Building wheels...how difficult?

[FireMountain95]

Evening all.

I seem to spend a lot of time looking for decent, pairs of wheels to buy.

Clearly, more hubs and rims going around.... what kit do i need and what level of skill is required to build up a pair? Is it something an enthusiastic amateur with reasonable bike building skills can achieve?

Thanks

 

[dyna-ti]

Anyone can build a wheel, the main issue is the thoughts surrounding it of how difficult it must be.
Obviously you'll need a rim, and the correct length of spoke for the hub/rim
Dishing tool
Some sort of jig to sit it on.
And a spoke key.

Theres a site somewhere that does spoke length calculations, and im sure someone will come along and post a link, should you not find it via google.

As abo8ve, the trick is to get those bits together and make a start. Working out how you lace it-3 cross or such and then just making a start, tightening it as you go and see what comes out at the other end. Im sure once you get the idea of lacing, length of spokes, type of nipples(Brass is best) and have tightened it roughly, more will fall into place.
I should think you tube would be a good place for some visual tips, being that you can reference it should it not turn out exactly, but the real point is to make a start.

I mean, have you seen some of the people working in a bike shop :shock: Ye Gads.

 

[Gtpulse]

Re:

^I agree!

I don’t build many wheels and forget most of what I learn between builds. I’ve been lucky in that the last couple I have built were pretty much just replacing old rims with identical new ones so I could copy like for like without much thought or need to buy spokes etc.

A combination of several YouTube videos usually points me in the right direction. I’ve only built 3 cross pattern which is good for most applications so I don’t get hung up about all the different lacing patterns. Stuff I’ve found useful to remember - apologies if this sounds like eggs being sucked to some of you - identify the lead spoke; make sure the spokes either side of the valve are “parallel” so you can fit a pump on easily; making sure you get the logo on the hub and the rim in the right place; a drop of oil on the threads let’s you tension up evenly; adapting a screwdriver bit for my drill so I can quickly get the nipples started (helpful when you have to start over several times like me!). I would favour a thumb type spoke key like the DT Swiss ones over the Park type hoop ones but guess that’s personal preference.

Biggest thing I struggled with was getting the spoke length correct. In the end I realised when looking at what was available that it was more of a multiple choice question than something that required calculating. That may sound daft but it works for me!

 

[FireMountain95]

Thanks, very helpful. I'll do some more googling, but tempted to give it a try. i can foresee lots of swearing, however if it proves tricky....!

 

[Takingabreak]

Re:

I sometimes build my own wheels. The first set I built came loose on the first ride...

Then i bought a tensionmeter so I could tell how tight the spokes were, a big improvement, the wheels never fell apart.

To start with I'd recommend taking apart an old wheel and then building it back up before trying to build something swish.

 

[die_Kette_rechts!]

My personal opinion and tipps:
- Hex nipples and 5.5 mm socket tool
- Nipple length: I always use 12mm nipples for the calculation for the spoke length, so I have 14mm and 16mm nipples in reserve in case the spokes are a bit on the short side ;-)
- Washer between nipple and rim(when required, )
- Grease on threads of nipple and spoke AND contact area nipple to washer / rim
- Tensiometer (I use the park tool), this brought the truth to my wheel building
- Decent wheels stand with correct middle setting

When truing used wheels (especially used in winter with salt and dirt) I always use a good penetration oil to soak nipple and spoke threads for a certain time before I start truing.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Markus

 

[RD-Dan]

The classic mistake many people make while building a wheel is tightening each spoke a little too much, which usually ends up in an egg-shaped rim. What I do is to build the wheel with a single thead showing at the base of each nipple and tighten from there, starting at the valve hole (which i tape over with masking tape for easy identification) with a half turn of each nipple for two full revolutions and reducing to a quarter turn for a couple of revolutions and then assess from there.

The temptation is that you will get halfway around on your first pass and decide that you're not tightening up the nipples nearly enough and all the spokes are still well loose, so you start tightening up the remainder a full turn, maybe two. This also leads to an egg shaped rim.

While tensioning in the later stages you also want to de-stress the spokes by grabbing the ones that form a cross in the middle of their length and squeezing them together, otherwise when you ride on them there will be a lot of pinging and the wheel could be out of true. Or use the Ali Clarkson method and place the build wheel on some cardboard and stand on it.

 

[jackosbournesnr]

I started out by transferring hubs and spokes from one rim to another (tape 2 identical rims together).

I then bought Roger Mussons book https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php and a cheap truing stand. Thats was about 10 years ago and I've built dozens of wheelsets since then. If you're not doing it often, it takes a bit of time to get into the groove, but its really not the mythical art I thought it was when I was a lad.

GTpulse highlights some keynotes, although I wouldn't get hung up on the hub logo position at least until you were comfortable with the rest of the lacing process. Logo alignment is purely aesthetic and many modern hubs don't have logos you can line up with the valve hole anyway

You have a bit of leeway with spoke lengths but when you are starting out, having the correct length makes the build process much smoother. Once you get some skill and experience under your belt you can work with spokes that are not quite right and compensate... the right length is always advisable though.

I use a couple of online spoke calculators for all my builds:
https://leonard.io/edd/
https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc/
and occasionally
https://spokes-calculator.dtswiss.com/en/


Once you get over initial terror, riding wheels you've built yourself is immensely satisfying.

 

[doctor-bond]

I built my first set recently, and as you can see from the responses, there are loads of good tips and tricks out there and lots more web info.

A couple from me: One, go for it: it’s rewarding and not impossible.

Two - dishing. I was put off by the idea of dishing and needing a proper tool: in fact you can do it easily in the frame that the wheels are intended for (arguably more accurate as the the wheel, is then matched to the frame which may have its own idiosyncrasies). Zip ties on stays and brake bridge make good accurate indicators.

 

[jimo746]

Re:

It's not hard to do.
It's a bit trickier to do well though.
Started off years ago reading "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brant, it was hard going, but nowadays theres Plenty of YouTube videos, online guides, and some decent Facebook groups on wheel building.
The tip above about practising on an old wheel is a good one.
I don't often build wheels, the last few I did the lacing and got them almost finished, then let my lbs true them up and dish them for me.