Lacing your own wheels ...

Howdy y'all - greetings from Kanada!

So here's my dilemma. I had a brand new pair of Mavic rims laced up to my old XT hubs, which hubs I mistakenly thought were still servicable. Turns out the back one is kind of rough ... rougher than I would be happy with on my newly re-built Romax.

So - I found a brand new pair of NOS 32 hole DX hubs, which I wish to switch my new rims onto (Okay, so they're not XT ... I'll bet the DX quality is almost as good!), but I don't want to shell out all that cash to have them switched over by the local shop. I found a perfect (unused) truing stand on flea-bay cheap, and have the spoke wrench, gear cluster removal tool, and a beautiful, freshly home-made chain-whip tool ready to go.

I'm guessing that (actually the shop owner told me) I can re-use all the brand new spokes and nipples from the XT build for my new DX wheels, if I disassemble them really carefully. I'm willing to give it a go, but I have never ever built a wheel, let alone trued one properly. Am I nuts for attempting this, or is it something that many of you out there do regularily (build your own wheels)? I watched a great you-tube vid on how to lace a bike wheel, and it looked like it was fairly do-able ... albeit time consuming and persnickety work.

What say you all ... go it a go ... or not ... ?

My 17 year old self did it without youtube or any other help, exept for the shop owner selling me the right length of spokes. I didnt even have a trueing stand.
So it cant be that hard.
Just try.

I would also think, that dx and xt hubs have the same diameter.

If it's M730/2/5 then though the hub forging is different they are identical in spoke hole diameter to M650DX. I did exactly the same switch in reverse. Reusing spokes is OK unless you have had one fail on the wheel already, in which case you are probably better off getting new.

Building wheels is not difficult. Allot a couple of hours to do it, there is a huge choice of step by step guides available on the internet. Pour yourself a beer, be patient and enjoy.

The art and science of wheelbuilding is getting a wheel that stays true for years and with even tensions. I've never had a wheel I built fail on me. Practice makes perfect.

Hell yeah, give it a go. I build my own wheels and I've had a set of (disc mtb) wheels last me for approx 50,000km of trail riding, endurance racing and general faffing about. It's a rewarding job.

One piece of advice I would give is read up on the basic principles from the late Sheldon Brown website or if you can get your hands on it, the late Jobst Brandt's book The Bicycle Wheel.

The other piece of advice is take it slow. Lace it up, bring the tension up evenly. Make incremental changes and don't rush. Don't try to fix dishing or a wobble with 8 turns of the nipple in one go. Mot of all, enjoy the process. Like Hamster says above, it's not hard, but if you go at it like a bull at a gate you'll make it harder and end up fighting the tension.

BTW, what's wrong with the XT hubs? Can they be fixed with new bearings and cones? Not sure if the cups are replaceable on those models. If you can fix what you have then go with that, and take the opportunity to build another set of wheels for the hell of it.

Grumps

Download roger mussons wheel building guide. Think its about 9 euros

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+ 1 for

Download roger mussons wheel building guide.

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As already mentioned have a look at Sheldons wheelbuilding page - that's what got me into building my own wheels I strongly recommend you to try it, it's very therapeutic and very satisfying and as people have already said - it's not difficult, just take it slowly.

awesome.

For those with experience, how does one know when the right amount of tension has been attained, if not using a 'tensionometer' guage (is there a specific 'feel', a number of turns of the nipple past a certain point, or is it just an educated guess)?

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I'd say give it a go. I'm after new wheels built to suite a retro silver look specific for rim brakes and that's nigh on impossible to find in the LBS these days, so I'm now considering building my own now, too.

I downloaded Roger Musson's book from his Wheelpro site – for £9 it's a bargain. Well written, concisely explained and easy to understand. There's even a section showing a transfer technique for swapping/replacing a rim or hub (p107 & 10. And pages 90 to 93 for how tight to tension spokes.

It may seem bonkers but if you build them right and survive, it's going to be real satisfying. Plus there's the kudos factor of it – if you can build wheels, you're a proper bike mechanic.

You will get a feel on how tight spokes need to be from your other wheels (you have more than one bike, right? )
Pinch them together around the crossing to judge. On a rear wheel the dish means that drive side spokes will be tighter, make sure that non-drive are not too slack.

The Park Tool Tensiometer is something like 30$. I use mine all the time. Even spoke tension is very important.
Another thing you could try is: swap out the internals between hubs. most Shimano hubs internals are interchangeable. You can take your XT hubs apart and use the DX internals on them (if they're roughly the same vintage). That way you don't need to re-lace the wheels and keep the posh XT hub-shells.