Bicycle Mechanics - Wheel Building Question...

Can you lace a 36 hole hub to a 28 hole rim ?

I know there are more holes in the hub, but can you use less spokes, and still make it work ?

The reason I am asking, is that I am looking at a flip flop hub on ebay, and also some hoops to go with it... the hub is 36 holes, and the couple rims I've been looking at have between 28 and 32 holes...

Will this work

thanks

JEff

The math doesn't work right to space the spokes out evenly.

ok.. that is what I was thinking... just wasn;t sure

Jeff

Yes, but don't. Please :)

Can you lace a 36 hole hub to a 28 hole rim ?

I know there are more holes in the hub, but can you use less spokes, and still make it work ?

The reason I am asking, is that I am looking at a flip flop hub on ebay, and also some hoops to go with it... the hub is 36 holes, and the couple rims I've been looking at have between 28 and 32 holes...

Will this work

thanks

JEff

I have no doubt that a wheelbuilder with infinite patience could eventually figure out the spoke lengths and make it work, but why would you want to do that? I don't see how it would ever be as good a wheel as a 28 hole rim laced onto a 28 spoke hub. If you are going to go to the trouble of building a wheel, why wouldn't you want to make it as good a wheel as you are capable of building?

I have no doubt that a wheelbuilder with infinite patience could eventually figure out the spoke lengths and make it work, but why would you want to do that? I don't see how it would ever be as good a wheel as a 28 hole rim laced onto a 28 spoke hub. If you are going to go to the trouble of building a wheel, why wouldn't you want to make it as good a wheel as you are capable of building?

That was kinda the point of my question.. since I've never built up a wheel before, and never really thought about what goes into it.. I asked ya'll

but yeah... I know that logically a 28 hole hub should have a 28 hole rim... I just didn;t know if it was possible any other way...

Jeff

Whoa, you never built a wheel before? You really don't want to try this. I think it could be done but you would need to mix cross patterns and radial spoking to get the wheel to come out halfway round and true.

heheh I was probably going to have a guy in my club build it up for me... I have a hard time truing rims as it is.. I don;t really wanna deal with th headache of building a wheel from scratch... I haven;t bought anything yet... Im still in the planning, and learning stage :-)

Jeff

Jeff,

Get yourself a pair of hubs off of e-bay (or anywhere
else inexpensive) go for 36 holes, get a 1/2 way decent
pair of rims, build em as 3x (I'd say the standard to which all wheels are held).
Use damon runards spoke calculator, or DT swiss spoke calculator to find the
correct spoke length and then sit down with either Zinn, or Bicycling, or
Barnetts chapter on wheelbuilding and lace em up. Use your fork for truing
(you'd be surprized how good you can do with that.
After you build them, tension them etc. have LBS double check em.
Then find a copy of Jobst Brandt's book, cause you will never buy prebuilt
wheels again, and the book could tell you how to build those 28 spoke wheels
using 32 hole hubs. . .

Marty