One mans junk, another mans treasure - and wheel building

CheGuedara

Hey guys,

I've inherited a wheel (mavic 717 on Shimano XT disc hub) from a workmate who cracked the rim and decided to just Wiggle a new wheel rather than rebuild on a new rim.

So I've taken the wheel apart cleaned up the hub and checked out CRC and the DT calculator to sus out rebuilding it myself. Thinkin of trying lacing on a 717 disc rim.

I've no experience but seen the recent guide to wheel building on Bikeradar and was wondering if anyone here on the boards would have any experience & gems of advice they might share with me:D

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Sheldon Brown has a pretty comprehensive guide on his site.

stuf

Handy thread here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055351159

Google the Roger Musson book - personally after my experience of building I wish I'd paid a pro to do it for me. The wheels are good but the cost of the truing stand and buying spokes at retail price was just silly. Saying that, I really enjoyed the process of the build. Would also ignore the Musson advice about using oil and no threadlock but the cotton bud nipple driver is a must.

Unless you want to build loads of wheels I wouldn't bother just for one.

flickerx

I've been getting more into the wheel building, I've built a few now (all admittedly front wheels or with flip-flop rear hubs) and getting better each time, ironing out all the little kinks quite well. I've been reading The Bicycle Wheel which is really hardcore, but there's some good tips in there. Sheldon's pages are a good starting point (they were mine too).

I can see myself getting fully into it with time once my collarbone/steel plate is completely healed, its difficult to do it at the moment. I like the idea of re-using everything where possible, hubs, rims, spokes, nipples. When I was selling self built fixies, the costs were pushed up all the time with new components, but now I know how to use the older parts better, I can see extra €€€€€ dancing in front of me... its all aboot the margins...

stuf

flickerx wrote: »

its all aboot the margins...

picking up the accent eh?

penexpers

I tried it before. The lacing was simple enough but I could never get the wheels tensioned properly. I ended up leaving the wheels into my LBS because I was driving myself mad.

Get the Roger Musson book - it's really good and not expensive at all.

stuf

penexpers wrote: »

I tried it before. The lacing was simple enough but I could never get the wheels tensioned properly.

next time I'm going to find my guitar tuner and use that - lots cheaper than a park tools tension meter and does the same job

rflynnr

I recently rebuilt a rear wheel for my commuter for the first time with a degree of success and without buying a truing stand. Instead I widened an old front fork a couple of mm and placed the wheel in that, then used zip ties to measure lateral "trueness" (?) and "roundness". In theory you could achieve something similar using the bike frame itself. I forgot to read the bit in Sheldon about the need to dish the wheel to take account of the cassette and having achieved a fairly true and round wheel had to readjust every single spoke but the final, final result has served me fairly well.

In fairness, this was all done using fairly cheap components: a Tiagra hub, no-name spokes and Alex rim and I'd be loathe to do it with a road wheel where imperfections in the build would be much more evident. I should also say that I've been truing my own wheels on the frame for about a decade and have developed a certain feel for how they should be tensioned. However, as a learning exercise about how wheels work, nothing beats building one from scratch. DO be prepared to give up an entire day to the exercise though: it requires infinite patience.

Morgan

CheGuedara wrote: »

So I've taken the wheel apart cleaned up the hub and checked out CRC and the DT calculator to sus out rebuilding it myself. Thinkin of trying lacing on a 717 disc rim.

Bit late now, but the easiest thing would have been to leave the wheel intact and just transfer the spokes to a new rim.

http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/3066

Here's an article on building from scratch:
http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/3308

As mentioned previously, the Roger Musson book is well worth getting
http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

CheGuedara

Cheers lads, I'm gonna check out those books and sites and move on from there once I think I know what I'm doing.

It seems like proper preparation in reading up, getting the spokes etc right, the patience of a particularly patient saint and many cups of tea are the key to doing the job and not going mad in the process.

Having seen that one about swapping the spokes over was a serious 'D'oh!' moment though...Still it'll be a learning experience

barrabus

there a couple of demonstration videos on youtube that you might find useful.

CheGuedara

Just ressurecting this old thread for a second. Thanks again to all for their suggestions they were very helpfull.

Finally got the finger out there in the early part of the month and started work. Managed to get a matching front hub (CRC flood sale) and bode my time looking for spokes and rims getting DT Swiss competition DB and 317 disc rims and eventually got them a reasonable price.

So then began the work, sat down with a cup of tea, 4 glasses of spokes and Sheldon on the Laptop and got stuck in. And it wasn't the entirely dark art that it's often made of it, had the first laced up in about an hour, the second in maybe 45 minutes. Tensioning was grand but the real trick is the centering and truing. That's a complete bugger if you're just doing it on a bike frame & forks but I gave it a fair lash and it turned out alright. Still brought them into my LBS to have them properly assessed (the owner is a wheel building expert). They weren't perfect but close enough and got a confidence inspiring 9/10.

If anyone else is/was thinking about giving wheel building a go - I say give it a go, there's a good sense of reward when you see your end result and it's a really good way of getting to grips with how to fix buckles properly as well.

Now I've two sets of wheels, need to sell one... boardsies get the heads up before adverts. Mavic Crossride Disc (6 bolt) @ €120 or these 317 Disc on XT (centre lock) for €110.