I just built my third set of wheels. My first set was almost 30 years ago, my second about 25 years ago. The first set went away when I sold the bike that they were on. The second set was still being ridden 4 years ago when I crashed, and they are in the garage still in good shape. They contain a 7-speed freewheel, 13-23. Four years ago I bought new rims and spokes, found some 8-speed freehubs and a used cassette, 13x23. I finally decided I would get back on a road bike so I built the new wheels.

My hesitation in building wheels is that it takes me awhile to figure out the lacing pattern, and I want to work slow so I get the lacing right and I want the spokes to start out reasonably even. Then I want some uninterrupted time that I can use for the truing and tensioning.

For this set of wheels I bought the Park tool for measuring tension. I did a little searching trying to find the correct spoke tension range and after awhile I did find enough hints to go on. I managed to get the spoke tensions pretty even all the way around and after 50 miles the wheels seem to be good.

Just for grins I measured the tensions in the wheels that I built 25 years ago and they were fairly good. I also measured the tensions in a set of wheels I bought 23 years ago and they vary quite a bit. I have another freehub and I may rebuild that set of wheels, but I have to find another cassette. The 105 freehub seems to use a different cassette than the Dura-Ace freehub and I'm not sure what to look for.

I think I could build another set of wheels much quicker now, but I would not consider it to be a fun job.