Does anyone here build wheels?
- Thread starter Somew2001
- Start date
grantoury
Kona Fan
I had the good fortune of being able to follow a one day course on wheel building last year and built wheels for my 29er this year. Very rewarding, but it is a very involved process where lots can go wrong. On the other hand, people call it a black art, which it isn't , its just complicated. But as seen in other comments, there are several good tutorials to start with. Freespoke is a good site with info on measuring rims and hubs, a spoke calculator and a comprehensive list of hubs and rims.
https://www.kstoerz.com/freespoke/
But there is no shame in paying a pro to build a good wheel. In NL, where I am located, there are several webshops who offer the service and I have used them in the past.
https://www.kstoerz.com/freespoke/
But there is no shame in paying a pro to build a good wheel. In NL, where I am located, there are several webshops who offer the service and I have used them in the past.
Freeman
Dirt Disciple
Nobody here mentioned Jobst Brandt's book on bicycle wheel building which is short, to the point, and has illustrations to walk a beginner through lacing up and truing wheels. Mr. Brandt was quite a smart guy, some sort of engineer and used computer analysis and includes some math to show the science of wheels and to figure out spoke length etc..
I have laced up a lot of wheels, I began with motorcycle wheels as my father was a dealer for British motorbikes in the 50s and early 60s and he brainwashed me into liking them a lot. For bicycles I have done a lot of swapping 700c rims onto the hubs of bikes which originally had 27" rims to improve tire selection, have put coaster hubs into 700c rims to make single-speed road bikes. I don't have any fancy tools, I just put the wheels together on my lap and put them on the bike and stand it upside-down on it's seat and bars and true them up by eye first, and sometimes get a dial-indicator onto the side and outside of the rim if I want to get it extra round and true.
I have laced up a lot of wheels, I began with motorcycle wheels as my father was a dealer for British motorbikes in the 50s and early 60s and he brainwashed me into liking them a lot. For bicycles I have done a lot of swapping 700c rims onto the hubs of bikes which originally had 27" rims to improve tire selection, have put coaster hubs into 700c rims to make single-speed road bikes. I don't have any fancy tools, I just put the wheels together on my lap and put them on the bike and stand it upside-down on it's seat and bars and true them up by eye first, and sometimes get a dial-indicator onto the side and outside of the rim if I want to get it extra round and true.
