Built my first wheel!
 

I'm feeling really clever now that I've finished my first wheel. Just had to share because of my excitement and the fact that my wife will nod and say 'that's nice'.

The tensions are pretty even and the thing is true. First ride on it in a couple of days.

Soon I will have the new spokes to finish the pair - I messed up building the front in my first ever attempt and ruined a bunch of the spokes. Perhaps thin bladed spokes were not the best plan for my first build!

Details:
Kinlin 30mm
Rear, DT240s, 32 spoke (sapim CXray) 1x drive side, 3x NDS
Front, Alchemy ELF, 24 spoke (sapim CXray, radial

Thanks:
A BF member who builds wheels for a living and supplied the parts and a great deal of patience.

Nice! Congrats. I hope to do cross this bridge in the near future myself.

Awesome! I want to try this.

Congrats.

post some pics....please

That's nice. [nods] :thumb:

Never felt clever enough to try wheel-building, myself.

Will take pics once I've done the front and put them on bike.

They are not very exciting looking (like some wheels) but they are going to be strong and light.

A hearty Socal ****ing' A dude too you!

Enquiring minds would like to know. Wheel building separates wrenchers from mechanics. I too have wheel building projects on my radar

I've built all sorts of things over the years, but wheels are an evil dark art! Just one little turn of the spoke key can mean success or failure!

Now I think I have the basics, so it is all about practice! However, how many wheel sets can one man build and own? I'm certainly not ready to do it for anyone else (unless it was a friend).

I just trued my wheels at my LBS. I'm trying to get a chance to learn from them over the summer so I'm building a rapport with them. I was going to learn to build a wheel but it was getting dark and I had to still bike home. My loss. Once of the wrenches/mechanics at my LBS is a good guy. He is willing to teach and we have biking and cars in common. We both came into bicycling from cars. He is just light years ahead of me. I want to learn to build my own bike from wheels to frame. Some day I plan to learn to weld and I will build my own bike.

Awesome! This truely is what separates the men from the boys when it comes to wrenching on bikes.

I've read Sheldon's wheel building page a dozen times but I still can't pull the trigger on trying it myself. I'd love to build myself a new rear wheel for my SS with one of these hubs but I can't figure out what spoke length I'd need. I even picjed out an el-cheapo rim to use (in case I fail miserably).

Your success story has inspired me to continue looking into actually ordering some stuff and trying my hand at this.

oh and one last thing....

http://www.easttnriders.com/forum/im.../worthless.gif

Just do it! It's not nearly as hard as you're thinking. Two bits of advice:

1. Go real slow when you're bringing the spokes up to tension. If you tighten every spoke evenly a small amount at a time it'll keep the rim round and concentric and you'll have a lot less trueing to do at the end.

2. Don't bet against yourself by being afraid to start with good components. "El cheapo" rims can do funny things as you bring them up to tension and are a lot harder to learn with than decent quality rims.

Just finished my first ride on the completed new wheels as a set. The front wheel was completed a couple of days ago.

Strangely enough I found the rear wheel much easier to do. Having screwed up the first attempt at the front (and needing to buy some new spokes) the rear was much easier. I put this down to experience after the fiasco that was the front. However, the second attempt at the front was also difficult and some of the same problems arose. Perhaps the extra width of the front hub or the need to have both sides evenly tensioned?

Anyway...lots learned, fun had, wheels in action. Thanks to BF member Kent who sold me the parts and then was very patient as he guided me through the work. He certainly earned his money after the hours he must have spent answering my many emails!

But I know you all just want to see the pics (because it is worthless without them!), so here we go...

Since there are no white garage doors in HK (I'm sure there are somewhere, but not as common as the US!) I've had to settle for a dirty roller shutter at the workshops at my office.

http://www.rowingboatlights.com/bike...s/IMGP3318.jpg

Details (repeated): Both rims are Kinlin 30mm. Front is 24 hole, radial, to a Alchemy ELF hub. Sapim CXRay spokes. Rear is 32 hole, 1x DS, 3x NDS, DTSwiss 240s hub. Skewers are DTSwiss titanium.

Haven't weighed the wheels (no scales) but the front was considerably lighter than the Shimano WH-R550 it replaced (16 spoke, 20mm? rim) so I'm going to guess that I've gone from about 1.85kg down to about 1.5-1.6kg.

Even the colour scheme looks good with the rest of the bike!

http://www.rowingboatlights.com/bike...s/IMGP3320.jpg
http://www.rowingboatlights.com/bike...s/IMGP3321.jpg
http://www.rowingboatlights.com/bike...s/IMGP3323.jpg

Looks very nice! Congratulations! And the color scheme does look very good. Check 'em again for being in lateral & vertical true after a day & 10. Sometimes there is a "settling-down" period.

I just pulled a Campy Record hub from the front of a wheel I built in 1984. Aside from minor abrasions where the spokes went across them, they are still as good as new. Polished it up with Simichrome Polish . Excellent stuff - looks new-in-box. Now for the rear wheel...