Upgrading R20 to Nexus 8?
 

The eagle eyed amongst you might have spotted a passing reference to some slop in the cranks on my R20 the other day. So, today I spent a while messing about with cotters and replacement crank arms, and dialled all of that out, and whilst I was at it, sorted out the tendency of the chain guard to catch the cranks slightly. I was very happy with my newly sorted out 20 til I noticed a spoke gone on the rear wheel.

Now, here's the quandary. I don't have any wheel building skills, so unlike almost any other problem, this is an "off to the LBS" job. So what I'm wondering is, maybe it's time I learnt to build wheels, and improved my bike at the same time. I probably have a set of BMX rims laying around (or at least, ready to be cut from donor wheels), and I could pick up a Nexus 8 for about £110 off the web, or maybe £75 from eBay, but what am I likely to spend in spokes, should I be buying a wheel building stand to do this, and most of all, are there any obstacles to Nexus 8-ing an R20?

There is a blog with specific details on fitting the R20 with a Nexus 8. Search the forums for the thread to the link. I recall that it required spreading the dropouts and such.

Building the wheels is straightforward. But if you are going to do all of the work and picking up a truing stand (I would get a good one) then why not get a good set of rims instead of something just lying around?

Perhaps you're right. I'm an endemic doer of things on the cheap (my R20 cost £20, and the cotters and ultimately, crank arm that I used in repairing it today were all things I had lying around). I can't see a way of getting a REALLY cheap Nexus 8, which is why I'm thinking of paying full price for once.

Here is a link to the blog invisiblehand was referring to: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?...c_id=2482&v=Fg

Excellent. I knew someone out there would find it in a "jiffy."

Thanks for completing my discussion.

-G