Wheel building

[SFP]

Rebuilt the wheels on my Mercian KoM this week. Sputnik rims on Deore XT 36 hole hubs in a 3 cross pattern . I took all day but it's best not to rush these things,

Bravo.... in time it will be faster.

From what I recall when I was learning to build wheels (many many years ago)... the master builder (Lenny) I was learning from said, "your first four to half dozen will take forever to build and in the end you won't be happy - but you will have built a rideable wheel - Own That. Next you will learn through practice to build wheels you can beat the hell out of!"

I spent the next six months practising. Everytime I was sitting down in the evening or weekend watching the idiot box (TV) I would be building/re-building wheels.

It's a skill IMHO worth learning but so so so cannot be rushed.

Stick to 32/36 hole rims, three cross while you learn. Stay away from alloy nipples during the learning phase. Spend the money on a Park nipple driver. Lube/grease every eyelet and every spoke.

In no time you will have it.

Then ya ride the hell of a set you built and the smile on your face, and pride you feel from having built those wheels - priceless.

Again congrats!

 

[SFP]

On the flip side... a bit of old school bike shop humour....

The best way to sell new wheels to customers - sell them a spoke wrench.

 

[Tootyred]

This is fantastic...and it comes with access to a good spoke calculator and plans to build jigs etc.

Has everything you will probably ever need including WHY your doing stuff on a wheel, which is frankly the key to repairing and building great wheels.

Anybody can lace up a wheel, but making it a good wheel (especially with used parts) requires a bit of understanding of whats going on.

https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

 

[baron von greenback]

Thanks for all the tips guys been reading and watching videos I think I got it it my head only bit I worried about is the last spokes were you go 2 over one under then there's the trueing has anyone used one of them black stands they only cheap of eBay cheers couldn't find any info on wheel building snow flakes etc were you twist spokes I know people don't like it but they look good

 

[winjohn]

I have a cheap stand that was given to me and it is not great to use, far too flexible in all the wrong places. For wheel truing I have always done better at truing in the bike for lateral alignment, it's only the radial adjustment that gets tricky without a stand in my experience and you wlll almost certainly be needing to do some of that.

 

[Twozaskars]

Bending them over then under isn't a problem, just be careful not to let the end of the spoke scratch the rim as you do it and if you bend it slightly, just straighten it out again.
Building - tip the bike upside down.
Snowflake pattern is for Snowflakes.

 

[baron von greenback]

Nice one guys what do you suggest winjohn for radial because them park ones are way to expensive to built couple of wheel I seen them use a pencil on top of brakes do you know of any stands that aren't to expensive that are ok

 

[winjohn]

Before I had a stand I just used to try to eyeball as well as I could on the brake pads. It can be done but it's just easier with a stand. I actually still find the lateral truing easier in the bike because I have been doing it that way for years. It still is much easier if your wheel is just a little bit out of true to tip the bike upside down and true it that way with the tyre still on.
For the radial stuff though I always found it best to take off the tyre and tube and even sometimes rig up a rod across the forks to aid me. All a bit Heath Robinson but a decent stand is very expensive and I never built enough wheels to make it worthwhile to buy one.