Wheel Building Books

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breakfast2342
Posts: 3
Joined: 16 May 2017, 8:39pm

Wheel Building Books

Post by breakfast2342 »

My first posting after browsing for some months

Some months ago, somebody asked about wheel building.

I have can recommend this book. It is clear in its explanations.

I have seen another books IMHO this book is better,


I have no wheel failures.

POINTS TO REMEMBER

• Lubricate the threads of the spokes to prevent binding

• Tight the nipples small amount each turn

• De-stress the wheels by side force from both sides


https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Building ... L+BUILDING


Building Bicycle Wheels Pamphlet – 1 Jan 1980
by Robert Wright (Author)
• Pamphlet from £11.20
MikeF
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Joined: 11 Nov 2012, 9:24am
Location: On the borders of the four South East Counties

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by MikeF »

It's quite satisfying to build our own wheels. I've no idea how good mine are, but they stay true and the spokes are even tightness.

You can find most of what you want from Sheldon Brown and this forum from posts by 531Colin, Brucey and others and it's free!
How many miles have your wheels travelled?
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
breakfast2342
Posts: 3
Joined: 16 May 2017, 8:39pm

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by breakfast2342 »

MikeF wrote:It's quite satisfying to build our own wheels. I've no idea how good mine are, but they stay true and the spokes are even tightness.

You can find most of what you want from Sheldon Brown and this forum from posts by 531Colin, Brucey and others and it's free!
How many miles have your wheels travelled?
10000s
MikeF
Posts: 4339
Joined: 11 Nov 2012, 9:24am
Location: On the borders of the four South East Counties

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by MikeF »

breakfast2342 wrote:
MikeF wrote:It's quite satisfying to build our own wheels. I've no idea how good mine are, but they stay true and the spokes are even tightness.

You can find most of what you want from Sheldon Brown and this forum from posts by 531Colin, Brucey and others and it's free!
How many miles have your wheels travelled?
10000s
Sounds like they're fine.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
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andrew_s
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Location: Gloucestershire

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by andrew_s »

Would I be too cynical if I wondered whether breakfast2342 and Robert Wright (Author, no previous posts) were one and the same?

The regular recommendations are Roger Musson, or Jobst Brandt if you want all the theory.

• De-stress the wheels by side force from both sides

If you mean laying the wheel flat and leaning on the rim, that slackens the lower spokes enough that any spoke wind up undoes itself, and "de-tinkles" the wheel.

De-stressing the wheel is done by temporarily increasing the spoke tension to near double the normal value, typically by squeezing pairs of spokes together hard mid-span, or by wedging a bit of broom handle or similar into the cross.
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Sweep
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Location: London

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by Sweep »

[quote="andrew_s"]Would I be too cynical if I wondered whether breakfast2342 and Robert Wright (Author, no previous posts) were one and the same?
s.[ quote]
Must admit I wondered the same.
Sweep
pete75
Posts: 16370
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by pete75 »

Sweep wrote:
andrew_s wrote:Would I be too cynical if I wondered whether breakfast2342 and Robert Wright (Author, no previous posts) were one and the same?
s.[ quote]
Must admit I wondered the same.


It appears that book was written in 1980. So 37 years later the author decides to mislead people as to his identity to advertise it here. Really........
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Brucey
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Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by Brucey »

andrew_s wrote:
• De-stress the wheels by side force from both sides

If you mean laying the wheel flat and leaning on the rim, that slackens the lower spokes enough that any spoke wind up undoes itself, and "de-tinkles" the wheel.

De-stressing the wheel is done by temporarily increasing the spoke tension to near double the normal value, typically by squeezing pairs of spokes together hard mid-span, or by wedging a bit of broom handle or similar into the cross.


Leaning on the rim (and walking on the spokes, plus dozens of other variants) also produces an increase in spoke tension and therefore provides a stress relief effect. The problem is that with many of these methods the increase in tension achieved is somewhat variable, varying with the exact method, the rim stiffness, and the chap doing it. Some methods even risk that the wheel suffers a lateral collapse during stress-relief.

I have tried to measure the overload tension produced by leaning on the rim, as achieved by a wheelbuilder local to me, but his method produces only a momentary overload, not long enough to take an accurate measurement.

My thoughts at present are that there are any number of methods that are better than nothing (at worst) and that can produce tolerable wheels (usually). However there are almost certainly some methods that are better/more consistent than others.

cheers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Spinners
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Location: Port Talbot

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by Spinners »

Brucey wrote:
... and the chap doing it.


Sexist pig! :wink:
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tatanab
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Joined: 8 Feb 2007, 12:37pm

Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by tatanab »

breakfast2342 wrote:Building Bicycle Wheels Pamphlet – 1 Jan 1980
I have a copy of that which I must have bought in the 1980's when it was priced at 2.95 USD. I also have some photocopied pages from another book (do not know which) from about the same time. I've been building my own wheels since about 1980.

I found something in the pamphlet which does not work for me , and in my opinion makes building wheels more difficult than necessary. The pamphlet (actually 46 pages long) has you lace one side of the wheel and then the other. This makes threading spokes through in the final pass quite fiddly. My photocopied pages build one direction on each side of the wheel at a time, which I find makes weaving spokes much easier. The pamphlet is still an interesting read, no doubt another version of theories etc in other books.
Brucey
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Re: Wheel Building Books

Post by Brucey »

I've known folk who build wheels regularly who lace them up in almost any way you can think of. In many cases there is no reason for them to do it that way other than that was the way they were shown to start with, and for the sake of an easy life, that is the way they carry on doing it.

Just yesterday I saw a chap (who has been building several wheels a week for most of his adult life) build a 36x3 wheel by lacing one side complete, then fitting the outside spokes on the second flange before fitting the inside spokes on that flange. Needless to say whilst the first 27 spokes went in very easily, the final nine spokes were troublesome to fit, but he didn't look in any way perturbed by this, presumably because that was the way he always did it.

I usually fit all the inside spokes first; this gives you a choice of

a) building a symmetric wheel (eg all outside spokes trailing) provided you are happy to wind the hub up or
b) building an asymmetric wheel without having to wind the hub up.

I normally do the former, but I know of good wheelbuilders who always do the latter.

I will say one thing for lacing one side complete, (or using the latter approach above, come to that) which is that it is normally quite apparent early on if there is a gross error in the spoke length or not.

Having dismantled almost as many wheels as I have ever built, I can report that the wheelbuilding technique is often betrayed by the way the spokes look when you take the wheel apart. To dismantle a wheel, I normally slacken all the spokes to start with (NDS first, in a tight wheel no more than 1/2 turn at a time) and then undo all the leading or all the trailing spokes. If the wheel is built symmetric, it would be all the 'outside' spokes that are undone first, regardless of whether they are leading or trailing. Once these nipples are removed, an axial jiggle of the hub is all that is required to cause the spokes to pop out of the rim and the remaining nipples can then be unscrewed by hand.

If the spokes come out pretty straight then this is a pretty fair sign that the wheel was built by someone that knew what they were doing. If any (otherwise undamaged) spokes come out with distinct curves or bends in them, near the middle, it can mean that one of the less elegant lacing methods was employed, or that those spokes have later been replaced e.g. due to breakage. Close examination of the J bends, the crossings, and the threaded ends can often tell you if the spokes were 'set' to fit properly and/or if there was much stress-relief applied.

cheers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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