Building Wheel

[stunt man t]

hello people

right i got my spokes from tarty bikes and im ready to rebuild my rear wheel

im looking at the wiki about building wheels but noticed its 4 cross

and the spokes are cut to 3 cross

so when they space out each spoke

do i miss out 2 holes, between each spoke?

[forteh]

The spoke spacing between 3x and 4x lacing is the same, just the 4x spokes are longer and cross over 4 other spokes (hence the name).

Follow the guide but only cross the spokes 3x, remember to thread the spoke over/under the last crossed spoke, this gives the tension in the wheel

[Sidehop Stuart]

Remember to keep me updated on the wheel build

I need someone to my gold front one soon

[stunt man t]

cheers for the tip mate

im doing it now but its not going 2 well

but im not gona give up til its done

[mafu26]

http://sheldonbrown.com/

mechanic i work with who is awesome at building wheels rates it highly

[Jitters]

http://sheldonbrown.com/

mechanic i work with who is awesome at building wheels rates it highly

Although that site's a little hard to sift through - that's a great link for all kinds of bike mechanic information!

That Sheldon guy knew his stuff. R.I.P.

[max-t]

Try this.

Then left side pulling spokes video.

Then right side static spokes.

Right side static spokes viedo.

Then tensioning thespokes video.

then dishing. (you can pretty much do this when the wheel is in the frame)

Then fine truing.

It's practise, so you wont get it spot on strait away. Don't over tighten the spokes

Edited December 15, 2008 by max-t

[psycholist]

Here's the best book I've read on the subject (And I've read everything I'm aware exists on wheel building including Sheldon Brown's site and Jobst Brandt's 'The Bicycle Wheel'). It costs £9 to download, but he emails you with updated versions as he makes changes, so you have every edition that will come out as well as the current edition (Which is excellent) for your money...

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

The main thing to do in building the wheel is understand how the lacing pattern is laid out, then wind the spoke nipples to the same point on the threads of every spoke, then gradually put tension onto the wheel, turning every spoke nipple 1-2 turns max at a time for a revolution of the wheel until you feel tension start to build in the wheel.

For safety put the rim tape onto the wheel as soon as the spokes have tension - if a spoke snaps (Very rare) it will fire out of the rim and potentially into your eye.

For each adjustment you're making to the spokes around the wheel, start at the valve hole, so when you get back to it you'll know you've done all the spokes.

If you line the flats of the spoke nipples with the flats of the rim it's easier to count turns and you can visually inspect the wheel for loosening spokes while you're walking along with the bike too...

[forteh]

For safety put the rim tape onto the wheel as soon as the spokes have tension - if a spoke snaps (Very rare) it will fire out of the rim and potentially into your eye.

Very sensible, I was delacing a wheel once and a spoke snapped and took a chunk out of my cheek, right on the edge of the eye socket

Get the rim tape on there

Also once the spokes are all fitted a tiny drip of light oil onto the end of the spoke (so it runs down into the threads) helps immensely with achieving and keeping high tension, also means the nipple will turn when you need to true the wheel.

[Jitters]

Some nice pointers on here. I'm gonna lace up my stock rims whenever I get some hubs for them. gonna take some notes on this now. Thanks fellas!

[Mark W]

The reason I put that guide up in the way I did was to make it easier to learn to do different crossings. With the guide, the first two sets of spokes go in the same no matter what you're doing, then with the second two sets (the spokes you actually cross yourself), it's simply a case of counting how many spokes you've crossed, rather than spoke holes or anything like that. If you try and build wheels one side at a time, it's more hassle trying to get the twist of the hub right, etc., compared to that one where it's literally just a case of putting in the first sets of spokes, twisting the hub, counting how many spokes you're going over and putting the spoke into the nipple. It's pretty straightforward when you're actually doing it - just make sure you go under the last spoke you're crossing to give your wheel it's strength.

[psycholist]

It's quicker and easier to build a wheel if you lace up the spokes that go from the inside of the flanges first, set them all as pulling/pushing spokes (Pulling spokes see increased tension as a result of pedalling), holding them radially initially, so you can spin the nipples on quickly by hand, then twist the hub and then lace all the spokes that go from the outside of the flanges.

For added pimpery I like to line up the hub logo with the valve hole. This one is hard to explain and has to be set up by the first spoke you put in to the wheel. The best way to see how the hub and spoke interact is by drawing the lacing pattern for a wheel. This is surprisingly easy - To draw the spoke pattern for one hub flange, draw a big circle to represent the rim and a small one for the hub. For a 24H rim - i.e. 12 spokes per flange - put 12 dots (I use 12 because most people are familiar with a clock face) evenly spaced around the circumference of both circles (This is the way the spoke and rim holes will line up with each other regardless of how the wheel is built if spokes are the right length and correctly tensioned).

To draw a radial wheel join the hole at the 12 o'clock position in the hub with that on the rim at 12, 1 o'clock position to the hole at 1 in the rim and so on.

To draw a 1X wheel, instead of joining the 12 o'clock hub hole to the 12 o'clock rim hole, move 1 spoke hole over in the hub, joining the 1 o'clock in the hub to the 12 o'clock on the rim. Full lacing is (hub-rim): 1-12, 3-2, 5-4, 7-6, 9-8, 11-10 (Pulling spokes) and (hub-rim) 12-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11 (Pushing spokes).

To draw a 2X wheel, move 2 spoke holes over in the hub, joining the 2 o'clock in the hub to the 12 o'clock on the rim, giving 2-12, 4-2, 6-4, 8-6, 10-8, 12-10 pulling and 1-3, 3-5, 5-7, 7-9, 9-11, 11-1 pushing.

A 3X wheel starts with the first spoke offset 3 holes from radial, giving 3-12, 5-2, 7-4, 9-6, 11-8, 1-10 pulling and 2-5, 4-7, 6-9, 8-11, 10-1, 12-3 pushing - you'll see that this arrangement is about as far as you can go without the spokes crossing through the middle of the hub, which is why most 24H hubs are built to a max of 2X.

If you do the same sort of sequence with a 16 or 18 hole arrangement you'll see what the layout for various wheels will look like with the different spoke lacings for 32 and 36 spoke wheels. The pattern from the flange to the rim on the other side of the hub will look the same, just with the holes used set half way between the holes used for the side you've drawn. Once you know this you'll not only be able to pick out where to put to hub logo to line it up with the valve hole but also to make sure the valve hole has spokes that are more or less parallel to each other on each side of the hole to allow easy access with a pump...

Edited December 15, 2008 by psycholist