Advice on Rims and spokes for a wheel build

[FluffyChicken]

Hi All,
Im working on a project at home to lace my own wheel and have recently bought a pair of Continental Baron 2.3 tires for my Cannondale SM500.
Ive also bought a Rear Hub, a Shimano FH-M732 Deore XT rear hub - 7 speed.
I just wanted to know if any of you fine people could recommend a decent pair of rims to be on the look out for.
Also what length of spokes would I need.
Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks All

M732, so you're talking turn of the 90's
So
Mavic M231/M261/M230
Araya RM14/17/20 395/400 etc. TM-18 area cheaper but nice rim.

Campag in there too.. Atek etc

any particular year you're looking for?

Once you have that, just stick the measurements into a spoke calculator (ERD and hub dimensions should be easy to get for most these) Double Butted DT, ACI, SAPIM etc will all do, grab some coloured nipple if you want, or stay standard brass.
Have fun.

A Shimano M732 to Mavic M231 3x 32 hole would need 16x266 16x268mm spokes for example
or if you went for a modern XC717 (Mavic) rim then 16x263 16x265mm spokes, you can go to 264/266 if needed.
But that's the sort of range of length you'll be looking at for 32 hole.

Quick and easy on https://leonard.io/edd/
and double check on here https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc/ click *any* wording to find out information etc here and how it works.

 

[PedaloPete]

Hi Fluffy Chicken, Firstly thanks for your great advice. Im on my way to getting my wheel made.
I now Have a Pair of Mavic 117 SUP Rims 26'' 32 hole.
My rear hub is the Shimano Deore XT FH-M732.
My tires are the Continental Baron 2.3.
So all I need now is the spoke length.
Just had a look on https://leonard.io/edd/ and couldnt find my hub on there, so I found one that might be near the right one?
does this look like its the correct measurement do you think.
Any advice really welcome.
Cheers Tim

 

[hookooekoo]

You need to measure the hub.

How to measure hub and rim dimensions

An easy to use spoke length calculator with a large amount of hubs and rims in its database.

leonard.io

Digital verniers are relatively cheap now, and have a multitude of other uses for someone who does their own cycle maintenance and bike builds, such as measuring spindle diameters, measuring bearing diameters, measuring seatpost diameters.

Edit: I explained how to measure ERD in a previous post on this thread.

 

[PedaloPete]

Make yourself a wheel jig and a dishing tool. It will take 2 hours tops, out scrap wood and save you hours and stress for the rest of your life. I drilled 2 holes in mine and hang it on the wall. Once you have one, you will wonder why you ever fought to build wheels any other way.

Heres mine. (Yes it mahogany, but its what i had spare) its far nicer to look at and use than my old budget alloy one. ....i built it following the templates in roger mussons wheel building book book......downloading that is probably one the best £9.00 you can spend too. Ideal for beginners and old hands. Ive built wheels for 30 years and still got something from it.

This looks great, Ive bought a wheel truing stand recently, so Ill give it a go with that to start off. Thanks for the advice on the book too. Ill take a look.

 

[PedaloPete]

You need to measure the hub.

How to measure hub and rim dimensions

An easy to use spoke length calculator with a large amount of hubs and rims in its database.

leonard.io

Digital verniers are relatively cheap now, and have a multitude of other uses for someone who does their own cycle maintenance and bike builds, such as measuring spindle diameters, measuring bearing diameters, measuring seatpost diameters.

Edit: I explained how to measure ERD in a previous post on this thread.

Thanks, Ill have a look at this too, lots to learn eh? updates to follow. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[hookooekoo]

Ive also bought a Rear Hub, a Shimano FH-M732 Deore XT rear hub - 7 speed.

A quick search online turns up some dimensions for that particular hub.

Shimano Deore XT FH-M732 135mm Rear hub dimensions​

However, I strongly advise you to check by doing your own measurements. If those measurements are wrong, most shops will not accept returned spokes that have previously been built into a wheel, as the building process will bend the spokes slightly.

The same website also has a rims database, and you will no doubt find other rim databases if you search. But I urge you to check by doing your own measurements. Never rely solely on data you found on the internet!

 

[hookooekoo]

Here is one such database.

http://www.bikepro.com/products/rims/rimtables.html

Mavic 117 SUP CD Grey 117 SUP SPB Silver - ERD 538 mm

Mavic 117 SUP CD Ceramic - ERD 528 mm

That 10mm difference in ERD, for rims that sound like they should be the same or similar, is probably enough to mess up the spoke length calculations. That's why it's so important to check yourself.

 

[reindeer]

I‘ve once had strange results with „edd“. It turned out the measurements of the hub in their database were wrong. I would also recommend to double check with spocalc and your own measurements and typing the results manually in the dtswiss calculator, e.g.

 

[hookooekoo]

Another good 'how to' article, this time from Park Tools. Their method of measuring ERD is similar to the method described on the Sheldon Brown website, but they don't remove the heads from the spokes, and they use a vernier gauge instead of a steel ruler to measure the gap in the middle.

Measuring Effective Rim Diameter

They also have a nice picture, illustrating how far to thread the nipples onto the spokes when making the ERD measurement.

 

[Tootyred]

Measure everything yourself. Dont believe anything you read....its just not worth the heartache of ending up with the wrong spokes......especially as the time you will find out is just as your about to finish tensioning the wheel!

A big help for hub measuring is a pair of verniers. My advice is to buy a cheap analogue pair. Cheap digital ones are just too easy to knock out of calibration by moving them slightly wrong and a good pair will set you back big money. Analogue are cheaper, never need a battery are are easily readable to 0.02 of mm. But 0.1 of mm will be fine for measuring hubs!

Screwfix does them for £12 quid.

Another tip for hub measuring is to drill an 11mm hole in a small metal plate. You can then stand the hubs on end in the hole, and measure from the plate to the flanges.....as verniers are never long enough and you could then get away with a steel ruler and still be accurate.

I know it sounds like you might need to outlay a little bit of cash, but good tools, looked after will last a lifetime of use.

Enjoy your wheel building.