Bicycle Mechanics - Tips and tricks for a first wheel build

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
rhnam
05-22-12, 09:58 PM
Just finished lacing up my first wheelset and was wondering if anyone has any ideas for DYI dish and spoke tension tools. I'd rather not drop the money for these tools if there's a way to check the wheel dish and spoke tension with items/tools I may already have.

Any advice is welcomed, thanks!

mrrabbit
05-22-12, 10:11 PM
1. Dish

- Almost snug in the stand.
- Rotate axle one time. Determine min and max distance from nearest point.
- Flip wheel in the stand almost snug.
- Rotate axle one time. Determine min and max distance from nearest point.

If same position min and max from same point...done. If not, more work needed.


2. Tension

- Lube nipple seats on rim, proceed, and then the following things are indicators that you are OVERTENSIONING:

A. After a hard squeeze of parallel spokes (4 at a time) for two rotations...

...you find yourself truing the same exact spots again....and again when doing the action above...you are likely overtensioned.

Back off 3-4 "clicks" or almost a 1/2 turn.


B. You think you are done, all looks great, tire and tube are on...

...and then you inflate and wonder why the wheel is doing a slight s-wave.

You deflate, take off tire and tube, pop wheel into stand, and find yourself staring at....

...what appears to be a wheel that has trued itself after deflating the tire/tube.

That is an indication that you have a high degree of overtension state - resolved by backing off a good 1/2 turn to full turn of the nipples.


C. Of course, if you see stress crack at the rim holes... =8-(

=8-)
Kimmo
05-23-12, 12:25 AM
What the rabbit said.

Also,

One approach with rears I've tried with good results is to crank the drive side tension right up with hardly anything on the NDS.

Then, getting the dish right is easy, since you do it by adding tension to the NDS. It's easier on the nipples.

3alarmer
05-23-12, 06:21 AM
Although what Mr. Bunny wrote sounds scary, it really is the best way to
figure out the optimum tension for your particular rim the first time you
build that kind, even if you have a tensiometer.

I just used the same approach on a Campy seat post binder bolt. Crank it
down until you hear it snap, then back off half a turn.........:o

But really, it works for wheels.....as does the reversing in the stand for dish.