building wheels, i need advice or help

[one_bad_mofo]

Well if you start with the front wheel and lace it radially you can't really go wrong. Just be sure to put plenty of tension in it. You also got a head start on the rear if you use a fixed hub as you'll not need to worry about dishing the finished wheel. Keep it simple with a 3x pattern and you should get on just fine. The first wheel I ever built was a SS road wheel using an online lacing guide.

 

[Takingabreak]

so how much tension?

 

[dave72]

youtube is where i went to watch how to build wheels mine turn out all right .i got them nearly true and then gave them too my local bike shop to finish them off as i don't have the proper tools like how to check the dish of the rear wheel.hope this helps.
cheers dave

 

[one_bad_mofo]

so how much tension?

That's what the black art of wheel building comes down to. Tension is something that comes through experience and a feel for the spokes. However, try pinging a spoke on a wheel you know is good. Listen to the tone it makes and try and then get your new wheel's spoke to make a similar sound as you build up the tension.

 

[bm0p700f]

A spoke tension meter helps here. I do not believe that you can judge spoke tension accuratley by feel alone. You can get in the ball park though. The spoke tension meter comes in very useful to ensure even spoke tension. This is essential for the longevity of the wheel. To do wheel building I have bought a Park TS2.2 with the dial guages (dial guages are not essential but they help getting a wheel down to 0.1mm lateral/radial movement), a dishing tool, spoke keys, nipple driver and a spoke tension meter. At retail this is all very expensive. Worthwhile even for the home mechanic if you have several bikes and wil be building wheels for all of them and for any future purchases.

The home truing stand that Park make is a lot cheaper but you have to keep on flippiing the wheel over to true it.

I would recomend getting familair with truing first before wheel building. Then release all spoke tension and see if you can re-tenstion the wheel and keep it round, true and dished. Then try lacing.
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... im-service
http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Sheldons guide is pretty good.
I don't know anything about those sspokes posted in that link but I only use Sapim's spokes and nipples as they simpley brilliant. Sapims nipples do not distort unlike some of the cheaper nipples at proper spoke tension. A box of 100 Spaim Race spokes + nipples costs £40. Plenty of people sell them individulaly including me.

DT Swiss also make excellent spokes but Madison is so expensive that I stick with Sapims products.

 

[Never Stop]

I think i might get some miche pristard wheels for my fixed gear instead, quicker, i would feel safer and much easier, sort of wheels i wanted anyway

i still want to build some wheels, ill find an excuse to do it! maybe new rims on my road bike, or build a flip flop hub in road wheels for a conversion of some kind

 

[Johnsqual]

Best thing to do (or what I did anyway) is just to find an old wheel to
fiddle about with and practice on. That way, you don't feel under so
much time pressure to get it right.