DieselDan

How practical would it be for me to buy new spokes and nipples, then relace my wheel one spoke at a time? It sounds time consuming, but I need the experence.

phantomcow2

replace your wheel one spoke at a time? Do you mean rebuilt it with entirely new spokes all at once? Or just as each one breaks. If your buying new spokes and nipples just build it all at once and save yourself the hassle of constantly retruing

supcom

What are you afraid of? Relace it all at once. There's plenty of information on the net to tell you how to create the spoke pattern. If you get hopelessly frustrated with truing, you can always take the wheel to your LBS and let them finish it up for you.

That's the best experience you can get.

phantomcow2

Well in order to not screw up the pattern you can loosen all the spokes and all but instead of taking htem alll out. Remove just one, and replace it, how it was before you removed the old spoke. ANd keep doing that for all however many spokes you've got.

DieselDan

That's my plan. I did NOT misspell "replace". The word is "relace" as intended. How practical is this method?

Retro Grouch 

Well, it would be possible but it's not going to be very practical at all. You are going to have to bend every single spoke, especially the ones that have the heads on the outside of the hub flanges, to get it into it's proper orientation. Not having tried it I don't know for sure, but I suspect that you are going to have a much more difficult time trueing and bringing the spokes up to even tension due because each one will have it's own unique residual curl. I don't see how this experience is going to be very beneficial. I think that it's a bad idea.

I taught a class for wheelbuilders at an LBS where I used to work. My recommendation is to start with medium priced, all brand new components for your first attempt. That way you know that all of the spokes are the same, the hub doesn't have any funky wear patterns, and you have a reasonably rigid and true, eyeletted rim to start with. All of the guys in my class were able to get good results on their first attempt doing it that way. to be honest, I don't think that most of them needed very much input from me.

phantomcow2

I agree entirely. Replacing one by one means you wont mislace (less chance at least) but leads to a whole new set of problems its just not worth it. There are guides out there that teach you to lace, best to follow them and pay close attention as its easy to make a mistake for your first time

Al1943

I've done it that way, once. It's easier and quicker to start from scratch with new components. Lacing is easy if you have step by step instructions, I like Jobst Brandt's best but you could use Sheldon Brown's or Zinn's and get equally good results. Radial truing, tensioning, rim centering, and lateral truing require more skill and patience.

Al

powers2b

Just de-spoke the wheel first and have another wheel sitting next to you for reference while you relace the wheel.
It is important to get the cross/lace pattern correct (a common newbie mistake).

Enjoy

DieselDan

Sounds like a good plan, as my front wheel isn't as bad off as my rear. My biggest fear is getting the lacing pattern wrong and making a bigger mess. I could fork over $60 to my LBS and get the wheelsmith there to do the job. I would have to take the wheel to the LBS to get the dishing correct.

Rev.Chuck

Lace it from scratch. The only time I do the one spoke at a time deal is when someone wants a rim replaced but no t new spokes. It is a pain. It takes longer than starting with bare parts.

buy a cheap stand, it will make the job a lot easier. You can dish it in the stand by flipping the wheel 180 and checking against the same guide everytime.

DieselDan

I dropped the wheel off at my LBS, and he's charging me for parts only, but I had to assemble a Trek Pilot and an Electra Townie, then fix three flats.