Wheel building costs

[bm0p700f]

Ramstein-dh Get two old spokes and screw 12mm nipples on to each until the spoke is at the top of the nipple. Each spoke should be cut to 200mm in length.

Lay your rim on a long ruler with mm markings and place the two spokes in the rim at opposite ends and pull the nipples into the nipple seat. Measure the distance between the end of the two spokes and add 400mm (the length of the two spokes). A slight different but gives the same result is given on sheldon Borwn's site in the link below.

You can download spocalc from sheldon brown's site as well- an alternative to DTswiss version. It's a excel spreadsheet and works quite well.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

 

[MikeD]

+1 for building your own. As for prices, even a hugely experienced wheel builder will take at least an hour to build a wheel to a good standard from scratch. Compare labour rates to other skilled trades and draw your own conclusions

 

[hydorah]

My LBS wanted £60 a Wheel just labour and spokes I was supplying the rims and hubs

I made a post moaning about it on here and a load of people said overheads/gotta make a living/etc

This is £60 a wheel I think that's ridiculous

Naturally I taught myself how to build wheels. I can't possibly recommend it more

The sense of satisfaction and smugness is invaluable

My exploits are detailed in the British Eagle build in my sig

Also check out the Sheldon Brown stuff, and read up on spoke tensions

Some vids on Youtube will help, piece it all together and you can build any wheels you want! And keep all your wheels in superb trim