How hard is it to build a wheel for your first time?
 

I'd really like to build my fixed gear wheelset but I'm a bit apprehensive about whether or not I can do it correctly. I know how to true wheels just fine, but building... it's a little intimidating.

How hard is it for someone to build a wheelset correctly their first time?

It's really not that hard, but will take a bit of patience. Get a decent book on building (like Jobst Brandt's Bicycle Wheel and follow the instructions. Patience will come when tensioning, dishing and truining. As long as you take small increment adjustments, you will be fine. Nothing more satisfying than riding on wheels you built.

When I built my first wheels, I had another wheel of like pattern in front of me so I could see what things needed to look like. It really helped.

Your first build will probably be serviceable but not stellar. It's not hard but it's not trivial either. Your second build will probably still be in just the 'okay' category. By your 10th wheel you'll start to get the hang of it.

I'd suggest getting an old wheel, take it apart, relace and rebuild, and then take it for a short spin. Take it home and do it again...maybe even a couple of times. Then try a new wheel with new components. The old wheel will give you a feel for what you need to do before you risk expensive stuff;)

I had someone who knew how to build wheels showing me the first time, then he had me do the second on my own. The next couple of wheels I built had me back tracking a little here and there, but never to the point of messing the wheel up. Read up on it and give it a try.

I'm going to disagree, at least to a point.

Using an old wheel to practice laceing (getting the spokes into the right pattern) has some merit.

The real wheelbuilding art, tensioning and trueing, doesn't start until the spokes are all in place. You probably won't get very much effective practice with used or cheap components because they aren't straight to start with. My advice is to not fear using a medium priced rim, like a Sun Rhyno Lite or a Velocity Dyad for your first wheelbuilding effort.

I'd actually counter that by saying if you can true and tension an old wheel, truing and tensioning a new wheel will seem easy.

Agree. If you have the skills to true, then go for it.

The only new skill to learn is lacing a wheel, and either you get it right or wrong (and its pretty easy to tell), theres no real skill or feel to lacing like truing a wheel requires.

When you go to start tensioning, work on out of round first. Once its round and has some tension, then put in the dish (for the rear) and then work on the lateral true. Last thing is final tension which is pretty easy. Once you have the wheel round, dished and lateral, then just turning each spoke by the same, small amount will bring the tension up. Once you have final tension, then stress and touch up the lateral true until you can stress the wheel very hard and the true stays put.

Be patient. It will take you about two hours your first time. If you try to go fast, it will take much longer. It's not hard, just a lot of steps.

That's like saying that after riding a 5 hr. century on some Huffy thing, riding a 5 hr. century on a Madone will seem easy.

You disagree with that?

good book is:

The Art of Wheel Building
Gerd Schraner

It's not hard to make a good wheel but you probably won't match the quality of a pro-built one. Also, don't expect to save too much money. Most of the cost of the wheel is in the parts, not the labor.

I'd do it. It's a rewarding feeling riding your on own wheels and you'll definately learn a lot about what makes some wheels better than others.

For a beginner, it's time-consuming but not difficult.

Thousands of people have learned wheelbuilding from my online article:

http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild

It's a very rewarding skill to master, go for it!

Sheldon "Wheels" Brown

Yep,

I used Sheldon's online article and used my just serviced Phil Woods 32 hole front and rear hubs, some Mavic Open Pro rims, 14 ga. double butted spokes, and alloy nipples. I used a Minoura truing stand that I mounted dial indicators on, and I made my own dishing tool. It was a very rewarding task, but I tend to enjoy little fiddly things like this. My wife would watch for a few minutes and walk away shaking her head!

The best advice I could give is to second the benefit of having a model wheel in front of you. I would also suggest you get the best spoke wrench you can, because alloy nipples can be fragile.

DPN

Spokey, a very good spoke wrench, especially for alloy nipples:



http://www.jensonusa.com/store/produ...le+Wrench.aspx

My wife calls it knitting for men.

Hehe, I like that. I really like the Gert Schraner method in his book. Makes the spoking easy to keep track of, even if you have to put down the wheel for a little while to let your eyes re-focus.

The best tip I can offer, as someone who has now built about 10 wheels is to be sure to get all of the nipples threaded on to the same place before you start tensioning. If you don't, the radial truing will be next to impossible. If you can find one, the nipple drivers that have the little pin in the middle will automatically pop out at the same place on every spoke. Otherwise, try to have the same number of threads showing on every spoke.

Also a good truing stand will make a big difference. I like the Park TS-2.

I just rebuilt my first wheel the other day. I bought a used old Trek and decided to tear the rear wheel apart to clean it and service the hubs. I read Sheldon's article as well as some info in a book I have.

I do recommend taking it slow. I first tried to tighten the spokes by a lot. This was no good, so I started over with little adjustments and it all went well. I now have confidence to do the front wheel. And I might even to build my own wheels in the future.

THe one time i tried building a wheel i used your website, and one side came out right, the other didn't, but i don't think that its your directions, because i have used others and that didn't work either. Once i was able to build a two cross for some reason

Lacing standard 3-cross is easy if you have good instructions. I use Jobst Brandt's instructions from his book "The Bicycle Wheel", but Sheldon's instructions are also good and will produce in the same wheel.
Lacing is actually easier than truing. Radial truing and rim centering (dishing) require more skill. I dish by repeatedly reversing the wheel on the stand, I find that easier and quicker and just as accurate as a dishing tool.
I also use a tension meter but I think a good wheel can be built without a tension meter.
I recommend that you be sure to use a good spoke wrench, one that grips the nipple all the way around. Wrenches are color coded for different sizes, you need one that fits the nipples snuggly. I use Spokey red or for larger nipples, yellow. I've never stripped the shoulders on an alloy nipple with a Spokey wrench.

Al

I just built my first wheel last night. A 600 hub laced with DT Swiss DB spokes to a Matrix Iso-CII Aero rim. It was actually really fun.

All I used was a spoke wrench, screwdriver and a flipped over bike. No truing stand. Turned out pretty darn well. Tension is pretty even, and just as high as my pro-built wheels.

Its laterally in true under 1mm. Radially it might be 1 off or so, but I'm working on that. Dishing wasnt nearly as hard as I figured it would be. I just eyed everything up.

Surprisingly, I brought it to my local wheel builder to check over, and he didnt even charge me saying it was good to go.

Thanks Sheldon Brown!

I just finished building my first wheelset which I was inspired to undertake at Sheldon Browns suggestion on the above mentioned wheelbuilding site of his. I also have Zinn & the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance which has a good section on the process. Both are good and helped my confidence even before beginning. I built the front using the Zinn step-by-step then the rear one by using Sheldons step-by-step. See some pics on my blog at wmodavis.blogspot.com. There's other stuff to weed through but look for the title "Leases, Visas, Bikes and The Likes". Just Do It!

This is all very encouraging, folks. I'm expecting my wheel building goodies here by Wednesday and am looking forward to putting a 40-year-old Sturmey Archer in a nice, modern rim.