Pro wheel builder tips: 1. Before you lace up a rim make sure it's flat and round by holding it up to a straight rim. 2. Grind a 1/4" drive flat screwdriver bit into the shape of a nipple driver (point in the middle) and use it in an electric screwdriver or drill. Even a nipple driver gets tiring if you're building wheels all day. 3. Get a wood or plastic dowel about the size of a pencil. Sharpen it on both ends in a pencil sharpener. Now it can be used to hold nipples and tighten them a couple of turns as you lace the wheel. 4. True a wheel by tone. Pluck the spokes like a guitar string to hear the tone, as you true the wheel try to even out the tone on all the spokes. Spokes on the same side should all sound the same. If some spokes are looser and some tighter the wheel will not stay straight as the wheel is ridden. Even if you have a tensionmeter it's faster to go by tone and then check the final tension with the meter. Repeat untill the splokes are the proper tension. Evening out the tone is similar to what the Park tension graph does visually.
i am not agree with all your points: instead flat screwdriver , take flat insert bit , 5cm long and make point in middle with 2-3 lenghts( 2mm, 4mm, 6mm) and enough wide to hold niple when insert into deep rim.different lenghts bits can be used for prime tighten, for ex, rear wheel, left niples with 6mm , right niples with 2mm, next thing is that same tension of spoke does not guarantee straight wheel,
@@makantahi3731 I did say to use a bit in an electric screwdriver, having the tip at different lengths could be useful, but if you have your spoke lengths correct shouldn't be necessary The point of evening out your spoke tension is to make the spoke tension stable over time, a straight wheel with uneven tension will ride itself out of true (the lower tension spokes will loosen) , a SLIGHTLY less true wheel with even tension will stay that way. The art of wheelsmith is to balance tension uniformity and trueness. Not trying to start an argument, just passing along some types learned from building 1000+ wheels for Ritchey, Wheelsmith, and many bike shops.
@@paulandrews7573 me too, i made about same amount of wheels for few shops, and rim is not uniform stiffness because on place where two ends are bonded, rim is stiffer, so on that place spokes must be on more tension, after i made wheel, i squeeze all spokes symetricaly and by side and then spokes sing, after that i check if wheel is still straight and correct it if needs, mostly more uniform tension on spokes is on single , soft rims, on double wall ,deep rims, with less spokes, differences can be noticable, and at the end i put one drop of elastic glue on head of niple and rim, what prevents of unscrewing but can be trued because that glue is not strong as treadlock glue
@@paulandrews7573 i put niples into cup of wd40 to reduce drag when screwing, and wd40 vapourise soon, so it does not leave to lubricate, no other prep
Aloha, this is great! This is how I did my very first wheel re-build back in the 70's. I learned a lot and it goes to show it can be done with a lot of patience. And I grew up without a lot of money but lots of time. One trick for the spoke nipples and having them "fall" or not fall inside the rim is I use an old spoke that can be threaded into the back side of the nipple. I can put one in or take one out without it falling into the rim. Thanks for putting this together, lots of great things can be done without fancy tools and having patience and time. I have to say I do have all the special tools to help speed things up AND build better wheels.
+Seth's Bike Hacks - Shoot. Yeah. There are other tricks I've picked up over the years of building so many wheels for all kinds of applications over the years. Thanks again for posting up so many helpful videos.
That old spoke is often called a "feeder spoke" or just a "feeder", and often cut down to about 4 inches to make it (a) more manageable and (b) easier to identify when you have a bench full of spokes.
This is probably the most useful truing advice found on the internet. Most people true a wheel once in a blue moon and don't want to buy expensive tools for just that one time. Thank you.
Another option is to tape the old rim and the new rim together matching up the valve holes next to each other, you then move each spoke across one by one. Saves a fair bit of confusion
In my opinion simpler method is full unlace the wheel with no tape, zips and this stuff, and lace the new rim with one of lacing method. But I'm bike mechanic and I build new wheels every week ;)
Szymon Świtalski that might be actually the easiest way even for a less experienced person. I've only built one wheel so far, and it was just looking up for a tutorial on TH-cam and following it. took me maybe 2 hours and the wheel turned out quite decent
Simon O Same. I have never built a wheel until now. (Actually, had to jump from the 9mm qr front hub to 20mm front hub) It took me 1 hour to lace it with the three cross pattern and true it.
I did both wheels. In bike shop I had to wait for 2 weeks, so I decided to do it myself. Used my bicycle as a stand, and plastic ruler attached with rubber bands as a measurement. Checked spokes tension by listening to note of each spoke. Took some time, but it's totally doable with no special tools if you have some engineering skills, and musical skills too :)
Hey Seth. I love this video. I work fulltime on high end bikes somewhere in the netherlands. Just a tip so you can try this again the next time. Place the wheel in a vice so it lays flat. You can place your new rim on top of the old one. Maybe tie them together making sure that the valve holes are lined up. Now start by taking one spoke nipple out and moving the spoke to the new rim. Reinstall the nipple in the new rim. Just work your way around the rim. Dont bother with the lacing. It will stay the same if you just move every spoke to the new rim. Now you need to tension and treu the wheel. But you got that part pretty much figured out already. Just need to practise. Mastering this takes time.
Fair play to You for having a go with just a spoke key Seth :-) I learned to build wheels back in the 80's and spent a bit of time in the Netherlands in the late 90's where I learned a lot about the physics and mechanics of wheel building from a proper Dutch Fietsenmaker. He also taught me several different ways to lace wheels creating different custom spoke patterns. I still build my own wheels and even strip and completely rebuild new wheels before I use them as most 'mass produced' wheels are made to quite wide tolerances. I prefer to use tighter tolerances and know I have a good strong pair of wheels under me. The only way to get good at building, tensioning and truing wheels is to practice, a lot! Although I have built and repaired wheels with just a spoke key, it is a bit of a faff and using the proper tools does make it a bit quicker and easier. :-) All the best & keep having fun!
This is one of the few things i never bothered to learn. I figured the same thing, it takes a lot of mistakes and built wheels to get good at it. How many wheels does the average person go through in the life of a bike setup? Without doing this on the job or building for other people, i just don't see anybody realistically being putting in the hours to good at it. Then you factor in the low cost of paying someone who's already good at it and it makes literally no sense to do it yourself.
I remember years ago when I destroyed the front wheel of my motor cycle on of the other riders gave me the name of a wheel builder. I had not even considered having it rebuilt, my first thought was to buy a complete new wheel. I priced up the difference of a new compared to Ray Halfacre's services. It was a no brainer, and instead of just an off the shelf (after being thrown around in transit) wheel my rebuilt wheel was trued and balanced. I like to think I'm pretty good at mechanical things and fixing things but total respect, the man was a true artisan I would have no idea which way to even start well done to you for having a go
I am homeless and the SAN MATEO POLICE DEPARTMENT threw away my brand new specialized bicycle that I bought with some money i saved so I could continue going to work so I could one day rent my own room or apartment. My friend gave me a EXTREMELY Rare KARPIEL disco DownHill Bicycle and the rear end keeps destroying Rear Wheels. I am going to have to build a rear wheel for that aggressive riding. Someone said I was going Banshee. Anyways, your video is going to be very helpful when I am ready to build. THANK YOU for Creating and Sharing.
Seth your the man, I love your channel! A wise master mechanic advised the use of a toothpick for a nipple driver and it works pretty well in my experience. Although I totally agree with you the lacing and trueing is a pain!
I cracked my carbon rim and purchased a replacement. I was strongly considering rebuilding the wheel myself. My local shop charges $75 to build a wheel. You have convinced me to send it to the shop.
cheers for the sitting the rim on some cans dishing trick seth, checked a wheel i built recently last night doing this but used a tape measure to check instead of pennies, not only had i trued it inbetween my brake blocks but i had also got a perfect dish already, amazing :)
Seth's Bike Hacks hello Seth, I really hope your doing well and that your move went great.. I'm hoping if I can send you a picture of my MTB to get your feed back on it... any and all help I could get would be very helpful thanks...
I'm actually about to start one right now on my Polygon Xtrada 5. The rear stock hubs are absolutely garbage so I checked between the sofa cushions and underneath my bed for some scratch and purchased a Koozer 390 HG rear hub and the difference in mechanism between the old and new is significant. There aren't any dependable reviews I could find for this specific brand and model so I'm hoping for the best and gonna try to be optimistic. Reading some of the comments here, I've mentally prepared myself to be working on this all morning as it's about 6:30bam here in Jersey. First timer here as well, hope all goes without a hitch. Wish me luck y'all 🤘
Nice Video, if you do this again it is a good idea to have a spare spoke. You can thread the nipple the wrong way around onto the spare spoke and use this as a guide to put the spokes into the rim. When you thread the nipple on the spoke, it automatically unthreads fron the "guidespoke". I startes building all my wheels a few month ago, and found that all tools I need are: - Nipple wrench (I am a car mechanic, so I havr enough strength in my fingers and hands to do two wheels without any fatigue in my hand) - bladed spoke holder (because my crossbike has bladed spokes) - spoke tensiometer ("cheap" but good one from Parktools) - and some old lowers from a fork and an old rearend from a cheapo fully-bike. The tensiometer is the only specialty toll, and i think it is extremely important, because spoke-tension is very important, and if you just do it by eyeballing it, you will end up with a wheel that is visually straight but where the load is unevenly distributed between the spokes, and this can lead to snapped spokes or cracked hub-holes.
Well done though. I've been truing my wheels without a truing stand since I've been about 13 and I'm now in my 40s, but I've never rebuilt a whole wheel. I've changed out nearly half my spokes, changed a hub and fixed wheels in most ways that you can think of, but never a whole wheel. I guess I should try soon. Regardless, you'll find that all the experience will only make things easier and make you're mountain biking experiences even better. Because I've been doing it so long, I guess I find that part fairly easy. It's weird because now, that I'm pretty much just mountain biking, I'm terrified of bleeding my brakes. What is easier for some is terrifying for others, but as I said before, I think the little things make for a better overall mountain biking experience. Great job!
This was totally worth watching. I had no idea there was such thing as a nipple driver. Double wall rims used to tick me off, but with the proper tool it'll be nothing. Never tried taping the spokes, but when I'm respoking it's usually because I want different hubs.
Needed new rer wheel for my DJ bike and laced a wheel for first time (couldn't give it to shop because I don't have any LBS). In the end after 40 minutes my wheel was centered, dished almost perfectly. Tried it up on jump and trick I smashed old wheel and it holds up fine. I don't know about others but it wasn't difficult for me to lace it up. But it still is challenge to do it on your own.
I know this is from a few years ago but wheel builds cost a whole lot more than $35, over in Australia it is usually around $95 to $110 per wheel for lacing them up and about $30 for measuring the spokes (that's what was the average rate when I worked as a mechanic for a couple of years) and I imagine that it has only gone up since then
I've built and trued several wheels, one of which was a 36-hole rim on a 32-hole hub, and thanks to TH-cam and tons of tutorial videos I've found it pretty darn easy to build and true a wheel. And the only special tool I have for it IS a spoke wrench. For dishing I prop the wheel up on its rim with the outmost end of the hub just a few millimeters off the ground, measure that ground clearance and then repeat the same on the other side. For truing I just mount the wheel on the fork / frame, spin it and apporach the spinning rim with my fingernail to find the highest points. I've never had problems building pretty darn straight wheels that way. Oh, and for anyone interested in seeing that 36 / 32 wheel being built, I've got a time lapse video of that on my channel.
I am an experienced mechanic and this video slightly horrified me. That said, kudos for jumping in and just doing it. People learn by doing, so thanks for an educational and entertaining video. BTW, one oldschool, yet very lazy method of dealing with a nipple lost in a rim during wheelbuilding is to use a grease gun and squirt some grease through an eyelet near where the nipple is rattling around. Let the grease capture the nipple and leave it there. Not the mark of a mechanic who cares, but if you've ever had a wheel that developed a low speed "tink-tink" noise, this may have been the reason. Eventually, that grease dries out. Anyhow, keep the videos coming! Cheers!
Seth, I know this video is almost two years old but I just watched it again and want to commend you on your balls to do this. I love your vids, thanks for what you do.
I can agree that its easier to have your wheels built up for the price. Sometimes even a new set will do( if you aren't going to expensive on the wheel/wheel quality). the fun in building it yourself is what makes wheelbuilding, IMO, is what counts. If you find the satisfaction in it, then its worth your time and effort, but if you rather spend time out there than to sit down and do this, it may not be for you. I have not built one my self, but I really would love to learn and build it myself. Regards
i built a set of rims with only a spoke wrench. You can use a spare spoke to thread a nipple through double wall rims, and file 2 of the 4 sides off an old phillips head screwdriver as a makeshift nipple driver. Also dishing by eye in the frame is good enough in most scenarios. In total it took me 1.5 hours to lace and 1 hour to true each rim. Rims were Spank Oozy 295 with Miche xm50 hubs and DT Swiss competition spokes
After just doing this with a rim that I can't afford to replace, and I had to get it right to be able to ride, and hours and hours of frustration, this video made me laugh so hard I peed a little, and cried. Thank you, I needed that.
A solid month ago I started working in a bikeshop, I'm actually pretty excited in learning some proper wheel building in due time. Also considering getting me 1 of those nice Parktool truing stands for home. Having 3 bikes atm and growing 1 being a Dirt jumper I need to true wheels more than your average rider I think so it'll come in handy plenty. But yes I don't think building a wheel with just a nipple key is all too viable. Also when I bought my wheels online the site I got em from only charged $15 for lacing per wheel, what a bargain :D
Was about to do this exact thing, so glad I watched this...I will be going to my local bike shop. Thanks and keep it real! Love your stuff, keep it coming!
This is very true. Wheels are worth the experienced pro build. I've built a few wheels, it's not easy, requires a lot of time and tools and technique are vital. That said, if you can learn it, it's very satisfying to know you can DIY
I built my own wheels last winter using the correct tools and a great book. I didn't save any money, but gaining the knowledge was what I was seeking, so to that end, I feel it was worth it. Full disclosure: my tools are all Park Tools, with a nice DT Swiss spoke wrench, including Park Tool truing stand, nipple driver and tension gauge... Sure it's a lot of money, but I still have the tools and plan to build more as time and money permit.
Istead of an improvised dishing gauge consider what i call "bracketing the target'". Its effectiveness depends upon how well your frame and fork are aligned. After each trip around the wheel and releasing spoke twist ("de-stressing"?) FLIP the wheel before resuming the trueing process. Each time you should be able to bring the wheel closer to being centered .a length of duct tape with the center and ideal position of the rim faces marked aid the accuracy of this technique.
I kinda fucked up my spinal column while trueing my wheel because i was bending myself pretty strangely over the wheel to see if it's getting better. The problem probably also was that i didn't do a lot of sports before i got into trials 4 months ago and also had problems with my spinal column earlier. Keep up the good work Seth and thx for the Video :) Greetings from Austria
I've recently taken to building and truing my own wheels, because local shops have been getting increasingly more busy and I need to have my bike available daily. I remembered this video and it also came up in my recommended just now. If you're interested in doing it at home bot don't want to spend money on a truing stand, look for "unior pocket truing tool". It's a simple tool that mounts to your fork or frame and which will do just as good of a job as a basic truing stand. The advantage is that you don't have to worry about hub size and axle dimensions. And it's super cheap. If you're doing wheel building in ghetto conditions, don't get alu nipples. Get brass ones. It's super easy to break the alu nipples even when you're careful. When you're building your wheel for the first time, it's very likely you're going to be re-doing it and even if not, you're going to have to tighten the wheel once you put some miles into it. It's easier to work on dishing in the frame/fork. You just measure the distance from each side. It honestly doesn't have to be 100%, as long as it's not enough to affect which portion of tread you're riding on. Also keep in mind that one side of spokes will be much tighter than the other. Ideally, you want to tighten that side first, and finish working on the wheel by gradually tightening the looser side, because the other side will get incredibly stiff and it may actually be difficult to tighten.
Did a rear wheel the other day...i recommend re lacing as it is easier than letting the spokes in their place.if the spoke length is correct you can get it pretty straight by hand eith a bit of patience.when tightening the nipples go until the threads are just visible(works only on 12mm nipples)and make them equal,then tighten them half a turn.Do a loose spoke truing,then dish,then check for roundness then finally true...or take it to a bikeshop instead:)))
I replaced a rim with almost this same exact method with zip-ties on the fork and all after i hit on a tree on Rabbit Ears at Alafia. it worked well, but i ended up with a slight hop in the rim also. rode it for about 2 months before i went ahead and took it to my local shop. great video as always Seth, keep up the great content
Wheels are usually expensive, and I think if you can afford those, you can afford to pay someone for wheel building. Thank you for doing this video. I'm already reluctant to do learn/do wheel building on my own aside from lacking a truing stand and dishing tool, and now I'm even more reluctant.
last night was my first time to replace a freewheel to cassette, lace spokes and true a whole rear wheel. all i had is a bike stand, spoke wrench, screw driver and 3 zip ties to rebuild the wheel. i removed all spokes and laced it back to prevent scratching the rim paint. the 2 zip ties were to check for wiggle and the 3rd is for the bounce. the most tedious part is removing the old hub and spokes. had to check spoke tension every now and then so it would stay true even on the road. took 4hrs i think in total (more or less). i was able to ride it this morning w/o issues.
This was so helpful! Would have taken around 3 hours if I hadn't flipped the wheel around and tightened when I thought I was loosening. Its almost perfect, just a few little bumps in the Y-plane.
I built mine a couple of months ago with no experience and the wheel is holding up perfect to the abuse🤩 I Weigh 95kg and i send trials drops. No loose spokes or wheel getting out of true. The hub is novatec d256 and the rim is spank spoon32
Just rebuilt another wheel on Fri/Sat, took a few hours on Friday afternoon to tear down the old wheel and relaced a fresh hub and rim, then as usual I waited a day before finishing truing it today... as it's a Zen thing. I also changed my fork from a QR air fork with sod all travel, to a 15mm QLoc air fork with 140mm travel, wish I'd built it with that originally as it is so much more solid
Have got to say...loved the can trick! Who knew my old Relentless cans could be usefull, though I did use 3 :) Went from about a 1.5cm difference to maybe a mm...thanks so much :)
I was terrified of doing this with just a screw driver and spoke wrench. But it wasn't that bad! I didn't build a wheel from scratch, but I had a badly egg shaped rim due to incorrect tensioning and about 10 rounded off nipples that needed to be replaced! So I had to loosen all spokes completely in order to remove those stuck 10 then re-tighten all spokes again and finally true the wheel. Took 1.5 hours and it wasn't as hard as you made it sound. Have a reasonably true wheel now and I'm happy! Though after reading some more on the subject, I will go and add equal amount of extra tension on all spokes (couple of turns) in case the initial tension I had is too little for trail riding. Edit: yep, made everything tight and aside from not getting it super true on account of not having a stand or the patience to remove any movement under 2 mm, it's all running well! Let's see how it holds to abuse!
very very interesting!! i only trued my first wheel the other day thanks to your videos because, as you said, worst comes to worst, i have to buy a new wheel anyway!! and its amazingly satisfying!! i urge anyone to at least give it a try!!! thanks so much :)
Watching this made me realize that I'm lucky that I've learned building a single wheel in 4 hrs, made my own truing stand with scrap metal and a little bit of welding knowledge, and a handmade spoke wrench made with scraps as well. I'm only 15 btw
Great video Seth! But, I have built every wheel I have owned the exact same way with no issues. I agree your hand gets sore and it can really be a pain. However, 2 local shops have asked me to build wheels for them. In the last few years I have started either using my homemade trueing stand or the Park I got last Dec. I guess in a way I have become an amateur wheelsmith lol GREAT VIDEO! All of them!
I took a wheel apart 10 days ago, then started learning how to put it together by reading and watching videos. Your video was the one that gave me the confidence to proceed...
thats a funny and slightly crazy wheelbuilding technique. you'll try anything eh?! with your chops and enthusiasm mate, it would be great to have you out for a ride in BC. you would love it.
i'll be replacing my rear hub next week,,, after seeing all the hassle you went thru, I might take my dremmel and turn an old flat screw driver into a nipple driver. thanks for the video.
actually i think that lacing a wheel is possible. i did about 4 laces for my mtb and unicycle... a good tip would to practice on a walmart wheel because you dont want to damage an expensive wheel. another tip that can be a solution for the nipples problem is to take the nipple, put a spoke on the OPOSITE side of it and than push it to place. this will work like a nipple driver.
Been building wheels for 20 years now, very cool video, but I just wanted to say us builders are not magicians. You need to make your own nipple driver, Roger Musson has a great design I swear by. Even spoke tension is really important though...get a gauge.The dishing trick is awesome though.
+Marc Ariss are there any pictures of a nipple driver? I don't even know what one is I think I could fab one if I knew its application. I am just learning how to do this and have been using older wheels to try it out didn't even know about dish until this video. the plan is to build a drift trike front wheel the driver is on the left and the disk break is on the right do you know what kind of dish that would need?
Good video, I literally tried to do the same thing one time only at the very end to realize the rim was pretty much vertical to the left hub flange. LBS is definitely money well spent lol
The first wheel I ever built, i snowflaked the spokes. Strongest wheel I’ve ever built and surprisingly true. I’ve never been able to repeat it though.
I also use a spoke tension meter. This helps a lot when you are doing a rear wheel. Because the drive side and nondrive side has different tensions.. Really nice video and you can swear as much as you want...LOL
I have 30 year old Chrome wheel set I just tore down to polish it up. I am trying to restore a old Vintage Mt. Bike I am just gonna put the spokes and nipples back in and pay some one else to finish it. Ideally I would like have someone supervise me in re building it so I could learn todo it myself... The bike isnt in my line up, so time is no issue to figure out how to put it together This was helpful
Personally I built up my own wheel myself using the same sort of method here where you use your forks as a truing stand. 6 months later after a lot of abuse. A lot! And still running strong and true. Though I would recommend taking it to a professional considering I had trued a lot of wheels in the past
To attain that quality in the end you probably could have had shop fix your old wheel. Also to those doing this to the rear wheel. Dishing on rear wheel is asymetric, and you should check up and down not just side to side movement . Finaly when truing try to move 3 spokes at a time to minimize lateral movement. Great video.
another way of replacing the nipple spinner, use a wooden match. the nipple sit quite snugly on the non-strike end and you can twist it in. done a few wheelsets like this.
To do a rim swap easier loosen all the spokes, then tape the new rim to the old rim, and swap the spokes over one at a time. Easy peasy. You can grind a tip into a 1/4" drive flat head bit and use an electric screwdriver as a nipple driver (much faster than a hand nipple driver). If you don't have a gage to calibrate your truing stand don't assume it is dished (most aren't, they need frequent calibration). Instead use only one arm of the truing stand and flip your wheel over frequently to check dish. At Wheelsmith we removed the left arm from all the truing stands.
I use scotch tape to hold the spokes together. You've gotta screw the nipples backwards onto an extra spoke to get them in place on double wall rims. I build wheels with just a spoke wrench, but I make "q-tips" of backwards nipples on spokes to get the last three sets in. Dishing in a fork/frame is as good as a gauge as long as everything around the wheel Is symmetrical.
My time is worth the $35. Even at today's costs I would let a bike shop do it. The true deciding factor would be how long it takes the shop to get started on my job. Thanks Seth.
Luckily here in the in my area in the Philippines the cost of actually building a wheel is just under 2 dollars at least. Most Bike shops here are really friendly and their mechanics only demand at least 5-10 dollars at the most and that includes bleeding the brakes, adjusting the drivetrain, fixing or truing a wheel, and even rebuilding a fork. All under 10 dollars
I bought a dynamo hub and did this today I used glass jars and japanese yen as my dishing tool My best tool was the spoke key and a few cable ties One 20 minute park tool video and about 4-5 hours work😮 Definitley do it yourself my wheel is quite smooth and its a skill you only get better at once you have a go Im so proud i built wheel full ghetto style
I just did this, although I used a regular flat head screw driver when lacing, then the tool to tension/true. A stroke of genius hit me the 3rd time I dropped a nipple. I had an old spoke, pushed it through the hole in the rim the wrong way, loosely attached the nipple, pulled it through, undid it and then sit the new spoke in. Didn't lose any nipples after
I actually just built a 29 inch triple wall deep rim. I am a just do it kind of person i did quite a lot of reasearch beforehand and this was before i saw this video. I laced the wheel did one side wrong and had to redo the whole rim that was a pain but the best part is i am cheap so all i had was a cresent wrench 😉. So the lacing and dishing took nine hours give or take and add another 20 to 24 for torshioning and trueing but i did it anyway. my trick for the dishing and truing was two rulers with foam hot glued to the ends strappd to the frame via zip ties and it worked quite well actually. I got it the best i could .after that my neighbor lets me borrow his truing stand ,it was perfectly true side to side but a little bump up and down. So i did it and it wasnt so bad since i already had the rim paying 12 dollars for the hub and 11 for spokes couple of days in time . Honestly i would do it all again for the same price of the rim i built with a freehub body style not freewheel would be 120 usd so i saved a lot of money and honestly it was an experience i think everone needs to be informed on the level of respect your rims deserve, thanks seth your a really great guy!!!
Built a back wheel from scratch with a semi-cheap truing stand once. Took me several hours over two days. I now know that I can true a wheel, but I will leave the wheel building to the pros from now on.
Damn, you're right Seth. Thanks for the heads up! The older I get, I'm like, "there's just some things I can't do". Or it's like, "do I want to do them?"........Should I dig a hole with a shovel for ten days, or let a backhoe do it?
I just laced up my own set of wheels, and holy hell I understand the pain of dropping a nipple into the rim. Sometimes, I got lucky and the nipple fell out within 30 seconds, but there was one where I felt like I was shaking it forever.
Pro wheel builder tips:
1. Before you lace up a rim make sure it's flat and round by holding it up to a straight rim.
2. Grind a 1/4" drive flat screwdriver bit into the shape of a nipple driver (point in the middle) and use it in an electric screwdriver or drill. Even a nipple driver gets tiring if you're building wheels all day.
3. Get a wood or plastic dowel about the size of a pencil. Sharpen it on both ends in a pencil sharpener. Now it can be used to hold nipples and tighten them a couple of turns as you lace the wheel.
4. True a wheel by tone. Pluck the spokes like a guitar string to hear the tone, as you true the wheel try to even out the tone on all the spokes. Spokes on the same side should all sound the same. If some spokes are looser and some tighter the wheel will not stay straight as the wheel is ridden. Even if you have a tensionmeter it's faster to go by tone and then check the final tension with the meter. Repeat untill the splokes are the proper tension. Evening out the tone is similar to what the Park tension graph does visually.
i am not agree with all your points: instead flat screwdriver , take flat insert bit , 5cm long and make point in middle with 2-3 lenghts( 2mm, 4mm, 6mm) and enough wide to hold niple when insert into deep rim.different lenghts bits can be used for prime tighten, for ex, rear wheel, left niples with 6mm , right niples with 2mm, next thing is that same tension of spoke does not guarantee straight wheel,
@@makantahi3731 I did say to use a bit in an electric screwdriver, having the tip at different lengths could be useful, but if you have your spoke lengths correct shouldn't be necessary
The point of evening out your spoke tension is to make the spoke tension stable over time, a straight wheel with uneven tension will ride itself out of true (the lower tension spokes will loosen) , a SLIGHTLY less true wheel with even tension will stay that way. The art of wheelsmith is to balance tension uniformity and trueness.
Not trying to start an argument, just passing along some types learned from building 1000+ wheels for Ritchey, Wheelsmith, and many bike shops.
@@paulandrews7573 me too, i made about same amount of wheels for few shops, and rim is not uniform stiffness because on place where two ends are bonded, rim is stiffer, so on that place spokes must be on more tension, after i made wheel, i squeeze all spokes symetricaly and by side and then spokes sing, after that i check if wheel is still straight and correct it if needs, mostly more uniform tension on spokes is on single , soft rims, on double wall ,deep rims, with less spokes, differences can be noticable, and at the end i put one drop of elastic glue on head of niple and rim, what prevents of unscrewing but can be trued because that glue is not strong as treadlock glue
@@makantahi3731 have you tried spoke prep? Highly recommend.
@@paulandrews7573 i put niples into cup of wd40 to reduce drag when screwing, and wd40 vapourise soon, so it does not leave to lubricate, no other prep
THANK YOU FOR STOPPING ME FROM CONSIDERING THIS.
I should have seen this earlier, experienced the hard way
Same here!
Hahahaha, 4:03. It was worth a try and really worth the entertainment. Thought the gunshot in the background was your wheel exploding.
ohhhh thats a gunshot!!
Brian masterbatts n pickle parks
Aloha, this is great! This is how I did my very first wheel re-build back in the 70's. I learned a lot and it goes to show it can be done with a lot of patience. And I grew up without a lot of money but lots of time.
One trick for the spoke nipples and having them "fall" or not fall inside the rim is I use an old spoke that can be threaded into the back side of the nipple. I can put one in or take one out without it falling into the rim.
Thanks for putting this together, lots of great things can be done without fancy tools and having patience and time. I have to say I do have all the special tools to help speed things up AND build better wheels.
+G Matsushige that trick with the spoke os smart!
+Seth's Bike Hacks - Shoot. Yeah. There are other tricks I've picked up over the years of building so many wheels for all kinds of applications over the years.
Thanks again for posting up so many helpful videos.
That old spoke is often called a "feeder spoke" or just a "feeder", and often cut down to about 4 inches to make it (a) more manageable and (b) easier to identify when you have a bench full of spokes.
Even better than a spoke is to use a tooth pick !
This is probably the most useful truing advice found on the internet. Most people true a wheel once in a blue moon and don't want to buy expensive tools for just that one time. Thank you.
Another option is to tape the old rim and the new rim together matching up the valve holes next to each other, you then move each spoke across one by one. Saves a fair bit of confusion
In my opinion simpler method is full unlace the wheel with no tape, zips and this stuff, and lace the new rim with one of lacing method. But I'm bike mechanic and I build new wheels every week ;)
Szymon Świtalski that might be actually the easiest way even for a less experienced person. I've only built one wheel so far, and it was just looking up for a tutorial on TH-cam and following it. took me maybe 2 hours and the wheel turned out quite decent
Simon O Same. I have never built a wheel until now. (Actually, had to jump from the 9mm qr front hub to 20mm front hub) It took me 1 hour to lace it with the three cross pattern and true it.
Yup. This is the way i replaced a rim on an old dura ace/mavic open pro wheel.
Work at a bike shop. This method is awesome. Of course its better to use new Nipples.
I did both wheels. In bike shop I had to wait for 2 weeks, so I decided to do it myself. Used my bicycle as a stand, and plastic ruler attached with rubber bands as a measurement. Checked spokes tension by listening to note of each spoke. Took some time, but it's totally doable with no special tools if you have some engineering skills, and musical skills too :)
Hey Seth. I love this video. I work fulltime on high end bikes somewhere in the netherlands.
Just a tip so you can try this again the next time. Place the wheel in a vice so it lays flat. You can place your new rim on top of the old one. Maybe tie them together making sure that the valve holes are lined up.
Now start by taking one spoke nipple out and moving the spoke to the new rim. Reinstall the nipple in the new rim. Just work your way around the rim. Dont bother with the lacing. It will stay the same if you just move every spoke to the new rim.
Now you need to tension and treu the wheel. But you got that part pretty much figured out already. Just need to practise. Mastering this takes time.
Fair play to You for having a go with just a spoke key Seth :-) I learned to build wheels back in the 80's and spent a bit of time in the Netherlands in the late 90's where I learned a lot about the physics and mechanics of wheel building from a proper Dutch Fietsenmaker. He also taught me several different ways to lace wheels creating different custom spoke patterns. I still build my own wheels and even strip and completely rebuild new wheels before I use them as most 'mass produced' wheels are made to quite wide tolerances. I prefer to use tighter tolerances and know I have a good strong pair of wheels under me. The only way to get good at building, tensioning and truing wheels is to practice, a lot! Although I have built and repaired wheels with just a spoke key, it is a bit of a faff and using the proper tools does make it a bit quicker and easier. :-) All the best & keep having fun!
This is one of the few things i never bothered to learn. I figured the same thing, it takes a lot of mistakes and built wheels to get good at it. How many wheels does the average person go through in the life of a bike setup? Without doing this on the job or building for other people, i just don't see anybody realistically being putting in the hours to good at it. Then you factor in the low cost of paying someone who's already good at it and it makes literally no sense to do it yourself.
love how you don't spend time talking shit and you leave the clip for the end. keep it up, you put out great content
I remember years ago when I destroyed the front wheel of my motor cycle on of the other riders gave me the name of a wheel builder. I had not even considered having it rebuilt, my first thought was to buy a complete new wheel. I priced up the difference of a new compared to Ray Halfacre's services. It was a no brainer, and instead of just an off the shelf (after being thrown around in transit) wheel my rebuilt wheel was trued and balanced. I like to think I'm pretty good at mechanical things and fixing things but total respect, the man was a true artisan I would have no idea which way to even start well done to you for having a go
I am homeless and the SAN MATEO POLICE DEPARTMENT threw away my brand new specialized bicycle that I bought with some money i saved so I could continue going to work so I could one day rent my own room or apartment. My friend gave me a EXTREMELY Rare KARPIEL disco DownHill Bicycle and the rear end keeps destroying Rear Wheels. I am going to have to build a rear wheel for that aggressive riding. Someone said I was going Banshee. Anyways, your video is going to be very helpful when I am ready to build. THANK YOU for Creating and Sharing.
Seth your the man, I love your channel! A wise master mechanic advised the use of a toothpick for a nipple driver and it works pretty well in my experience. Although I totally agree with you the lacing and trueing is a pain!
I cracked my carbon rim and purchased a replacement. I was strongly considering rebuilding the wheel myself. My local shop charges $75 to build a wheel. You have convinced me to send it to the shop.
cheers for the sitting the rim on some cans dishing trick seth, checked a wheel i built recently last night doing this but used a tape measure to check instead of pennies, not only had i trued it inbetween my brake blocks but i had also got a perfect dish already, amazing :)
I love your video´s. I hope you can make this your primary income and give us great content and you having more time for riding and video´s.
+Freddy Fox 500 me too!
Seth's Bike Hacks hello Seth, I really hope your doing well and that your move went great.. I'm hoping if I can send you a picture of my MTB to get your feed back on it... any and all help I could get would be very helpful thanks...
Freddy Fox 500 i
This video helped me a lot :) gave me more confidence to start my own wheelbuild :D
Ok
I'm actually about to start one right now on my Polygon Xtrada 5. The rear stock hubs are absolutely garbage so I checked between the sofa cushions and underneath my bed for some scratch and purchased a Koozer 390 HG rear hub and the difference in mechanism between the old and new is significant. There aren't any dependable reviews I could find for this specific brand and model so I'm hoping for the best and gonna try to be optimistic. Reading some of the comments here, I've mentally prepared myself to be working on this all morning as it's about 6:30bam here in Jersey. First timer here as well, hope all goes without a hitch. Wish me luck y'all 🤘
Nice Video,
if you do this again it is a good idea to have a spare spoke.
You can thread the nipple the wrong way around onto the spare spoke and use this as a guide to put the spokes into the rim.
When you thread the nipple on the spoke, it automatically unthreads fron the "guidespoke".
I startes building all my wheels a few month ago, and found that all tools I need are:
- Nipple wrench (I am a car mechanic, so I havr enough strength in my fingers and hands to do two wheels without any fatigue in my hand)
- bladed spoke holder (because my crossbike has bladed spokes)
- spoke tensiometer ("cheap" but good one from Parktools)
- and some old lowers from a fork and an old rearend from a cheapo fully-bike.
The tensiometer is the only specialty toll, and i think it is extremely important, because spoke-tension is very important, and if you just do it by eyeballing it, you will end up with a wheel that is visually straight but where the load is unevenly distributed between the spokes, and this can lead to snapped spokes or cracked hub-holes.
Well done though. I've been truing my wheels without a truing stand since I've been about 13 and I'm now in my 40s, but I've never rebuilt a whole wheel. I've changed out nearly half my spokes, changed a hub and fixed wheels in most ways that you can think of, but never a whole wheel. I guess I should try soon. Regardless, you'll find that all the experience will only make things easier and make you're mountain biking experiences even better.
Because I've been doing it so long, I guess I find that part fairly easy. It's weird because now, that I'm pretty much just mountain biking, I'm terrified of bleeding my brakes. What is easier for some is terrifying for others, but as I said before, I think the little things make for a better overall mountain biking experience. Great job!
This was totally worth watching. I had no idea there was such thing as a nipple driver. Double wall rims used to tick me off, but with the proper tool it'll be nothing. Never tried taping the spokes, but when I'm respoking it's usually because I want different hubs.
Needed new rer wheel for my DJ bike and laced a wheel for first time (couldn't give it to shop because I don't have any LBS). In the end after 40 minutes my wheel was centered, dished almost perfectly. Tried it up on jump and trick I smashed old wheel and it holds up fine. I don't know about others but it wasn't difficult for me to lace it up. But it still is challenge to do it on your own.
I know this is from a few years ago but wheel builds cost a whole lot more than $35, over in Australia it is usually around $95 to $110 per wheel for lacing them up and about $30 for measuring the spokes (that's what was the average rate when I worked as a mechanic for a couple of years) and I imagine that it has only gone up since then
I've built and trued several wheels, one of which was a 36-hole rim on a 32-hole hub, and thanks to TH-cam and tons of tutorial videos I've found it pretty darn easy to build and true a wheel. And the only special tool I have for it IS a spoke wrench. For dishing I prop the wheel up on its rim with the outmost end of the hub just a few millimeters off the ground, measure that ground clearance and then repeat the same on the other side. For truing I just mount the wheel on the fork / frame, spin it and apporach the spinning rim with my fingernail to find the highest points.
I've never had problems building pretty darn straight wheels that way.
Oh, and for anyone interested in seeing that 36 / 32 wheel being built, I've got a time lapse video of that on my channel.
I am an experienced mechanic and this video slightly horrified me. That said, kudos for jumping in and just doing it. People learn by doing, so thanks for an educational and entertaining video.
BTW, one oldschool, yet very lazy method of dealing with a nipple lost in a rim during wheelbuilding is to use a grease gun and squirt some grease through an eyelet near where the nipple is rattling around. Let the grease capture the nipple and leave it there. Not the mark of a mechanic who cares, but if you've ever had a wheel that developed a low speed "tink-tink" noise, this may have been the reason. Eventually, that grease dries out.
Anyhow, keep the videos coming! Cheers!
Seth, I know this video is almost two years old but I just watched it again and want to commend you on your balls to do this. I love your vids, thanks for what you do.
4:22 I Was like damn, that was a hard hit.. then I realized they were right next to a gun range lol
I can agree that its easier to have your wheels built up for the price. Sometimes even a new set will do( if you aren't going to expensive on the wheel/wheel quality).
the fun in building it yourself is what makes wheelbuilding, IMO, is what counts. If you find the satisfaction in it, then its worth your time and effort, but if you rather spend time out there than to sit down and do this, it may not be for you.
I have not built one my self, but I really would love to learn and build it myself.
Regards
i built a set of rims with only a spoke wrench. You can use a spare spoke to thread a nipple through double wall rims, and file 2 of the 4 sides off an old phillips head screwdriver as a makeshift nipple driver. Also dishing by eye in the frame is good enough in most scenarios. In total it took me 1.5 hours to lace and 1 hour to true each rim.
Rims were Spank Oozy 295 with Miche xm50 hubs and DT Swiss competition spokes
After just doing this with a rim that I can't afford to replace, and I had to get it right to be able to ride, and hours and hours of frustration, this video made me laugh so hard I peed a little, and cried. Thank you, I needed that.
A solid month ago I started working in a bikeshop, I'm actually pretty excited in learning some proper wheel building in due time. Also considering getting me 1 of those nice Parktool truing stands for home. Having 3 bikes atm and growing 1 being a Dirt jumper I need to true wheels more than your average rider I think so it'll come in handy plenty.
But yes I don't think building a wheel with just a nipple key is all too viable. Also when I bought my wheels online the site I got em from only charged $15 for lacing per wheel, what a bargain :D
Was about to do this exact thing, so glad I watched this...I will be going to my local bike shop. Thanks and keep it real! Love your stuff, keep it coming!
Lucky for us we have a local bike coop with all the tools needed to build a wheel. Thanks for the entertainment!
you my man..... You are a f*****g legend
This is very true. Wheels are worth the experienced pro build. I've built a few wheels, it's not easy, requires a lot of time and tools and technique are vital. That said, if you can learn it, it's very satisfying to know you can DIY
I built my own wheels last winter using the correct tools and a great book.
I didn't save any money, but gaining the knowledge was what I was seeking, so to that end, I feel it was worth it.
Full disclosure: my tools are all Park Tools, with a nice DT Swiss spoke wrench, including Park Tool truing stand, nipple driver and tension gauge...
Sure it's a lot of money, but I still have the tools and plan to build more as time and money permit.
Istead of an improvised dishing gauge consider what i call "bracketing the target'". Its effectiveness depends upon how well your frame and fork are aligned. After each trip around the wheel and releasing spoke twist ("de-stressing"?) FLIP the wheel before resuming the trueing process. Each time you should be able to bring the wheel closer to being centered .a length of duct tape with the center and ideal position of the rim faces marked aid the accuracy of this technique.
I kinda fucked up my spinal column while trueing my wheel because i was bending myself pretty strangely over the wheel to see if it's getting better. The problem probably also was that i didn't do a lot of sports before i got into trials 4 months ago and also had problems with my spinal column earlier.
Keep up the good work Seth and thx for the Video :)
Greetings from Austria
I've recently taken to building and truing my own wheels, because local shops have been getting increasingly more busy and I need to have my bike available daily. I remembered this video and it also came up in my recommended just now.
If you're interested in doing it at home bot don't want to spend money on a truing stand, look for "unior pocket truing tool". It's a simple tool that mounts to your fork or frame and which will do just as good of a job as a basic truing stand. The advantage is that you don't have to worry about hub size and axle dimensions. And it's super cheap.
If you're doing wheel building in ghetto conditions, don't get alu nipples. Get brass ones. It's super easy to break the alu nipples even when you're careful. When you're building your wheel for the first time, it's very likely you're going to be re-doing it and even if not, you're going to have to tighten the wheel once you put some miles into it.
It's easier to work on dishing in the frame/fork. You just measure the distance from each side. It honestly doesn't have to be 100%, as long as it's not enough to affect which portion of tread you're riding on.
Also keep in mind that one side of spokes will be much tighter than the other. Ideally, you want to tighten that side first, and finish working on the wheel by gradually tightening the looser side, because the other side will get incredibly stiff and it may actually be difficult to tighten.
Did a rear wheel the other day...i recommend re lacing as it is easier than letting the spokes in their place.if the spoke length is correct you can get it pretty straight by hand eith a bit of patience.when tightening the nipples go until the threads are just visible(works only on 12mm nipples)and make them equal,then tighten them half a turn.Do a loose spoke truing,then dish,then check for roundness then finally true...or take it to a bikeshop instead:)))
I replaced a rim with almost this same exact method with zip-ties on the fork and all after i hit on a tree on Rabbit Ears at Alafia. it worked well, but i ended up with a slight hop in the rim also. rode it for about 2 months before i went ahead and took it to my local shop. great video as always Seth, keep up the great content
Good video. Thanks, taught me enough, never to try to re-spoke wheels, just replace them.
Wheels are usually expensive, and I think if you can afford those, you can afford to pay someone for wheel building.
Thank you for doing this video. I'm already reluctant to do learn/do wheel building on my own aside from lacking a truing stand and dishing tool, and now I'm even more reluctant.
last night was my first time to replace a freewheel to cassette, lace spokes and true a whole rear wheel. all i had is a bike stand, spoke wrench, screw driver and 3 zip ties to rebuild the wheel. i removed all spokes and laced it back to prevent scratching the rim paint. the 2 zip ties were to check for wiggle and the 3rd is for the bounce. the most tedious part is removing the old hub and spokes. had to check spoke tension every now and then so it would stay true even on the road. took 4hrs i think in total (more or less). i was able to ride it this morning w/o issues.
This was so helpful! Would have taken around 3 hours if I hadn't flipped the wheel around and tightened when I thought I was loosening. Its almost perfect, just a few little bumps in the Y-plane.
This is a brilliantly creative video idea, Seth! I actually snapped a spoke on my eastons last week when trying 180s ahaha
I built mine a couple of months ago with no experience and the wheel is holding up perfect to the abuse🤩
I Weigh 95kg and i send trials drops. No loose spokes or wheel getting out of true. The hub is novatec d256 and the rim is spank spoon32
I've been building my wheels with just a spoke wrench all my life so when my LBS said they can lace a wheel in 15 min I was in awe. Now I know why lol
Just rebuilt another wheel on Fri/Sat, took a few hours on Friday afternoon to tear down the old wheel and relaced a fresh hub and rim, then as usual I waited a day before finishing truing it today... as it's a Zen thing. I also changed my fork from a QR air fork with sod all travel, to a 15mm QLoc air fork with 140mm travel, wish I'd built it with that originally as it is so much more solid
Have got to say...loved the can trick! Who knew my old Relentless cans could be usefull, though I did use 3 :) Went from about a 1.5cm difference to maybe a mm...thanks so much :)
Your videos are what saved me and my bike many times, love ur videos
you and your informative videos are the best. I am new to mountain biking and have learned so much with your videos. keep up the good work.
Best video I've ever watched. Really needed the reminder to not let my ego bite off more than I can chew
0:01
Seth: a good day to ri...
Tree: surprise motherf*cker
LOL
I was terrified of doing this with just a screw driver and spoke wrench. But it wasn't that bad! I didn't build a wheel from scratch, but I had a badly egg shaped rim due to incorrect tensioning and about 10 rounded off nipples that needed to be replaced! So I had to loosen all spokes completely in order to remove those stuck 10 then re-tighten all spokes again and finally true the wheel. Took 1.5 hours and it wasn't as hard as you made it sound. Have a reasonably true wheel now and I'm happy! Though after reading some more on the subject, I will go and add equal amount of extra tension on all spokes (couple of turns) in case the initial tension I had is too little for trail riding.
Edit: yep, made everything tight and aside from not getting it super true on account of not having a stand or the patience to remove any movement under 2 mm, it's all running well! Let's see how it holds to abuse!
very very interesting!! i only trued my first wheel the other day thanks to your videos because, as you said, worst comes to worst, i have to buy a new wheel anyway!! and its amazingly satisfying!! i urge anyone to at least give it a try!!! thanks so much :)
Watching this made me realize that I'm lucky that I've learned building a single wheel in 4 hrs, made my own truing stand with scrap metal and a little bit of welding knowledge, and a handmade spoke wrench made with scraps as well. I'm only 15 btw
great
OMG... this is comic genius. Thanks! I look forward to watching your other videos now, and I will absolutely be sharing this one.
Seriously dude you have some of the most entertaining and informative videos on Mountain biking! Keep it up love it! Jason
Great video Seth! But, I have built every wheel I have owned the exact same way with no issues. I agree your hand gets sore and it can really be a pain. However, 2 local shops have asked me to build wheels for them. In the last few years I have started either using my homemade trueing stand or the Park I got last Dec. I guess in a way I have become an amateur wheelsmith lol
GREAT VIDEO! All of them!
I just used an old fork and rim brakes to align an out of true wheel. Works like a charm every time!
Great video, thank you. More information in less time than most bike repair videos, well done.
I took a wheel apart 10 days ago, then started learning how to put it together by reading and watching videos. Your video was the one that gave me the confidence to proceed...
thats a funny and slightly crazy wheelbuilding technique. you'll try anything eh?! with your chops and enthusiasm mate, it would be great to have you out for a ride in BC. you would love it.
i'll be replacing my rear hub next week,,, after seeing all the hassle you went thru, I might take my dremmel and turn an old flat screw driver into a nipple driver. thanks for the video.
actually i think that lacing a wheel is possible. i did about 4 laces for my mtb and unicycle... a good tip would to practice on a walmart wheel because you dont want to damage an expensive wheel. another tip that can be a solution for the nipples problem is to take the nipple, put a spoke on the OPOSITE side of it and than push it to place. this will work like a nipple driver.
This might be my favorite SBH video. Mainly because that crash is so relatable.
Been building wheels for 20 years now, very cool video, but I just wanted to say us builders are not magicians. You need to make your own nipple driver, Roger Musson has a great design I swear by. Even spoke tension is really important though...get a gauge.The dishing trick is awesome though.
+Marc Ariss are there any pictures of a nipple driver? I don't even know what one is I think I could fab one if I knew its application. I am just learning how to do this and have been using older wheels to try it out didn't even know about dish until this video. the plan is to build a drift trike front wheel the driver is on the left and the disk break is on the right do you know what kind of dish that would need?
JONATHAN LEVINE Check this out, it is worth the money for sure.
www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php
thanks
Good video, I literally tried to do the same thing one time only at the very end to realize the rim was pretty much vertical to the left hub flange. LBS is definitely money well spent lol
The first wheel I ever built, i snowflaked the spokes. Strongest wheel I’ve ever built and surprisingly true. I’ve never been able to repeat it though.
I also use a spoke tension meter. This helps a lot when you are doing a rear wheel. Because the drive side and nondrive side has different tensions.. Really nice video and you can swear as much as you want...LOL
I have 30 year old Chrome wheel set I just tore down to polish it up. I am trying to restore a old Vintage Mt. Bike I am just gonna put the spokes and nipples back in and pay some one else to finish it. Ideally I would like have someone supervise me in re building it so I could learn todo it myself...
The bike isnt in my line up, so time is no issue to figure out how to put it together
This was helpful
Personally I built up my own wheel myself using the same sort of method here where you use your forks as a truing stand. 6 months later after a lot of abuse. A lot! And still running strong and true. Though I would recommend taking it to a professional considering I had trued a lot of wheels in the past
To attain that quality in the end you probably could have had shop fix your old wheel. Also to those doing this to the rear wheel. Dishing on rear wheel is asymetric, and you should check up and down not just side to side movement . Finaly when truing try to move 3 spokes at a time to minimize lateral movement. Great video.
You deserve a ton more subs, easily my favorite you tuber. And I don't even do a ton of mtb, they're just entertaining
You can also check the dishing by seeing if the center of the rim is at the center of the fork.
another way of replacing the nipple spinner, use a wooden match. the nipple sit quite snugly on the non-strike end and you can twist it in. done a few wheelsets like this.
To do a rim swap easier loosen all the spokes, then tape the new rim to the old rim, and swap the spokes over one at a time. Easy peasy.
You can grind a tip into a 1/4" drive flat head bit and use an electric screwdriver as a nipple driver (much faster than a hand nipple driver).
If you don't have a gage to calibrate your truing stand don't assume it is dished (most aren't, they need frequent calibration). Instead use only one arm of the truing stand and flip your wheel over frequently to check dish. At Wheelsmith we removed the left arm from all the truing stands.
Thanks for this! I was entertaining the thought of rebuilding mine. Think I'll let the shop do it.
I use scotch tape to hold the spokes together. You've gotta screw the nipples backwards onto an extra spoke to get them in place on double wall rims. I build wheels with just a spoke wrench, but I make "q-tips" of backwards nipples on spokes to get the last three sets in. Dishing in a fork/frame is as good as a gauge as long as everything around the wheel Is symmetrical.
Great video man, in awe the entire time... until I got to the end and yeah, I’ll be taking it to the shop
Good video.
I'm glad I have a bike shop I trust.
Best wishes, John in the Peak District.
New MTBer so watching all your old videos, love it how the gunshot coincides with the crash like a sniper took you out.
Thank you for saving me a ton of stress and frustration I was considering this.
Yup, Matt has super reasonable prices. But the video was very useful, so thanks for making it.
This is the exact video that got me into wheelbuilding some three years ago
Great video! Humility is a virtue. Cheers.
I built a rear wheel with only a frame, and it still kicking ass after 6 months. True and solid! So FU lol!!
My time is worth the $35. Even at today's costs I would let a bike shop do it. The true deciding factor would be how long it takes the shop to get started on my job. Thanks Seth.
Ha! I did the same thing until I got to the dishing part, then I lost hope. Great video! Thx from TPA.
S & M Clamping Ritual !! Pretty funny !!!
dude your videos are truly entertaining. I'm so glad you don't swear anymore you don't need to.
clearly you are not from South Florida haha
+Ronald Tartaglia what are you a priest or what
what is a prist?
un cura
Ronald Tartaglia fuck
The tool you miss the most is the bike shop😅😅😅
Luckily here in the in my area in the Philippines the cost of actually building a wheel is just under 2 dollars at least. Most Bike shops here are really friendly and their mechanics only demand at least 5-10 dollars at the most and that includes bleeding the brakes, adjusting the drivetrain, fixing or truing a wheel, and even rebuilding a fork. All under 10 dollars
nice
yeah but ive been in the philiphines before. The economy is not too good. Also jobs pay super low there.
You can also live in a mansion on military income.
yep The Philippines
low maintenance cost
over priced bikes. i love it 😂
I bought a dynamo hub and did this today
I used glass jars and japanese yen as my dishing tool
My best tool was the spoke key and a few cable ties
One 20 minute park tool video and about 4-5 hours work😮
Definitley do it yourself my wheel is quite smooth and its a skill you only get better at once you have a go
Im so proud i built wheel full ghetto style
I just did this, although I used a regular flat head screw driver when lacing, then the tool to tension/true.
A stroke of genius hit me the 3rd time I dropped a nipple. I had an old spoke, pushed it through the hole in the rim the wrong way, loosely attached the nipple, pulled it through, undid it and then sit the new spoke in. Didn't lose any nipples after
I actually just built a 29 inch triple wall deep rim. I am a just do it kind of person i did quite a lot of reasearch beforehand and this was before i saw this video. I laced the wheel did one side wrong and had to redo the whole rim that was a pain but the best part is i am cheap so all i had was a cresent wrench 😉. So the lacing and dishing took nine hours give or take and add another 20 to 24 for torshioning and trueing but i did it anyway. my trick for the dishing and truing was two rulers with foam hot glued to the ends strappd to the frame via zip ties and it worked quite well actually. I got it the best i could .after that my neighbor lets me borrow his truing stand ,it was perfectly true side to side but a little bump up and down. So i did it and it wasnt so bad since i already had the rim paying 12 dollars for the hub and 11 for spokes couple of days in time . Honestly i would do it all again for the same price of the rim i built with a freehub body style not freewheel would be 120 usd so i saved a lot of money and honestly it was an experience i think everone needs to be informed on the level of respect your rims deserve, thanks seth your a really great guy!!!
1 year ago I got into the same problem, and without any money I did the same as you, just took me 2 days and a lot of research
Built a back wheel from scratch with a semi-cheap truing stand once. Took me several hours over two days. I now know that I can true a wheel, but I will leave the wheel building to the pros from now on.
Damn, you're right Seth. Thanks for the heads up! The older I get, I'm like, "there's just some things I can't do". Or it's like, "do I want to do them?"........Should I dig a hole with a shovel for ten days, or let a backhoe do it?
I just laced up my own set of wheels, and holy hell I understand the pain of dropping a nipple into the rim. Sometimes, I got lucky and the nipple fell out within 30 seconds, but there was one where I felt like I was shaking it forever.
You did a great job with this