Originally Posted by
on the path
Dear Scrod - I just trued up the wheels on my SS and I have to say that I'm surprised and pleased at how well they came out. Q - is lacing up from scratch the next logical progression, or something that's extremely difficult to get right the first time? And, what is the step up in degree of difficultly going from a symmetrical to a dished configuration?
I'm a pretty good mechanic and I'm seriously thinking of building a set of wheels. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.
After gaining a solid understanding for the physics behind truing a wheel, building from scratch isn't rocket science and pretty low-stress if you take your time, have decent wheelbuilding tools and do everything correctly. Building a wheel with an offset dish is honestly no more difficult than one with zero offset - as long as your spoke lengths are correct.
I strongly suggest picking up a copy of
The Art of Wheelbuilding by Gerd Schraner. The alternative lacing method found in that book makes the process a walk in the park and the entire book is very detailed without going into overly-lengthy engineering explanations and reading like a tech manual like some other books on the subject.
Also,
this spoke calculator has yet to be incorrect on calculations for any of the wheels I've built.