Last night I built my first wheel from scratch. And it just so happens to be a light-generating (shimano) dynohub, so the outcome is extra-fun.

The parts:



A few minutes later, and the wheel is starting to take shape:



This pic is with the right side done, just starting on the left side:



Ta da! Using a truing-stand that the LBS let me borrow, the 2nd part of the wheel-build commenced: truing:



The finished product - A Schmidt E6 lamp attached to my shiny new wheel/hub:



And the light, you ask? How's the actual lighting? Holy sh1t, the Schmidt E6 lamp is insane! I almost felt embarrassed rolling down Broadway with what probably looks like a scooter headlight strapped to my bike! It certainly lights up the road no problem. And the drag is minimal, you don't even feel it when rolling.

For night-commutes and overnight Brevets, this thing will be perfect! No longer will I be squinting into the darkness to try to make out my weak LED's light on the ground. No longer will cars in the distance be wondering if they see a fire-fly up ahead. They'll know that this is some kind of moving vehicle - even from up to 1/4 mile away, from what I hear!

Bring on the night!

sweet!

Great job.

Man... that looks like a fun project to take on! I've been kind of intimidated by the folks who talk about tensiometer this... and nipple matching that... did you have to use any of that specialized stuff?

And you built a nice looking wheel... about how long did it take you?

i didn't have a tension thingy, i was just squeezing the spokes to see if they all felt about the same (squeezing two crossing spokes together). to lace it all i needed was a spoke wrench and a screwdriver (something to hold the nipples).

that was the easier part - it took about 30 minutes. truing the damn thing is what's hard. i spent probably an hour and a half messing with it, trying to get the rim exactly round.

i rode the finished product back to the lbs for a little inspection, and he said the spokes were too loose! luckily i didn't hit any big potholes on the way in..

Good job.

I highly recommend the Park Tools tensionmeter. It was invaluable to me when I built a set of wheels last year. Reasonably priced too. By the way it took me over 12 hours to true that first set!!!! Damn rim seam....

12 hours?
$100+ in tools?

Maaan. I should have only read the first post. I think I'm gonna stick to paying $40 to have it done.

Congrats on the generator. Every time my batteries get super-cold and my light goes dim, I get closer to buying a generator wheel. I should have done it months ago but I've been angy with myself for dropping so much coin on bikes over the last year.

Sweet. I just got a truing stand specifically so that I can learn some wheel building. Tensionometer sounds like a good thing to have, too, but we'll see. Hopefully I'll be building some up my first wheels in the next couple of months. I could pay to have it done, but I figure $100 in tools will pay for itself if I build at least three wheels, and I'm sure to need at least two Plus I've already been using the truing stand just to straighten out my current rims, although I've heard it said that a decently built set of wheels won't need trued nearly so often, but if my truing stand gathers dust because my wheels are too straight, I guess I can live with that. But really with my current wheels, they seem to go out of tru plenty and pop spokes too often, too. I've already spent what I paid for the truing stand in wheel truing fees at the lbs, so the stand should pay for itself in no time.

What did you use to guide you? I see a very good write up on Sheldon Brown's site, but I figure for a first wheel build, I need all the info I can get.

Anyhow, great job. Knowing that someone can build up a decent wheel on your first try gives me a little more confidence as I head into my first build.

Congratulations, Mattm. I did my first set last summer- Shimano dyno and Nexus 8. I used the frame as a stand and used the "pluck and listen" method to get the tension even. I don`t have an odometer or computer on that bike, but I would estimate about 1000mi on the wheels with one problem. I ran off the lip at the edge of the road one night and tried to get back on without slowing down enough, bumped, slid did crazy acrobatics and ended up with the back rim slightly bent and gouged. I had to sand and retrue the rim when I got home, may have had to do it anyway, but I kind of think it was just due to that incedent. I used a combination of Sheldon Brown and this site:
https://miketechinfo.com/new-tech-wheels-tires.htm
For anyone else thinking about building a wheel or two, I recomend at least giving it a read-through. If you have a truing stand and tensionometer, great. If not, don`t worry about it- just due it by ear and bring it by the mechs at your LBS when you`re done. You get a perfect chance to show off your work while you`re at it! As for saving money, the pros do it so fast that they don`t have to charge much for labor ($30-$40?) and they probably buy spokes and nipples in bulk, so it cost me about the same to build my own as if I had ordered the whole wheel but I enjoyed it and learned a lot. Remember that spokes and nipples add about a Dollar each to the price of your build.

EDIT: Anybody up in the air and torturing yourself as to whether to try your hand at wheel building, I recommend you read up and go for it! The worst that could happen is you start on it and get so frustrated that you have to take it in and have a pro finish the job. What do you lose there? If it works out, you get the satisfaction of a nice DIY job, you learn a lot, and you save money (not much). Note that truing stands and tensionometers are accessories that can be easily done without. The only tool you really NEED is a ten Dollar spoke wrench.

Many congrats! Looks great.

I have a generator light. My light's fine and I don't mind the tire driven dynamo. Works fine when it's nice out--but the issue is that it doesn't work for long in the rain or snow. That's a problem--usually it gets darker when it's raining and that's the time I need light. So your wheel build is of interest. I might take on such a task next fall.

i used a wheel-building book by schraner as a guide - no way i would've figured out the spoke patterns without it! looks like sheldon's site has good material on wheel-building, it's probably the same info.

and rodar's right that you don't need a truing stand or tensionmeter to do any of this, really just a spoke wrench. when the lbs guy ended up re-truing the wheel, he just plucked the spokes to check the tension. but the lbs also had a dish-checking tool that i'm not about to buy (but it's still useful), so i definitely suggest bringing any new wheelbuilds into the lbs for a checkup.

also it sounds like building up a rear wheel is much more difficult, so i'll probably just let the lbs do that one when the time comes.

Looks great! Appears the Shimano hub takes the same length spokes on each side? I had a wheel built up for a Sturmey Archer Dynohub & it required shorter spokes on one side due to the high flange.

I thought the same thing, and last night I broke down and ordered a truing stand. My problem is that I'm a big Sasquatch-sized guy and I have a few gnarly hills on my commute. The kind of hills that involve me standing and really swinging the bike side-to-side if I'm powering up them. I'd go broke if I had to spend $40 every time my wheels needed truing (which is about once every 2 weeks.)

I'm also going to give a shot at building my own wheels. I want to build a set to convert my PDG-Series 5 to a fixed gear for the velodrome this summer, and I'd like a second pair for my Cross-Check; maybe something in a more aero-profile, like an Alex DA28 for longer distance rides. (Possibly with a lower spoke count, like 28 or 24 when I get down to my target weight.)

I just ordered the disk version from Jenson. I think that the non-disk takes the same size spokes on both sides. For my set-up, the disk version should be 289mm and 289.7mm. I'm planning on using the same spokes on both sides. My take is that a tensionometer and truing stand are good tools to have for wheel maintenance anyway.
I'm considering building up a nexus 8 wheel to go with it on a IRO Rob Roy in honor of the late S. Brown - based on his San Jos8 and IRO Jamie Roy.

Good job! I too recently completed a build with a Shimano dynohub. :-) Cool things.

I've found plucking the spokes is the best way to determine even tension. How to determine where max tension is a different matter and I usually use an existing wheel to get an idea of the correct pitch. Seeming to prefer the risk of over tensioning to lower tensioning I've never had a problem with any wheel I've ever build, including the very first one.

Dynohubs rule!

Mmmm! …nice job! God, that looks like an aircraft landing light!

Rob_E, very cool avatar!

- Wil

You should see the amount of light it throws on the ground! The E6 focuses the brightest part of the beam into a box shape on the ground, eerily coffin-shaped.

So far i love this hub/light setup, and the wheel is working out great too. I was afraid the hub would have too much drag or be feel too heavy, but i don't really notice it at all.

Nice build.

I don't have any of the tools so I just lace my wheels up and take them to my friendly LBS. I've laced four wheeels up now - three which have dynohubs and one fixed gear.

I like dynohubs very much. Low drag, light always available, quiet and so stylish as well.

Anybody know how bright the standard Lumotec is?

https://www.velociped.ch/docs/Dynamo-...leich_2008.pdf

Comparison of a bunch of dyno-lights. The B&M Lumotech round is 2nd to bottom on the list.

List shows (top to bottom) LED lights, brightest to not; Halogen lamps, brightest to not. The E6 lamp is hella brighter than the B&M Lumotech, largely because of the focusing optics keeping the output concentrated to an effective area.

I don't have objective measures, but I have been running a standard Lumotec with my dynohub. About 1/2 of my ride is on unlit roads. It provides enough light to avoid potholes and branches but not so much that I can see the tiniest road debris. I am confident with it, however. I just added a second Lumotec standard but don't feel it was absolutely necessary. The dynohub *can* power two lights simultaneously.

On unlit roads oncoming car's headlights overpower my light and make it more difficult to see obstacles. But I still like the setup. The good news is the lights are under $20. After I stopped night mountain bike riding I am so glad that I no longer need lights which cost 3 figures. Outrageous.

The only issue I have with lower output lights is high-speed downhills. I'm upgrading my lighting kit because my current 13W L&M Solo isn't putting out a strong/far enough beam for me on the unlit winding downhills on my commute. If you're keeping the speed more around 15mph, then it's not an issue. When you've got some downhills where your computer registers 35mph+ and you've been riding your brakes most of the way, stronger/long-throw lights are in order.

I'm usually doing 18-20 on the flats with no problems in the lighting department. On fast downhills I take the lane to give myself more maneuver room. I have two two-mile long hills that I can get cooking on. Now with two lights, I angle one higher than the other. Not a problem for me. Mounting position--fork vs handlebars can also affect road vis too.

When I started using the dynohub, I kept my battery light mounted just in case. I've now weaned myself off of it.

Sounds similar to my commute. 17mph, rolling route, and a 2.25 mile downhill (Novelty Hill, if I go that route. Trilogy Hill and Woodinville-Duvall Hill going the other route in.) My problem isn't manouverability room, since there's almost no traffic when I'm out. My problem is reaction time. The beam on my light isn't strong enough far enough ahead to give me ample reaction time to hazards.

Look here:
/www.peterwhitecycles.com/headlights.asp
This particular beamshot isn`t very helpful, but I think he has better comparisons somewhere on his website- I just don`t want to spend all day searching the site with my dialup connection.

My personal experience has been very close to what was posted above. Up to say 15 or 20 MPH, the Lumotec pretty much does the trick. I don`t feel comfortable going faster than that because I can`t see far enough ahead to be able to avoid anything. Also, when cars go by even with their lights dimmed, I lose my night vision for a spell and have a rough time. My solution is to keep a battery powered "helper" light on the bike for when I want a little more light. I tried 20W MR-16 first and it was too bright (I couldn`t see after I went from 20W to 3W) so I special ordered some 10W lamps and it works out much better for me. I kind of think an E6 secondary with an always on Lumotec would be better than what I did, but I`m not going to shell out for one now that I have my solution.