garth

Well, it took me 2 1/2 hours but I did it. Now I wonder if I may have made a couple of mistakes.. sort a first time wheelbuilder's regrets. First let me say that the wheel is dead on true in horizontal and vertical planes. Also let me say that the wheel is properly dished and also has a high degree of spoke tension, (equal to other pro built wheels I have around here). The problems may be that I used a teflon oil by Finish line even though I had planned to use auto anti sieze. I also did not use washers under the nipples even though the original had it. The wheels are Campy Record low flange 36 hole and rims are Ambrosio 19 Aeros. I used 14-15-14 spokes by wheelsmith and the nipples seemed like a good fit but the rims have no eyelets. Did I mess up with the oil or the no washer thing?

Garth

tachi131

Hey, congrats garth. I'm thinking of of tackling wheelbuilding soon. Any tips for a newbie?

koine2002

I'd say you did a great job for a first build. Without the eyelets or washers, just pay attention to potential cracking, but you should be OK if you're not running over potholes or stuff like that. I've used Finish Line on a build when I couldn't find my grease and things worked out fine. Also, have you pre-stressed the spokes? You'll get faster and faster as you build more. My first took about 2-3 hours, it now takes me around an hour to do a good build (if from scratch, longer if a rebuild).

garth

Well as you might have read from other threads, I obtained a Park TS-6 truing stand and made a dishing tool out of 3/4 inch plywood and I use a metric ruler against a line drawn on the dishing tool to compare right and left sides. In the past I have used brake shoes, but the truing stand quickly shows you which is the problem spoke, so for a wheel build it almost seems neccessary. When I was done one side measured 5 cm from nut to measure line on dish tool and the other 5.4 cm... so I had to tighten the spokes on one side 1/2 turn and loosen the other side 1/2 turn and that brought me perfect dish. The lacing part was the easiest part, and with the Bicycling magazine book, I followed step by step and could hardly believe how easy it was. The lacing part took about 1/2 hour working slowly and having to look for dropped nipples. (My advise here is to work in a carpeted room, so the nipples don't jump so far when you drop them.) I used a second spoke to drop the nipples into the holes because the nipples kept missing and then I'd have to shake them out of the rim. Once the nipples were all threaded with a small flat screwdriver, I went one turn at a time with the spoke wrench until the wheel sort of looked like a wheel with reasonable spoke tension and less bent looking spokes. Then I started looking at true, but I have had so much experience truing wheels that although it was time consuming to get it perfect it was familiar. I sort of worked the spokes into the flange with my hand and bent the spokes into position to help stress relieve. I think the easiest part is the lacing (3 cross), the most time consuming is the tightening and truing, and the trickiest is guessing how much readjusting you need to properly dish and center the wheel. If I had to do it again, I could do it in an hour and a half, working slowly but more knowledgebly. The biggest strain is using Spokecalc to order the spokes from Nashbar. I measured and remeasured but I still doubted whether I had ordered the correct size. I came up with 295 as my final measurement but if such a creature exists I might have been better off with 293's. In other words my final wheel had the spokes poking out the back of each nipple, but I see pro wheels built with the nipple comming exactly level or slightly recessed into the nipple. My total cost for this wheel was $18 for an Ebay Campy Record hub and $24 for the nipples and spokes for one wheel. The rim I rescued from an old junkyard bike. By the way the washers under each nipple were brass and paper thin. I have no idea what they were used for and I have never seen such a thing in other wheels I have dissesembled.

genericbikedude

I've always used triflow, and never any sort of commercial spoke prep, and all my wheels are holding up great. If your rims aren't anodized, I'd not worry about the cracking issue too much, though it cant hurt to check over them. I've built 9 wheels, and I still take 2-3 hours start to finish . But I do a good job.

fmw

Congratualtions. I just finished my first wheelset. You can read about my dishing problem in another thread. I spent about 3 hours on the rear wheel because of my on-the-job training on dishing. The front, radially laced, only took about an hour and change. I just assembled it, tensioned it, trued it and the dish was perfect. I did the front first and thought this wheel building stuff was a breeze. The rear wheel gave me a dose of reality.

Like you, I had a professionally built wheelset available as a model and that really helped. That way I know the lacing is right as is the spoke tension. I'm still confused about leading and trailing spokes and which need to go under which as they lace. With experience it will become intuitive, I guess. I'm going to start on another build soon since my MTB could use a wheel upgrade.

fmw

I hadn't seen washers either on a wheel but I used them partly because the author of "The Art of Wheelbuilding" favors their use. Their purpose is to ensure a snug fit for the head of the spoke in the hub hole. A snug fit is important for a reliable wheel. Obviously, you can build without them. The guy that wrote the book likes them and that was good enough for me.

After assembling the the wheel, you just hit the spoke heads lightly with a punch and a mallet and that seats the spoke heads and washers perfectly in the hub holes.

Deanster04

Did you de-stress the wheel? By that I mean take any windup out of the spokes by placing the wheel on the ground (preferrably a piece of wood under the axel and pressing on wheel and listen to the pings. It usually takes several iterations of destressing and re truing to get a perfect wheel. Don't press too hard but firmly. Check the wheelbuilding reference for their suggested technique. Also, there is a penetrating Loctite that you can use if your wheels loosen up. Congrats sounds like you did a great job.

garth

To FMW.. I think the issue of leading and trailing spokes is only important for the rear wheel. The majority of the rear wheels around me on other bikes seem to be constructed using one method for the rear wheel. If you look at any wheel and then on any side you will see that half the spokes on any side have the spoke head facing you and half have the spoke head away from you. If you have a 32 spoke wheel, on one side 8 heads face you and 8 face away. 9 for a 36 spoke wheel. When the head faces away on the gear side (drive side), it seems that builders want these spokes to be pulling the back of the rim rather than reaching for the front. I believe these spokes are somehow inherently stronger because they wrap around the outside of the hub flange rather the inside. This whole issue is addressed in my instructions when they say in the Bicycling magazine maintanance book... "If it is a rear wheel, start the process with the gear side down in your lap..." Following their instructions I guess would automatically build up a rear wheel that had the stronger spokes on the gear side pulling. I found one pro built wheel in the house that was built the other way, and the rear hasn't died yet, so I am guessing it's not a deal breaker either way. Btw, the washers on the original wheel were not under the spoke head but nipple head to strengthen the rim. One of my books on wheelbuilding says to use these washers on the hub but no one said to use them on the rim. Also, apparantly DT is now using spokes that have more reach at the head side (hub side) and this is because Shimano or someone is now using thicker flanges on hubs. The older hubs don't have such a thick flange, and if you use DT spokes on older hubs some builders are saying you need to use hub washers to take up the extra length. I used Wheelsmith because I work on classic bikes, but the DT spokes were $4 cheaper per wheel at Nashbar, so I would have used those DT's if I could. If you buy hubs and rims on Ebay, and end up spending $40 for hubs and $40 for rims plus shipping and then end up spending $50 for spokes and nipples from Nashbar ... it's $150 a set of wheels not counting tires and rim strips. For all this work it seems like I should be able to buy spokes at cheaper than $25 a wheel but oh well, friends of mine that race spend $500 a set for wheels and they don't seem much better than what I have.

bikingshearer 

(1) Get a copy of Jobst Brandt's "The Bicycle Wheel." Any LBS or LBS (local book store) should be able to order it for you. It will tell everything - and I do mean *everything* - you ever wanted to know about spoked bicycle wheels. Odds are, any question you could come up with is answered in there, both theoretical and practical.

(2) Make absolutely sure you get the right length spokes. That means either (a) going to a good LBS with the hub(s) and rim(s) you intend to use and let them tell you (and where you should at least buy your spokes for your project), (b) if it's a rebuild and you are using the same hub and rim combo, having a sample spoke from the old build (1 from each side if it's a rear wheel), or (c) using a spoke calculator computer program - there are several downloadable for free on Sheldon Brown's website. (And if you don't know about Sheldon's website, google "Sheldon Brown" right this very minute and prepare for an amazing wealth of cycling and other info.

(3) Practice deep breathing exercises. You can do this, but it will require patience the first few times.

Mr Zippy

I haven't seen or read Jobst's book, however I found "Wheelbuilding, 3rd Edition" to be better than "The Art of Wheelbuilding", although "The Art of Wheelbuilding" is also pretty good :

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


I agree ! If you aren't using new spokes or a rim (and I wasn't because I wasn't working and couldn't afford them), and are a newbie, be prepared to spend a lot of time. I reckon my recently completed rear wheel took me 20 to 30 hours, although that includes learning the hardway that the drive side spokes are shorter than the other side, the resulting re-lacing to fix that, and the time to redo the axel because the cassette tool I have has a skewer for a quick release axel, and my rear wheel doesn't have one. Still, I'm now (very) happily riding on it, and am now keen to build another wheel in a much shorter time.

garth

One important point. Most hubs have a beveled edge for the spoke to exit. The spoke head goes on the flat side of the hole and the spoke exits the angled side of the road. I spent time trying to figure out which side was which for my 1980 circa Campy Record hub. The problem with these hubs is they have no difference between which side of the flange the head goes. You just do it whichever way it feels right.... according to my local bike guru shop owner.