MJH100

can I lace a 700c rim to an old 27'' hub?

Gonzo Bob

as long as they have the same number of holes and the 700C is not a paired spoke rim

bikemeister

As long as the number of holes match, sure. (i.e 36 hole hub needs 36 hole rim, etc.)
I've done it. I had some old Normandy hubs I didn't want to part with, but the tire choices in 27" had gotten lousy. So, I had them re-laced to 700c rims. Needed all new spokes, of course. And you should verify that your particular frame will not have wheel clearance and brake reach issues. A little bit of work, but totally do-able.

MJH100

whats a paired spoke rim

Bean_YWG

bikemeister

Ohh, man, a guy at the LBS was working on a bike equipped with a pair of wheels like this, and he was pitching a fit trying to true the things up!!!!!

nahh

you need a better guy at the LBS then. they aren't hard to do at all, I've found wheel truing to be one of the easiest repairs. paired spokes are just under more tension (mostly due to fewer spokes) but other than that...

MJH100

Well i just built up my first wheel today, i disasembled and reasembled a old huffy 36h wheel. Got it pretty tru, spoke tension is probally dangerous. Noticed that With a zip tie rubbing, that if the pitch of the ziptie rubbing stays the same, then the wheel is intru. any one secound that idea? ( i probally sound ********) havn't road on it tho, it might collapse!!!!

MJH100

you can't say 'Ree-Tar-Did' on here. Maybe it is a poor choice of words. I guess I might look ignorent or offensive in the real world. SO its out of my vocabularly then...Probally.

MJH100

When you learn to build wheels it should make replacing wheels cheaper? (so long as you overhaul the hub)

about how much do spokes cost?

Hydrated

I found that building my own wheels saves me money only in the respect that I pay less to get exactly what I want. The main benefit is that I get much higher quality wheels by building them myself.

Plus wheel building is very relaxing to me... sort of like knitting is for some people.

The price of spokes varies according to what kind that you want. I try to only use high quality double butted spokes in normal applications, and usually pay between 75 cents and $1 for a spoke & nipple.

Panthers007

That's interesting, Hydrated. Often I find that quality wheels can be found for less than what you or I would have to spend on the components of the wheels themselves. I find this frustrating in the extreme as I, like you, truly enjoy wheel-building. So I spend a little more and build them myself anyway.

MJH100

I think im going to use that huffy wheel set to build a bike the bicycle donation to africa that my LBS is helping.

Hydrated

The price of rims, hubs, etc. would be steep if I bought everything at my LBS or even online... but what fun would that be?

I always keep an eye out for great deals on stuff that I run across, and I buy some things even though I may not need it at the time. For example, the owner of my LBS was grousing about the stuff that he had in his bins that people order or return and he ended up stuck with. He let me rifle through the bins and pick out stuff that I wanted. One of the items was a brand new Bontrager Classic rim (still wrapped in its protective paper) that he sold to me for $10. And I already have a set of new 105 hubs that I picked up off of eBay for a whopping $30... so when I find a matching rear rim I'll build myself a set of wheels for my 1988 Trek 1000. And I'll prolly have less than $150 invested for a set of high quality hand built wheels.

I'm also not very brand loyal except when it comes to spokes. I'll use any hubs or rims that are of good quality... but I never skimp on spokes. I will only build a wheel with brand new and high quality spokes and nipples.

I also flip bikes on occasion to finance projects... but I don't like to sell bikes. I don't enjoy negotiations and stuff like that.

MJH100

what is the disadvantage to used spokes? they are bent?

Jeff Wills

Yes. If you look carefully at used spokes, you'll see that the elbows on the "inside" spokes are slightly opened (greater than 90 degrees) and the "outside" spokes are slightly closed (less than 90 degrees). If these are reversed (inside to outside and vice versa), the spokes will fatigue and break in short order.

If you can keep them sorted out, and they're the right length, and they were properly tensioned by the previous wheelbuilder then using used spokes is generally no problem. I've done it on several of my own wheels with no issues.

Shops don't like to reuse old spokes because disassembling old wheels takes a lot of time and there's no way to verify the quality of the old build. It's much faster and more reliable to cut out the old spokes and put in new.

Hydrated

I have a few reasons for avoiding used spokes:

• Metal fatigue. This is a contentious topic, but the engineer in me can't ignore the fact that spokes take and release loading with every revolution of the wheel. Some folks don't think it's a factor though.
• It's cheap to buy new spokes. If I'm going to spend the time to build a wheel, I'll invest the $30 or $40 to use new spokes.
• It's a major pain to replace or repair broken spokes on the road. So I take whatever precautions that I can to avoid spoke failure out there. I'd hate to think that I shredded a nice tire or mangled my nifty XTR rear derailleur because I saved 75 cents by reusing an old spoke.

That said... many people reuse spokes with no ill effects at all. I just don't get warm fuzzies recycling spokes.

DArthurBrown

A worthless innovation designed to look cool.

MJH100

SHould I dissasemble more wheels, and then rebuild them to gain knowledge? SOme bike shops throw away so many wheels. are any of those potentially still valuable if you put a inexespsive rim on there? Although I fully understand that the hubs they throw away probally won't be worth more then the 'nasty' spokes on them any ways.

There are people that fish them out of the trash, and scrap the metal.

SOme how I will get more satisfaction out of it if I don't have to dissasemble a perfectly good wheel, and then rebuild for practice/knowledge. But if thats what it takes. Sheldon Brown says wheel building is the best way to master wheel truing.

Metzinger

I built my 1st wheel when I was 12.
27" Weinmann concave onto a high flange hub.
You should do fine. Start today. You don't need to mess around with garbage wheels.
Pay attention to the spoke pattern, tension, dish.
It's not rocket surgery.

MJH100

im kind of limited on money, and between jobs.