building my own wheels?

[jax13]

on a current project, i have non-matching wheels as they were all i could lay my hands on at the time and cash was tight.

I have looked at a couple of video's on youtube on wheelbuilding (3 cross in particular) and i'm pretty confident I can build my own wheels, but probably need someone else to true & dish them for me.

the question is, would it be better to just buy the bits and pay the LBS to build them (the guy is a good wheel builder so quality of work isn't an issue) or should i just send them in to be trued & dished after i compile them??

i fancy having a crack at it myself but my concern is the complete lack of experience i have in doing it and making an unsafe wheel.

 

[velomaniac]

You'll be fine but Big Eck up in MacRetroland can give you helpful advice if you want it

 

[jax13]

basically, i want to take the rear hub from my non-matching wheels and build a pair off them, i just got a matching front hub for £8 delivered (brand new) so with a set of bog standard spokes and once i hunt down a pair of rims i'm sorted!!

 

[Andy R]

Do the whole lot yourself (not just the lacing) otherwise there's not much satisfaction in it really, as you're passing over the skilled part for someone else to do.

It's not a black art - get a copy of Roger Musson's wheelbuilding book, build the few bits of kit that you need and take it from there...

 

[drystonepaul]

Lacing up the spokes is fairly straight forward as long as you get the first spoke in the right place.
Tensioning and trueing take a little more time and patience but it's really not as difficult as some would have you believe.
I'd have a go a tensioning and trueing it yourself and then maybe take it to your LBS for a check-over before you ride it.

The minimum requirements for building wheels though is a cup of tea, a packet of biscuits and some good background music.

 

[jax13]

I'd have a go a tensioning and trueing it yourself and then maybe take it to your LBS for a check-over before you ride it.

The minimum requirements for building wheels though is a cup of tea, a packet of biscuits and some good background music.

first part, spot on and i think thats what i'll go for. what spokes would the RB collective recommend that will work well but not break the bank??

second part...... I don't do tea (or coffee, both make me instantly sick!) could i swap it for guinness and peanuts / chilli heatwave doritos?

 

[Andy R]

what spokes would the RB collective recommend that will work well but not break the bank??

These?

Well, they're what I use anyway (for whatever that's worth :roll.

 

[Russell]

what spokes would the RB collective recommend that will work well but not break the bank??

These?

Well, they're what I use anyway (for whatever that's worth :roll.

I needed to replace a few spokes on a 700c wheel recently and I bought my spokes (also double butted) from Halfords for just 50p each.

 

[barry2017]

As to the spokes, what kind of wheel is it? Multiple geared, or singlespeed?

 

[jax13]

its gonna be a single.