Cycling UK Forum

I did my first wheel build last night using the Sheldon Brown article:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

I honestly can't recommend this article enough as I was really nervous about doing my first wheel build and following this article made the job so much easier.

From a cost perspective this option was only marginally cheaper than buying a new wheel but I wanted to re-use my rim and also I simply wanted to have a go. I was upgrading to a freehub, reusing a 36h 26" rim and opting for a 3 - cross pattern

I measured the hub and rim dimensions carefully and used 3 different online calculators and they all recommended 250 and 252 mm spokes.

When it came to lacing I simply followed the article to the letter and it took about half an hour to complete.

The truing and tensioning process was done on the frame. Dishing was just about spot on already and the whole thing was trued and tensioned in about 40 minutes.

After admiring my work I poured myself a nice glass of wine and raised a toast to the great Sheldon Brown!!

Congratulations to both of you.

Jonathan

Well done!

Best lacing instruction is this.
Works for 28h and 32h too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIU6mi0K4Y4

Cool! I have to agree with both sentiments - i) that Sheldon was the greatest and ii) there's a great deal of satisfaction to be had from building one's own wheels.

I learned from Robert Wright's book. Job Brandt's gave me the theory, but the practice is all.

I use Sheldon as well. I do enough wheels to just about remember but if there is a long gap I might need a nudge and Sheldon does it.

I prefer:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/bicycles ... /index.htm

I must say, that early on in my wheelbuilding, I used SB, but latterly used Youtube as I linked above.

Constructing a wheel needs to be correct. Tightening and tensioning is obvious (to me at least) but getting the pattern correct and the valve hole in the correct position is the hard bit ............ for me at least.

Watch this.
Simple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIU6mi0K4Y4

David9694 wrote: ↑18 Jul 2021, 9:21am I prefer:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/bicycles ... /index.htm

I may have missed it when I just skimmed through this article, but it may omit what I consider to be one of the most important steps to a long lived wheel, that is stress relief.

Jobst Brandt from the mid-eighties for me, and more recently Roger Musson too.

Mick F wrote: ↑18 Jul 2021, 3:22pm Watch this.
Simple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIU6mi0K4Y4

But she forgot to say "align the hub so that at the end you can read the writing on the hub through the valve hole". Omit this crucial step at your peril! (Of course if there is no writing on the hub then it does not matter a jot)

Still a good visual demonstration for a wheel-lacing.
I reckon the lacing is the difficult/complicated part. Tightening, truing, and stress-relieving etc are intuitive ............. or at least they are to me.

I did watch that video before the build and it was really clear.

One thing I noticed was that the goles in the rim were not staggered, unlike those referred to in the articles. I decided to make my key spoke the one from the drive side to the right of the valve hole and the other spokes seem to line up fine.

I did use my MTB for the commute today just to test the wheel and it got me there and back in 1 piece. I even rode it down a flight of stairs!