Which is the best and easiest way to lace a wheel? I've read all three ways offered by Gerd Schraner, Todd Downs and Sheldon. I tried Schraner's this afternoon and seemed to have quite the battle. Granted, this is my first time out, and I know there's a learning curve, but I'm not sure his is the easiest way.

Do all three ways all wind up with the exact same pattern and the spokes in the same places?

32 spokes 3x, front hub I'm working on.

Maybe you want to further muddy the waters by looking at Jobst Brandt's book, The Bicycle Wheel?

...... or watch the video "Bicycle Wheel Building 101" They have some neat tricks. The way that works best for you is the way you will do it. They all basically end up the same. I learned from the Jobst Brandt book and I figure why switch - it works for me.

I learned from sheldon, but I know lace the hub first, then put all the spokes into the rim. Just easier for me.

That's how I usually do it, but I was building my last wheelset (Kings laced to DT Swiss 5.1) and the king eyelets were super tight, not really letting the spokes just dangle, so I ended up scratching my rim all up from the end of the spokes

Built a second wheel today, rear wheel 32 3x.
Just followed the Zin & Art of Road Bike Maintenance wheel building chapter. It has great illustrations that help a lot.

I learned from Sheldon's page. One spoke, one nipple at a time. Works for me.

I've followed Jobst Brandt's lacing procedure and had no problems. For a 32° rim, he has you place the spokes in groups of 8 (half of each flange's holes) at a time and connect them to the rim then do the next group of 8. Worked fine.

Ok, now I answered my own question. I took the wheel apart after realizing it was too big a mess, and redid it using Sheldon's info. Went together in a half hour and looks pretty good before I've even started to really true it.

Pretty sure I would never use the Schraner method again. Also did some research on the web, and lots of others seem to have the same complaint.

Anybody read the book by Roger Musson: Wheel Building?

I prefer Schraner's method, but Wheelsmith's nipple driver is an indispensable tool (the nipple is held onto the pen-sized driver by a spring-and-catch mechanism until you pull the driver off the threaded nipple). Even really deep rims aren't difficult to lace with it.

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Musson's book seems to ahve some good tips as well, but I haven't built from it. Recently I was planning to build, but I'm buying custom instead.

Road Fan