You successfully rebuild your first wheel! Talk about gratifying

Went through the hub last week. Cleaned, greased & new bearings. Left a hint of play in the adjustment that gets taken up when the QR is closed. Spinning them by hand, I can read a very slight bit of “roughness.” But spinning them mounted to the frame, they still go long & come to a slow rocking stop, valve hole always on top. I think that’s smooth enough for my needs.

As far as the spokes & rim goes, the wheel was fairly straight & round to begin with, but tensions were all over the place & extremely high in some areas. I decided to completely loosen the wheel. Once everything was totally slack, I removed nipples one at a time & gave each one & the threads of their respective spokes a good wetting with some Tenacious Oil.

The wheel was rebuilt right to left, bringing the drive side up to within ~60% of its target tension while leaving the non-drive side loose. Then, using the loaded drive side spokes, I checked for radial trueness, and made the few necessary small adjustments.

Next step was to bring the non-drive under tension which brought the drive side leftwards towards center & within the dish zone. This step also gave the benefit of further loading the drive side spokes with additional tension.

Finishing steps included dialing the rim in for dead on dish smack dab in the middle of the lock nuts. And finally, adjustments for radial trueness.

The results? A round wheel within 0.55 mm of true & lateral straightness within 0.25 mm

Drive side is ~110 kgf tension while the non-drive is ~65 kgf. All spokes are dialed in to within + - 10% values for their respective side.

And the kicker? Besides the fact that I almost paid the LBS to do this job? I did it by using a chair with a pair of straps as a make shift bike stand. The frame as a trueing stand along with feeler gauges & zip ties as indicators. And three soup cans as a dishing tool! Oh yea... an iPhone app for a tension meter.

Nicely done. The feeling will come back every time you ride those wheels too!

I have have two wheel set builds under my belt now. I rode my Cinelli with my first built set a couple of days ago - still look good, ride nicely and perfectly true after a few hundred miles. Yup, feels good.

Even though I don't look forward to the job when the time comes, I must admit that you are right. The feeling is very gratifying, perhaps even more so when one makes good use of improvised tools (or canned goods).



I'm stealing that idea.

Did you pull all the spokes from the hub?

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Thank you. It’s on to the front wheel now. Hopefully I’ll be mounting tires on them tomorrow. I hope they hold up as well as yours have so far!

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Ha! The cans worked great. I found the idea here in the forums while searching out the subject of dishing. Found a great thread on DIY dishing tools. Another reason BF & it’s members are indispensable!

I only pulled the nipples

Seriously, I left the spokes on the hub. I loosened all spokes completely, and then pulled & replaced nipples for lubing one at a time.

Well done! Especially with home-available makeshift implements. A win is a win! I just got done building a wheelset from scratch, solo. First time solo, which was met with a bit of trepidation. Having done another set with a good friend (and having him on speed dial essentially, if needed), I had confidence. The wheels built up beautifully, and I'm more of an assembler and tuner as opposed to wheel-builder etc.

Congrats on your first solo wheelset! I know that feeling of trepidation all too well, and I’m glad any of us who have faced it were able to step forward with the task. I understand the need for having support as well. I took some confidence knowing the forum was available. I also knew I could utilize my LBS or the co-op if things went awry.

I gotta say, despite all the hesitation to to take the job on, once in, it was actually quite fun, and one hell of a learning experience too!

I really like to build wheels while I catch a flick on the TV. It does take time to learn about what to do and then how to do it.

For those of you who have tried, good for you.

For those who have tried and succeeded, great for you.

And for those who have tried, succeeded and then ridden a dependable wheel set - well done, you are now a wheel builder who others will revere with a small degree of envy and respect.

Not sure how many kilometers on my last wheel set but I do know that the wheels, after three or four thousand kilometers were in no need of truing until a spoke went "ping" on the rear wheel. Took a couple of minutes to road true the wheel and then rode the bike home gingerly. After a week or two of ginger riding, my confidence in my 35 spoke rear wheel grew and, before long, I was once again zooming on the lonely roads of Jamaica...

This. I finally got around to measuring for two wheelsets, yesterday. I'd been procrastinating for a good six months.

You'll never forget the first time.........

Bill

Good job....and I especially liked the kicker! You are a good raconteur.

I hope I never have to do this

Yay!


Welcome to the club.

Great jorb man, and thanks for the grease!