son: dynamo hubs
Made in Germany. The best dynamo hubs money can buy. Fairly expensive. 40,000kms between services.

Shimano
Shimano make just about everything related to cycling. As a wheel builder you will inevitably encounter their hubs and no doubt repair their wheels. Their tiagra and deore hubs are great value for money – smooth rolling, servicable, long lasting, excellent value. The higher end versions tend to be less interesting. For the price they can be quite heavy and often reflect little upgrade on the basic components.

Stan’s Notubes
Notubes are still quite small in the UK although they have a much bigger presence in the US. They do have their full range accessible through a UK distributor now although at fairly uncompetitive prices, especially considering their Chinese manufacturing base. Their rims retail at around £70 each. They made their name of Notubes through their tubeless system which saves weight and offers near perfect puncture protection. However the treatment has to be repeated at fairly regular intervals. They also have a range of rims, available in 26″ and as 29ers. More recently they have starting making hubs too which are pretty similar to the American Classics hubs. Their emphasis has always been on weight saving. They have done this by removing material from particularly the top section of the rim. They never claim that their rims are super heavy duty, they are much more interested in performance. However their rims have developed a bad reputation for breaking and also being flexible because of their extreme weight saving techniques.

Sturmey archer: classic hubs
A good value range of geared hubs, dynamo hubs and drum brake hubs. Often fairly heavy. Well suited to classic bicycles. They produce 3 speed, 5 speed and 8 speed.

Sun ringle: rims
A well established company with surprisingly small presence in the UK. Famous mostly in the downhill/jump market. Products that I find interesting are the Sun Double Wide. A good value very wide, very tough rim. They also produce an MTX range, including the MTX 29, 31 and 33. These come in different designs including high polish finishes. The different numbers correspond to different sizes and they are also available as welded or sleeve versions depending on your price bracket.

Suzue: hubs
Suzue no longer exists as a company. However I can still source some of their components as new old stock. They produced some of the nicest fixed gear hubs ever made. Sadly they also produced some cheap ones which damaged their reputation.

Tune
There are some show stopping weights on the tune products, although questions could be raised about longevity on the products. They are geared towards performance rather than endurance.

Velocity: rims and hubs
Made in Australia. A fantastic company making some of the best products on the market at great prices. Sadly they have no significant distribution presence in the UK. Some of their fixed gear based products have established quite a reputation here so potentially their presence here will grow.

Wheelsmith: spokes
Made in USA. A well established spoke manufacturer producing some particularly light gauge spokes. These frightened most people as being too frail for the job so their presence died in the UK.

White Industries: hubs
Made in the USA. Well finished. High quality. High priced hubs.

Zipp
Famous for carbon fibre. Normally coming as complete wheelsets but also available to buy the rims separately. With carbon fibre Zipps. The 255 tubular is only 307g and is deep section. Being carbon fibre you can rely on it being stiff too. Their 360 tubular is still only 410g and has a massive 58mm profile. Their 620 tubular weigh a whopping 610g but comes with an astonishing 108mm rim depth.