Bicycle Mechanics - Building wheels, and spoke seat diameters.

TL;DR: What is the Nipple seat diameter for Sun Vista Cruiser rims.

Howdy everyone,

I am about to embark on my first (and likely second) wheel building adventure. With the goal of building some light tubular wheels.

I bought two sets of rims, and a set of hubs. The extra rims was me geting anxious on ebay... but we'll come back to that.

Having both rims and hubs is nice, but I'd like to attach one to the other. That requires spokes, and the use of a spoke calculator.

I have digital calipers, and I am good at measuring things. So I have my new hubs measured. However, my calipers cant' do deep inside measurements, nor are they 700mm wide. So how do I properly measure the diameter of the spoke nipple seating surface? Without use of the wheel-smith rim measuring tool?

As for what I bought, I bought Novatec hubs. Coming in at 114g and 377g respectively, front and rear. And I bought Sun Vista Cruiser rims. Both are 32 hole. So far, between the hubs and rims I am up to 1141g. Not bad really. And if I am lucky, I'll be under 1450g for the wheels.

Now, I also accidentally won a set of rims off of ebay. Sravedra Tubular track rims. They're less than 300g each! By luck, the wheels on my track bike are 36 hole, like the rims, so I might just rebuild those wheels for tubular use.

I'd like whatever advice you can give a noob. :-)

Not sure if you've read any wheel building books in your preparation for this project, but the one I bought included a very simple and effective way of accurately measuring the ERD of any rim. The author does this by essentially creating an ERD measuring tool out of two pairs of spokes/nipples. I wasn't able to find his published method anywhere on the internet so I don't feel comfortable walking you through it here. (*Edit* See Post #3). But if you're interested, you can check it out, OR just take your wheel to the LBS and have them measure all four rims for you. Remember to measure from multiple places on the rim and take the average length as your measurement.

The book is the professional guide to wheelbuilding by Roger Musson. About $15 dollars for immediate download.

-Jeremy

TL;DR: What is the Nipple seat diameter for Sun Vista Cruiser rims.

Howdy everyone,

I am about to embark on my first (and likely second) wheel building adventure. With the goal of building some light tubular wheels.

I bought two sets of rims, and a set of hubs. The extra rims was me geting anxious on ebay... but we'll come back to that.

Having both rims and hubs is nice, but I'd like to attach one to the other. That requires spokes, and the use of a spoke calculator.

I have digital calipers, and I am good at measuring things. So I have my new hubs measured. However, my calipers cant' do deep inside measurements, nor are they 700mm wide. So how do I properly measure the diameter of the spoke nipple seating surface? Without use of the wheel-smith rim measuring tool?

As for what I bought, I bought Novatec hubs. Coming in at 114g and 377g respectively, front and rear. And I bought Sun Vista Cruiser rims. Both are 32 hole. So far, between the hubs and rims I am up to 1141g. Not bad really. And if I am lucky, I'll be under 1450g for the wheels.

Now, I also accidentally won a set of rims off of ebay. Sravedra Tubular track rims. They're less than 300g each! By luck, the wheels on my track bike are 36 hole, like the rims, so I might just rebuild those wheels for tubular use.

I'd like whatever advice you can give a noob. :-)

Sheldon Brown to the rescue! http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

Look about 2/3 down the page. You will need a couple of spokes and nips (almost any length will do, even mismatched)

Good luck!

Would you believe I don't actually own any spokes that aren't part of wheels? :-) Guess I finally get to break down that wheel that's hanging on the ceiling.

Would you believe I don't actually own any spokes that aren't part of wheels? :-) Guess I finally get to break down that wheel that's hanging on the ceiling.

I can believe it if this is your first build. Stop by any bike shop and pick up a couple for less than $1 apiece. If they have any used ones laying around they probably will let you have them.

Sheldon Brown to the rescue! http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

Look about 2/3 down the page. You will need a couple of spokes and nips (almost any length will do, even mismatched)

Good luck!

Thank you for pointing that out. Apparently I didn't look hard enough. Roger's method, although almost identical to Sheldon's, involves a step or two extra that allow you to measure more quickly with only one measurement.

-Jeremy

Well, I got the rims. I stole two spokes from a trashy set of wheels that were left when I didn't lock up my bike properly.... and spotted that the cluster the theif left me was a dura-ace 7 speed freewheel! I think I got the better end of that deal. he made off with some formula hubs and a suntour 8 speed cassette with some wavy alex r500 rims.

Okey, back to the story. The sun vista cruiser rims have a ERD of 603mm. I still need to measure the other rims. The novatec hubs seem pretty decent. They're less than their advertised weights!