Wheel Building advice HELP!

[Albut]

Just spoke to mud dock in bristol they say
£36 for rims
75p per spoke
£25 for labour
Which works out about £85 per wheel plus however much the bearings cost.
Think its about £15 making £200 for the set.

Thats better

 

[grahame]

Do it yourself.
It's not difficult, just a bit intimidating if you let yourself think about it too deeply.

Follow Sheldon's instructions and learn. Even without a jig (you can use your fram/forks and a couple of pencils and blutac), you should be able to get them within a couple of mm of perfect.

Then if you need to, take them to your local shop for a true up and tension.

 

[stevet1]

incidentally are the rims worn out? thems some nice rims there

 

[cherrybomb]

I had a look on CRC for prices and for the same money as you've been quoted you could have a pair of Hope hoops with Pro 2 hubs! :shock:

I think Hope charge £35 for a full service (including bearings) on a rear hub by the way, and they usually just replace stuff so you can end up with a virtually new hub when it comes back.

 

[cannondale king]

£270 you could get 2 sets of mavic 717 disc on 2008 xt hubs with dt revelotion spokes, handbuild at Merlincycles for that. Stay well clear of that bike shop IMO.

ive just built my rear that combo and now gonna build the front didn't cost me £270 oly come to £87 and im using ano red and blue nips at the next retro bike meet im at im gonna bring a set unbuilt and so can any one that wants to learn and il teach the lot of you how to do it propally so theres no mistakes or miss under standings and help save yu lot a small fortune in labour costs

 

[cannondale king]

and buy your bearings from your local bearing supplier itsa lot bloody cheaper trust me i get mine localaly from a company called taylors (over the road from the lbs i work at) and hi grade skf bearings for peanuts and i mean peanuts its not as hard as you think to swap them out

 

[Albut]

incidentally are the rims worn out? thems some nice rims there

One of them has a 4 inch crack, the other is worn, not sure how long its got left but I thought I may as well do both wheels at the same time

 

[Xesh]

Bearings for both hubs should set you back no more than £40 from your local bearing supplier.
Rims are £35 each.
Spokes 50p each.
Labour should be no more than £40 total.

Total price: £182 for 32 hole hubs

You already have a 135mm dropout spacing on that frame.

From the price that you've been quoted they seem to be charging about £50 a wheel to build! :shock:

 

[sastusbulbas]

Hi,

I would say that original quote is way too expensive, and probably a "Really Cannot be bothered" price.

Personally I recommend stripping the wheels down, cleaning up the hubs and attempting to fit new bearings yourself, it saves a lot of money and gives you experience.
Take the advice above and get your own bearings from a bearings supplier and not a bike shop or bike company, the bearings supplied by Hope, Royce, DT etc are NOT special in any way and are cheap to purchase, they are easy to fit with home basics and a bit of intuition, and to be honest, most bike shops do not have the proper tools either.

Most bike mechanics and wheel builders charge around £20 per wheel, most bike shops have various levels of experience and expertise.
I personally prefer to teach someone how to build their own wheels, some shops offer wheel building classes but I don't think you have to go that far if you are a member of a forum like this, as plenty will be able to offer tips and advice and show different opinions and experiences.

So I advice an attemt at building these yourself, and using this forum for advice and help.

There is no secret or special skill required, just patience and standard working practice.

Steve

 

[Albut]

You already have a 135mm dropout spacing on that frame.

Well I have to stretch the frame to fit my wheel in and I seem to remember it measures about 126mm