testimonials / build gallery
As a small business owner I try to keep my money local whenever possible and with a reputation like that of Elevation, it was a no-brainer to choose Chris to build my recent wheelset.
Riding a 29+ full squish rig, the wheels are going to see a lot of abuse. The things you can get yourself into (and hopefully out of) with 29+ wheels is down right silly at times, especially with travel at both ends.
It's for this reason I don't want to even have to think about my wheelset when getting into those situations. It's the last thing I need to think about when piloting down sketchy slopes and picking my way through rock gardens.
The work that Chris does allows me to focus on what matters, the ride.
Solid, reliable and built by someone who actually rides and knows what it takes to build a wheel that goes the distances.
Thanks Elevation and Chris for the piece of mind and bomber build! - Joe Tonsager - Owner/Operator JPaks Custom Bags
Team CoreCo is a non-profit racing team with athletes racing, riding, and exploring the world on bikes. We ride wheels built by Chris Murray because we choose only the best for our equipment and service vendors, and Chris Murray at Elevation Wheel Company is the best, hands down. Our hand-built wheels from Chris Murray have taken podium positions at such races as The Cape Epic in S. Africa, La Ruta de los Conquistadores in Costa Rica, the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska, and numerous day and stage races elsewhere. We even have a set of wheels that Iohan Gueorguiev is relying on for his around-the-world bike packing expedition, which is porbably the toughest challenge that any of our wheelsets will face. We continue to rely, ourselves, on Chris Murray and his quality builds to keep our team of adventurer-athletes running smoothly, and so should you! Loving our wheels, and thankful that the old-school quality that Chris Murray stands for is still valued in the marketplace today. Cheers - Will Muecke, Owner, Team CoreCo
I’m on I think my 6th pair of wheels built by Chris at Elevation Wheels. Current set that has the most miles are my wheels on my Surly Steamroller commuter. Profile track hub in the rear laced to Velocity a23 and the front same rim laced a Surly disk hub. Haven’t needed any true or touch ups with over 2k miles in less than a year. And these have seen crumbs, single track and 170 miles on divide washboard. If I don't build them myself, I trust Chris's attention to detail and have put 1000's of miles on his builds. A+ work. - Fixie Dave Nice, Lead Mechanic at Cafe Velo and bike packing master
A few words on my Elevation Wheels. I have had them now for over 3 years. As someone who puts in 3k a year in miles. I can tell you that they hold up to even my abuse. Which Chris will tell you having also wrenched on my bike is extensive. I cannot recommend Chris enough. Don't wait order your new Wheelset today.- Mike Mattice
Chris at Elevation does amazing work and you will be hard-pressed to find a nicer dude! He has built four sets of wheels for me at this point and I have had no issues with any of them! I recommend Elevation Wheel Company to anyone looking for a solid set of wheels. - Austen Bickford, Mondraker USA/Rotor/QARV Imports
Chris built me a set of race wheels for my road tandem. Had to make a one off axle to make them work without all those spacers and stuff. Did an excellent job in a short period of time. Worked perfectly. Can not stress enough how happy I am with the quality of his work. - Ray Middleton, US Association of Blind Athletes
Thank you, Elevation Wheel Company, for making my wheels actually roll again! When you have to train full time 4-5 times a week, it is tough to get maintenance on some times the most vital part of your bike! But it truly is all made possible when amazing guys like Chris Murray can get your wheels rebuilt to perfection quickly so you are right back on them! Its so nice to actually have straight, stiff, and round wheels again that I can confidently go fast on knowing they had the expert touch of Elevation Wheel Company! - Alex Horvet, Track Sprint National Champion
Your wheels are the very thing that your downhill bike, road race machine, TT bike, and even something as casual as your beach cruiser. It wasn’t until I trashed a pair of carbon wheels on my enduro race bike that I decided that it was time to look into getting some custom wheels put together. Chris had been trying to convince me to get some nicer and more well built wheels, given my history of destroying stuff. My first set of wheels from Chris was a pair of Stans FLOW rims laced up to some simple SRAM hubs. Right away I could tell a difference.
I took them as my race wheels to one of the rockiest and roughest races I’ve ever had the pleasure of racing: The O’Rock Epic Enduro. All weekend I was sure the wheels were going to be trashed from bowling my way through dicey moss covered rocks. After getting back and getting them to Chris to touch up, we discovered they actually only needed a slight touch up from 3 full days of enduro racing.
I have since upgraded to a set of NOBL TR38 rims with Project 321 hubs for my enduro race set up. I immediately noticed a difference within the first few miles of my ride. My bike became more responsive, lighter, stuck where I wanted it to go, and just in general changed the entire feeling of my bike.
If you get the chance to ride a pair of Chris’ wheels, no matter the build level, even if he’s just re-tensioning your existing wheels, you won’t want to ride anything else. Chris has now spoiled me and my bikes just don’t feel the same if I’m not on a pair of wheels made by him.
I’d highly suggest chatting with Chris to see what he can do for you. Whatever prior notions you have about custom wheels, I promise you they can be just as affordable as mass produced wheels and will be worth their weight in gold for the value that they add to your riding. - Geoffrey Fryer, Fryer Performance Coaching / Pro Enduro Racer
As promised I’m sending you a couple glamour shots showing my new gravel bike based on the excellent XMR/Nextie wheelset expertly built by Elevation Wheel Company.
These wheels run perfectly true and spin forever. Super easy to mount tires by hand. High spoke tensions = instant acceleration.
These shots show some Hope rotors, these have been replaced with SRAM rotors which work much better with these calipers.
The frame and fork can handle up to 700c x45 mm wide tires or 650b x 2” if I want some big rubber.
Thanks again, hope to do business with you in the future. - Steve S.
Riding a 29+ full squish rig, the wheels are going to see a lot of abuse. The things you can get yourself into (and hopefully out of) with 29+ wheels is down right silly at times, especially with travel at both ends.
It's for this reason I don't want to even have to think about my wheelset when getting into those situations. It's the last thing I need to think about when piloting down sketchy slopes and picking my way through rock gardens.
The work that Chris does allows me to focus on what matters, the ride.
Solid, reliable and built by someone who actually rides and knows what it takes to build a wheel that goes the distances.
Thanks Elevation and Chris for the piece of mind and bomber build! - Joe Tonsager - Owner/Operator JPaks Custom Bags
Team CoreCo is a non-profit racing team with athletes racing, riding, and exploring the world on bikes. We ride wheels built by Chris Murray because we choose only the best for our equipment and service vendors, and Chris Murray at Elevation Wheel Company is the best, hands down. Our hand-built wheels from Chris Murray have taken podium positions at such races as The Cape Epic in S. Africa, La Ruta de los Conquistadores in Costa Rica, the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska, and numerous day and stage races elsewhere. We even have a set of wheels that Iohan Gueorguiev is relying on for his around-the-world bike packing expedition, which is porbably the toughest challenge that any of our wheelsets will face. We continue to rely, ourselves, on Chris Murray and his quality builds to keep our team of adventurer-athletes running smoothly, and so should you! Loving our wheels, and thankful that the old-school quality that Chris Murray stands for is still valued in the marketplace today. Cheers - Will Muecke, Owner, Team CoreCo
I’m on I think my 6th pair of wheels built by Chris at Elevation Wheels. Current set that has the most miles are my wheels on my Surly Steamroller commuter. Profile track hub in the rear laced to Velocity a23 and the front same rim laced a Surly disk hub. Haven’t needed any true or touch ups with over 2k miles in less than a year. And these have seen crumbs, single track and 170 miles on divide washboard. If I don't build them myself, I trust Chris's attention to detail and have put 1000's of miles on his builds. A+ work. - Fixie Dave Nice, Lead Mechanic at Cafe Velo and bike packing master
A few words on my Elevation Wheels. I have had them now for over 3 years. As someone who puts in 3k a year in miles. I can tell you that they hold up to even my abuse. Which Chris will tell you having also wrenched on my bike is extensive. I cannot recommend Chris enough. Don't wait order your new Wheelset today.- Mike Mattice
Chris at Elevation does amazing work and you will be hard-pressed to find a nicer dude! He has built four sets of wheels for me at this point and I have had no issues with any of them! I recommend Elevation Wheel Company to anyone looking for a solid set of wheels. - Austen Bickford, Mondraker USA/Rotor/QARV Imports
Chris built me a set of race wheels for my road tandem. Had to make a one off axle to make them work without all those spacers and stuff. Did an excellent job in a short period of time. Worked perfectly. Can not stress enough how happy I am with the quality of his work. - Ray Middleton, US Association of Blind Athletes
Thank you, Elevation Wheel Company, for making my wheels actually roll again! When you have to train full time 4-5 times a week, it is tough to get maintenance on some times the most vital part of your bike! But it truly is all made possible when amazing guys like Chris Murray can get your wheels rebuilt to perfection quickly so you are right back on them! Its so nice to actually have straight, stiff, and round wheels again that I can confidently go fast on knowing they had the expert touch of Elevation Wheel Company! - Alex Horvet, Track Sprint National Champion
Your wheels are the very thing that your downhill bike, road race machine, TT bike, and even something as casual as your beach cruiser. It wasn’t until I trashed a pair of carbon wheels on my enduro race bike that I decided that it was time to look into getting some custom wheels put together. Chris had been trying to convince me to get some nicer and more well built wheels, given my history of destroying stuff. My first set of wheels from Chris was a pair of Stans FLOW rims laced up to some simple SRAM hubs. Right away I could tell a difference.
I took them as my race wheels to one of the rockiest and roughest races I’ve ever had the pleasure of racing: The O’Rock Epic Enduro. All weekend I was sure the wheels were going to be trashed from bowling my way through dicey moss covered rocks. After getting back and getting them to Chris to touch up, we discovered they actually only needed a slight touch up from 3 full days of enduro racing.
I have since upgraded to a set of NOBL TR38 rims with Project 321 hubs for my enduro race set up. I immediately noticed a difference within the first few miles of my ride. My bike became more responsive, lighter, stuck where I wanted it to go, and just in general changed the entire feeling of my bike.
If you get the chance to ride a pair of Chris’ wheels, no matter the build level, even if he’s just re-tensioning your existing wheels, you won’t want to ride anything else. Chris has now spoiled me and my bikes just don’t feel the same if I’m not on a pair of wheels made by him.
I’d highly suggest chatting with Chris to see what he can do for you. Whatever prior notions you have about custom wheels, I promise you they can be just as affordable as mass produced wheels and will be worth their weight in gold for the value that they add to your riding. - Geoffrey Fryer, Fryer Performance Coaching / Pro Enduro Racer
As promised I’m sending you a couple glamour shots showing my new gravel bike based on the excellent XMR/Nextie wheelset expertly built by Elevation Wheel Company.
These wheels run perfectly true and spin forever. Super easy to mount tires by hand. High spoke tensions = instant acceleration.
These shots show some Hope rotors, these have been replaced with SRAM rotors which work much better with these calipers.
The frame and fork can handle up to 700c x45 mm wide tires or 650b x 2” if I want some big rubber.
Thanks again, hope to do business with you in the future. - Steve S.