Rebuilding wheels

[Danthefestaman]

Its probably been asked many times but what is the average cost for rebuilding a wheel?

Basically a 90 Fire Mountain i have someone kindly painted the spokes black. It comes off but I believe they did it to cover up some rust so I would like to strip them down clean up the rim and hub and have them rebuilt.

Does anyone know anywhere decent in Northants / Warwickshire area that might do it for me!!

 

[Danthefestaman]

 

[boy"O"boy]

Done a few pairs myself now....Great skill to teach yourself as wheel building normally comes in about £50 - £60 per wheel.
Whereabouts in Warwickshire/ Northants are you? - I may be able to help you out.

Cheers
boy"O"boy

 

[Danthefestaman]

I'm in Daventry Northamptonshire. We have a Leisure Lakes but I'm afraid they will laugh at the wheels and say they are scrap. They are the original hubs and rims so joytech front hub and a Shimano rear with mistral rims. Just want to clean them up as best as possible and reuse them. If they were stripped I maybe able to clean the spokes and reuse them to but built up is impossible!

 

[novocaine]

You can strip them yourself easy enough. If you aren't confident in rebuilding them yourself you can then ask LL to build them for you. they still might charge 50-60 quid a wheel (no idea what a wheel build costs these days, I've been doing my own for years). if they laugh, they are dumb, it's a wheel build, it's easy money to them.

stick the wheel in a stand, if you haven't got a stand, put it in the bike/fork.
turn each nipple a half turn. repeat two more times, then move up to full turns. once they start to feel like the strain is removed, start removing nipples and spokes.
it isn't worth saving the spokes for anything but spares unless you are cheap like me.

you can always lace them yourself then take them in to be finished and trued too.

one more word of warning, it's worth putting a spot of lubrication on the back side of the nipple to penetrate and day or 2 before you strip the wheel. this might help, but you always have 1 bugger that snaps.

 

[boy"O"boy]

I'm in Daventry Northamptonshire. We have a Leisure Lakes but I'm afraid they will laugh at the wheels and say they are scrap. They are the original hubs and rims so joytech front hub and a Shimano rear with mistral rims. Just want to clean them up as best as possible and reuse them. If they were stripped I maybe able to clean the spokes and reuse them to but built up is impossible!

I'll send you a PM.
Cheers
boy"O"boy

 

[Danthefestaman]

 

[Danthefestaman]

Wheels all rebuilt thanks to boy "o" boy!! Next up is to find some tyres to suit. Sure from the catalogue they were 26 X 1.6 Ritchey Quads. I'm not sure to go for something similar in style or something completely different. I considered schwalbe city jets for one of my bikes as I mainly just got on roads and paths. I see the other models used two different sizes maximum and reaction, what are they???

 

[Dr Dremel]

Wheels all rebuilt thanks to boy "o" boy!! Next up is to find some tyres to suit. Sure from the catalogue they were 26 X 1.6 Ritchey Quads. I'm not sure to go for something similar in style or something completely different. I considered schwalbe city jets for one of my bikes as I mainly just got on roads and paths. I see the other models used two different sizes maximum and reaction, what are they???

Freshly rebuilt wheels do lift the look of a bike considerably, props to @boy"O"boy !
Re tires: Richtey Quads would be hard to come by I would guess. Maximum/Reaction tires were how Kona branded their own tires, I´d say equally scarce, especially in rideable condition. City Jets - personally I just don´t like the look of them. Maybe Panaracer Paselas? Available in skin wall 1.75 and also a faster rolling profile.

 

[Danthefestaman]

I've just had a quick look and found schwalbe road cruisers, they look quite good. Im sure last time I searched I saw s tyre with a similar tread pattern.
I don't think I've ever seen the maximum reaction tyres and to be hounest I didn't know they ran such a wide tyre on the better models!