Wheel building

For discussions about bikes and equipment.
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fausto99
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Location: NW Kent

Re: Wheel building

Post by fausto99 »

richardfm wrote: 29 May 2022, 11:38pm I started here
https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php
+1 for this. I bought the book and built my own trueing stand from the plans in it.
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simonineaston
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Re: Wheel building

Post by simonineaston »

Beginners, 'specially folks as is rebuilding an existing wheel, can get away with using the cycle as the stand for the rebuild.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
DevonDamo
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Re: Wheel building

Post by DevonDamo »

slowster wrote: 30 May 2022, 1:20pmThe Wheelpro book is a better step by step guide for a complete novice, and contains some very useful information and guidance which you do not get from the Park Tool videos.
I was an absolute novice when I built my two wheels using the Park Tools guide and it was plain-sailing. I don't know what I don't know, so which useful info/guidance is lacking? (From a discussion I had on here at the time, I can say their video could definitely do with a clearer how/why on stress-relieving spokes.)
slowster
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Re: Wheel building

Post by slowster »

DevonDamo wrote: 30 May 2022, 2:26pm I was an absolute novice when I built my two wheels using the Park Tools guide and it was plain-sailing.
Based on your thread at the time, it did not seem to me much like plain sailing.
DevonDamo wrote: 30 May 2022, 2:26pm I don't know what I don't know, so which useful info/guidance is lacking?
Tensioning by tone, which is the method explained in Jobst Brandt's and Roger Musson's books, and which I suspect Park Tool deliberately did not include because it would undermine sales of their tensiometer.
Carlton green
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Re: Wheel building

Post by Carlton green »

Yep, tension by tone has served me well over the decades. Other solutions are available but to my mind they’re best left to professional builders.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
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simonineaston
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Re: Wheel building

Post by simonineaston »

I'm almost tempted to post a video of the two wheels I just built for my most recent rebuild... not to crow, but just to show what can be done by ordinary folk.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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warey4life
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Re: Wheel building

Post by warey4life »

simonineaston wrote: 30 May 2022, 3:17pm I'm almost tempted to post a video of the two wheels I just built for my most recent rebuild... not to crow, but just to show what can be done by ordinary folk.
Go on, I'm interested 👍
scottg
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Joined: 10 Jan 2008, 8:44pm
Location: Highland Heights Kentucky,, USA

Re: Wheel building

Post by scottg »

The blog at Wheel Fanatyk has lots of good info.

https://wheelfanatyk.com/

I used Sheldon Brown to start, then the Zinn book.
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Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG
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NickJP
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Re: Wheel building

Post by NickJP »

When I started building wheels as a young bloke about 45 years ago, the only tool I used was a spoke key. I bought a hub and rim and used the copy of Sutherlands at my LBS to determine what length of spokes I needed. I used an existing wheel as a guide to see how the spokes were interlaced, and used my bike frame as a truing stand - once I had spoked the wheel and applied a small amount of tension to the spokes, I fitted the wheel in the frame, taped a piece of card across the fork blades/seatstays just above the rim, and used that to remove both lateral and radial runout. To get the correct dish, rotate the wheel so the valve hole is at the card, use a pencil to mark where the edge of the rim is, then flip the wheel around and repeat. Half way between the two marks is where the edge of the rim needs to be, and if the card is positioned just above the rim, you can easily see if there is any radial runout.

It wasn't until I'd been building wheels on and off for about 20 years, during which time I must have built a couple of dozen pairs of wheels, that I finally bought a truing stand and tensiometer, though I'd never had any problems with the wheels I built prior to that - some of them I'm still riding.

There are good spoke length calculators available on the Internet these days - I like the DT Swiss calculator at https://spokes-calculator.dtswiss.com/en/, as it can also calculate spoke lengths for straight pull wheel builds, of which I've built about half a dozen.
Last edited by NickJP on 21 Jun 2022, 10:25am, edited 1 time in total.
resus1uk
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Joined: 12 Mar 2007, 9:28am

Re: Wheel building

Post by resus1uk »

Any guidance for tricycle wheelbuilding?
I have two Higgins parallel hex hubs and want to build them up. As there is no spindle how are they secured in the jig?
Calculating the spoke length, should be symmetrical like a standard front wheel, no dish.
Any spoke/rim combination known to work?
slowster
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Re: Wheel building

Post by slowster »

resus1uk wrote: 31 May 2022, 7:20am Any guidance for tricycle wheelbuilding?
I have two Higgins parallel hex hubs and want to build them up. As there is no spindle how are they secured in the jig?
In Roger Musson's book he describes how to build using thru-axle hubs, and I suspect the same method would work for your Higgins' hubs. He simply uses a standard quick release skewer to clamp the hub in the stand:
The skewer does not need to be central through the hub, let the skewer rest in the bottom of the jaws and let the hub rest on the skewer and lightly clamp...The hub should spin freely and all the hubs I’ve used can be located this way.
For hubs for which there is no standard QR size available, e.g. 150mm thru-axle, he advises using a M8 x 180mm hexagon headed bolt lightly secured with a wingnut.
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531colin
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Re: Wheel building

Post by 531colin »

resus1uk wrote: 31 May 2022, 7:20am Any guidance for tricycle wheelbuilding?
I have two Higgins parallel hex hubs and want to build them up. As there is no spindle how are they secured in the jig?
Calculating the spoke length, should be symmetrical like a standard front wheel, no dish.
Any spoke/rim combination known to work?
I imagine the bearing is part of the trike axle?** The easiest way may be to fix up a pointer to true them on the trike. (no big deal?)
There probably is (or was) an "official" way to do it with an accessory bearing fitting in the wheel stand....I have an idea I read about it long ago, but maybe I dreamed it.
Trike wheels are subjected to side loads cornering, but any modern box section rim is going to be stiffer than the single channel rims which were all that was available when it was built.
How many spoke holes?
What about a trike forum for proper advice?
** has to be for a driven wheel?
slowster
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Re: Wheel building

Post by slowster »

531colin wrote: 31 May 2022, 9:10am What about a trike forum for proper advice?
One of the wheelbuilders at Spa was/is a Higgins owner, so that would be to whom I would go if I wanted to have some wheels built.
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simonineaston
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Re: Wheel building

Post by simonineaston »

warey4life wrote: 30 May 2022, 10:48pm
simonineaston wrote: 30 May 2022, 3:17pm I'm almost tempted to post a video of the two wheels I just built for my most recent rebuild... not to crow, but just to show what can be done by ordinary folk.
Go on, I'm interested 👍
see here
The clip shows some fore and aft drift, but laterally its excellent. It translates into a super smooth ride and I'm not sure there'd be much to gain from attempting to improve the build by making further adjustments to the tension of the spokes.
Front wheel is better still.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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simonineaston
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Re: Wheel building

Post by simonineaston »

I took a leaf out of Franky's book (that's Francis Ford Coppola to you guys...) - he said "Look, The Back Wheel was fabulous - why don't you do a part 2, like I did?" So I did!
see here
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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