wheelbuilding

[DebW]

I have the Gerd Schraner book, btw, very useful! And I have access to a truing stand and a tensiometer.

Do you have a dishing tool?

[lph]

Yup. Well, my gadget-crazed buddy has one.

[lunacycles]

My recommendation is to go as slowly as possible with your first wheel build. Don't over tension the spokes after you have laced them and before you start truing. Just thread the nipples on enough to remove obvious slack, then true, round, dish...true, round, dish, etc etc...and after there is some tension on the drive side, start stress-relieving the spokes after each round. Go 3x on the rear, both sides for the strongest wheel. There is no reason to go with less...you don't save any noticeable weight, and strength is generally compromised.

Also, it is a lot easier to build a front wheel as your first wheel. When you do a rear wheel for the first time, you will notice the drive side spokes will be much tighter than the nondrive spokes as they come into tension, if you keep the wheel dished as you go. Tensioning the nondrive spokes will affect the dish more than when you tension the drive side spokes the same amount. Hard to explain but you will find out. You will usually have to add a quarter of a turn or more to the driveside spokes to keep the dishing correct as you build...

Also, ensure you have adequate tension. To prevent spoke wind up, a good spoke prep is linseed oil. It provides great lubrication during the build, then also provides the same effect as loctite once it dries a bit. I dip the spokes collectively in a little puddle of linseed oil in a paper cup, and let the excess come off by lying them on newspaper.

It's a practice in patience and attention. Good luck and have fun.

[lph]

Thanks Margo, good tips!

I'm in the process of getting used to the price tag on good hubs...

[jobob]

Yes, good hubs are pricey - but worth it

- Jo "likes her White Industries hubs" bob

[lph]

Just stumbled across my old thread on wheelbuilding, and wanted to update it to say:

Wheeeee!!!! I've never had a better rear wheel than I have now! It's discernably stiffer, rolls like nobody's business, and TICKS. The hub is Hope and it lets everyone know it. I love it

I'll have to try my hand at building a wheel for my road bike too, next winter maybe.

[Becky]

Just stumbled across my old thread on wheelbuilding, and wanted to update it to say:

Wheeeee!!!! I've never had a better rear wheel than I have now! It's discernably stiffer, rolls like nobody's business, and TICKS. The hub is Hope and it lets everyone know it. I love it

I'll have to try my hand at building a wheel for my road bike too, next winter maybe.

Alright, that does it, I'm ordering rims and spokes today! I've been hemming and hawing about building a set of MTB wheels with the XTR hubs that I have, and you've convinced me to try it

What rim did you use, LPH? How long did it take you to finish the wheel as a rookie wheelbuilder? I'm wondering if I'll get to ride these this season. I have some experience truing/tensioning/dishing, and IME I'm very very slow