youngdood

I know it's recommended to have a more experience person to lace a wheel but has anyone with little to no experience lace their wheels by themselves?

Was it difficult/easy? Results?

icknayvon

I think a good number of folks on here have. Mixed results, but I believe that lacing them may not be as difficult/important as properly tightening/tensioning.

If you have an old busted wheel around take it apart. Thats what I did and it made more sense to me.

bcart1991

^yup

I plan on giving a radial front a shot soon. The only thing I'm worried about is getting the tension correct.

delicious

if you can follow directions you can do it. just check sheldon's guide to wheelbuilding.

BMonei

If the nipples are over tighten, it can crack the rim or torque the hub. I wouldn't try lacing an expensive pair of wheels, but something like an Alex rim could be easily replaced. Good luck!

bonechilling

It's not magic or anything. Lacing is incredibly easy to do, especially if you follow the directions. As others have said, the hard part in truing/tensioning.

mihlbach

Lacing takes no skill. Tensioning and truing is more challenging but doable. I build my own. Its not necessarily hard, but you need to be patient, follow directions, and use the right tools. I've built four wheelsets, and all turned out better than any stock wheel I have ever bought. If you build your own, and perform all subsequent maintenence, the equipment need to build wheels will easily pay for itself, especially if you build more than one wheelset in your lifetime.

Personally, I wouldn't build my first wheel without a tensiometer.

fix:

i just built my first wheelset. i dont know if id bother to do it again.

Yoshi

Lacing is really easy, building a wheel is more difficult, but not prohibitively so (assuming you have a truing stand). I'm assuming you meant "build" not "lace" but in either case you shouldn't have too much trouble as long as you take it slow and pay attention to what you're doing.

marqueemoon

I've built 4 wheels now. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a class, which helped a lot. It mainly just takes patience. Getting the spoke length calculation right is the toughest part. I still rely on the LBS to help me with that.

Eulogy13x

A similar question:

I know that equal tension is more important to wheel strength and reliability than is absolute tension, but is there somewhere you can find a list of recommended spoke tensions for given rims? When I true up my wheels, I always make sure they're evenly tensioned +/- 15% or so of avg. tension, but I never know what the average tension should be...

TwoShort

I did it. It was easy, and I've had no problems with the wheels after a couple years of daily use.

I'll note that I spent basically an entire evening per wheel (while watching TV, chatting or whatever). I imagine it would take lots and lots of practice before I could produce decent wheels at a speed that would make getting paid for it reasonable.

But if you just want to build a nice wheel or three for yourself, I'd say go for it. I'd actually recommend starting with decent quality new parts the first time. I've built one wheel with old rims, and it was definitely nicer with the new ones that started out pretty much round & true in the first place. Read Sheldon's article and take your time.

I Like Peeing

I find peace of mind in truing wheels... some people don't like it. It's not difficult. Don't strip nipples, that's about the only stress...so have a new spoke wrench if you can.

Go for it.

kyselad

Like other experiences mentioned above, I found it easy but time-consuming. Having a decently round rim to start is a big help. I enjoyed it and I've gone 2 years (!) without having to true a wheel -- it's nice to have a carefully tensioned wheelset.

Hardest part was measuring tension by ear. Didn't help that I was doing a funky lacing pattern and needed to calculate the pitch myself based on where the spokes crossed -- not recommended. If you can lay your hands on a tensiometer (e.g. at a bike co-op), that would make life much easier.

Aeroplane

www.sheldonbrown.com

Stupid easy.

sykerocker 

I build them just for the joy of accomplishment, and it's one of my favorite ways to relax on a Friday evening. Doing a SS/FG wheel is easier than most, since you don't have to factor in the dishing.

+1 on doing Sheldon's instruction article. It's very good, just follow the instructions exactly, take your time, take breaks as often as necessary, and just enjoy yourself. The first wheel will take a while. The second will take half as long . . . . . .

And when you're comfortable enough doing it, NOW you've become a real mechanic.

cphfxt

Theres a free calculator for spokelength on DT swiss´s page.

dewthedew

i might take a try at this when i get new hubs.

dwainedibbly

I've built 4 or 5 sets in the last couple of years. It's not hard, it just requires a little patience and research. I find it very relaxing, actually.

pinkrobe

Obligatory +1. It's not that hard to do. Getting the dish right can be a pain, but if the spoke length is bang on, the wheels will effectively dish themselves. The worst time I had was 2-cross on the drive side and radial on the non-drive. I messed up the spoke length on the non-drive side and ended up with a pinwheel effect. It looked cool, but I had to relace it after a couple of years.

mihlbach

Different rims have different spoke tension specifications, but generally speaking, you should aim for about 100kgf or slightly higher for any decent road rim (e.g. mavic or velocity).

Eulogy13x

Thanks! Do you normally have to contact the rim manufacturer for those numbers, then?

bonechilling

You know, it's probably worth pointing out that buying machine-made wheels is almost always cheaper than building your own, and the quality is essentially the same (especially if you have it professionally trued). I'm all for the OP trying to do this himself, because it's rewarding and enjoyable, but if you think you're going to save money doing this, you're probably not.

LóFarkas

Yeah, one more guy here who builds his own wheels using sheldon's guide. If you have patience, some mechanical aptitude and want a wheel setup that's not available off the shelf, then so should you.

xiamsammyx

no one has ever done it ever.