For most, building wheels isn't easy. For Victor, it appears to be. He's taken to the task like Team Visma - Lease a Bike to a time trial, quickly setting a pace and a work ethic that's hard to challenge. We were able to carve enough time out of Victor's busy day building world class wheels to have him divulge some industry information and to get a sense of who he is outside of his professional capacity.
Q: What’s your hometown?
A: Santa Cruz, CA.
Do you have a nickname? If yes, how’d you get it? If not, make one up that suits your character.
Vic.
How long have you been at Reserve?
Over 2 years.
How long have you been riding?
On and off 10 years.
How long have you been building wheels?
Two years and two months.
How many wheels do you estimate you’ve built since you’ve been at Reserve?
3,000.
What brought you to wheel building?
I worked on my bikes but didn't know anything about wheels and was interested. I’m mechanically inclined, and I like to work with my hands, it felt like a good fit.
Would you rather build a wheel by machine or by hand?
I prefer hand builds. In a hand build, you see the whole process; it’s easy to know where something went wrong, and easy to fix. I like the machines too, more efficient than hand builds, but if I’m building my own wheels, I’m doing them by hand.
Tell us something about wheel building that most people wouldn’t know.
Most wheels will lose tension the more you ride, but at Reserve, every wheel gets de-stressed whether they're hand built or coming off of the machines before they get fully built, so they'll stay truer for longer. They all get squished.
What kind of riding do you typically do? Mountain, Gravel or Road?
Mountain.
What is your favorite trail or favorite place to ride?
Highway 9.
Garage-check, what are you currently riding? Which wheels? Who built them?
Right now I have a Cervelo Catalonia 5 that I use to ride to work when the days are nice and sunny.
What do you do when you are not building wheels?
Play video games (Fifa and Call of Duty), soccer (pickup games) or watch movies (about to watch Hell or High Water for the first time).
Rapid Fire
Beer, wine, cocktail or seltzer?
Beer.
SRAM or Shimano?
I don’t care to be honest, as long they work.
Coffee, Tea or Red Bull?
Coffee.
Thick or thin grips?
Thick.
Burrito or hamburger or pizza?
Burrito.
RockShox or Fox?
RockShox.
Seinfeld, Friends or Rick & Morty?
Rick & Morty.
I9 or DT Swiss?
I9.
Puppies or kittens?
Puppies.
Describe your perfect day.
Sunny.
What is your special power?
My special power is not answering corny questions ;)