I build my own. Nothing else is as satisfying as riding your own wheels. And if something goes wrong with the wheel while riding, you know how to fix it!
Is it not really uneconimcal, most parts and rims are much cheaper and the tools required do not cost much. Mostly when the rim is burned out you can just reuse the hub.
Bike shop wanted £30 a wheel to do it, so I thought, "how hard can it be ?" Wasn't that difficult. I used the back wheel as a guide for the front, then the front as a guide for the back. Must have done about 8 now as I swap out the dull spokes on my old roadies for stainless steel ones.
I'm lacing my own wheel only because my rim and hub had to be ordered from two different shops, otherwise most online places build the wheel for "free" if you order all the wheel parts there.
Anyone attempting this should have this book. I build all my wheels and this book has been of untold value. Professional Guide to Wheel Building By Roger Musson
@John because books are usually where the accumulated wisdom is recorded and stored. Video may be instant but the written word has usually been properly considered in getting it onto paper. And if it's wrong it gets corrected. Books rock!
Literally everything you need to know, very little you don't need to know, very accessible and very easy to follow. Anyone who is vaguely technical can build a good wheel with his book.
If I build a wheel for someone but they're going to buy the parts on their own and all, how much do you think is a humane compensation for building the wheel itself?
I bet I'll now hear this guys voice in my head everytime I ride my DT Swiss XC wheels through rock gardens. "Maybe in the evening you can feel also... your arms."
Building wheels is just so much fun, really adds another dimension to building up your own bike. Quite nice to just work on a wheel after a long day of work as well, just take time and go through the steps. It's highly addictive though, I now build all my own wheels + a lot for friends/family as well!
Just built my first one yesterday - a tough job that requires a lot of time and thinking (=patience). To me it is not really an exact science: I was working with much less sophisticated tools, those in the video are pretty high tech and price range... This way I will have to get into an extensive testing period on the bike. But I know the logic now and what is required to do this. It is a great feeling to have built the wheel by myself against all odds and service staff advice (="buy a new wheel/bike"). I think every rider should try it on a cheaper construction bike to understand and get a feeling of it.
I have ebike that I built myself and it came with an assembled wheel and hub motor.. Due to a horrible sidewalk now im forced to build a wheel.. I'm an accomplished auto mechanic with over 30yrs xp points, and during this little venture I've realized no matter how smart you are there's ALWAYS more to learn... 🤯
well I just went to the page that you suggest and the written instruction in there are just bad as they mix info and the drawings are not good at all, perhaps a good video will be needed
I literally built my front and rear wheels for the first time yesterday to replace worn out hubs. They are holding together well so far. Wish me luck on the trails tomorrow =S
sometimes a classic how to book does the trick! :) I had a bicycle maintenance book that I was 'raised' on as a mechanic. I still have it in my workspace.
Wish this guy was working in the south burbs of Chicago. I'd be bringing over bmx wheels and hubs and asking him to build these for me, PLEASE. Awesome education.
It's all easy when you have all the tools and follow the instructions properly. I built a rear wheel for the 1st time and have done over 1000 miles and had no issues, but I think it's more to the fact that I invested in a park tool spoke tension tool at the cost of £50 which I personally think it's a must have tool for wheel building.
I build my first pair of wheels about 3 years ago and they are still rideable. Now I have so many now I have some pairs of wheels I don't what to do with them, lol It is very addictive.
Haven't heard AASHTA in ages, was very sad when the old man passed but it seems his legacy is still there. I've built some real franken-freak wheels (to carry my clydesdale-plus carcass) using his guide, the craziest was a cross-4 equal length crow's foot cross wheelset in 36 hole.
Important question!!! How should I set the spoke path? When a spoke crosses another, should I make it cross from the inside or the outside? Or, should I just cross all the subsequent spokes ON the spokes that are already set?
Astral'o Pithecus You can build working wheels either way. I prefer to start by inserting the trailing spokes on both sides: these are the ones that run on the inside of the hub flange and ’pull’ when you put the power down on the pedals. This way, the leading spokes will cross on the inside, and will bend inward with some heavy pedaling as the trailing spokes are pulled tight. If done the opposite way, there’s a (minute) chance that looser spokes will catch on your mech cage when you pedal hard, as they bend outwards.
I learned only in my late forties after a lifetime on bicycles and goofing around with them. I now make wheels for my adult children and occasionally for friends... although the saving is not what it was. It is a bizarrely calming and meditative process, although frustrating at times. And you get to make some silly wheels.....
Wow, that seems complex. I used Sheldon Brown's guide to wheel building, it seems much easier to follow; had i not, i might not have even attempted to build the wheel in the first place! Turned out alright, too! did end up having to re-do my work a couple times but i'm an idiot. Also i remember Raoul Luescher had some wisdom to spare re: spoke tension/wheel stiffness. Highly recommend looking that up.
How to make wheel building easier: 1. use less parts 2. Fabricate most of the parts via homebrewn manufacturing, ie 3D printing and CNC? 3. Less spokes, stronger shock absorbers, but with mounts (connected to where the spokes would normally go) that allow them to absorb impacts across a larger part of the rim’s circumference, ie. 3 pneumatic/spring shock absorbers with 120° mounts.
this is exactly the sort of thinking i am very very poor at. i learn by rote, then upon successfully doing something, i dissect the process and can understand it from the inside out, but this way of learning is super slow for me. common sense stuff takes me a long time to absorb. good on ya for a good build!
It really is too. This video is great for giving someone with no experience a taste of the process, and those with lots, something to dissect and discuss. But there's no real need to take a course. Choose your components, find a decent tutorial and sit down on a rainy day and start. My first set I had to relace a couple times before I got the spokes oriented right, but accept it takes some patience and a quiet, focused mindset. But that might be the hardest part.
I've been wanting to learn wheel building for the longest time. I've built bikes from scratch from the bare frame up, including pressing in headset bearings. Wheel building is just about the only thing I haven't tried myself.
Give it a go on a cheap wheel. The first time I did it was because I was too broke to buy a new wheel, but I had two busted wheels from two different bikes, one with cracked rim, and one with busted axle. They had the same number of spokes, so I just zip tied the rims together and swapped over the spokes one by one. That doesn't even require learning the lacing pattern, so it's an easy start to wheel building.
Can you convert a 12/142mm thru-axle wheel into 135mm Quick release fairly simple? I want to get a couple of entry level DT Swiss wheels but they're all thru-axle and my bike has quick release. I have seen conversion kits. But then there's the width difference.
Yesterday, the nipple spoke on my wheel unscrewed and dislodged. So, I fixed it myself by removing the inner tube and screwing the nipple spoke back to its position. Many questions came to my mind. How can I know it is tightened enough? Is it evenly distributed the force? Can I do it myself without any additional equipments? Or Must I bring the wheel to the professional to fix it? Thank you for your answers in advance.
Absolutely fascinating as I was thinking about building my own wheel. After watching this video, looks through off the peg options 😂 and starts another jam donut
I just started learning to build wheels so maybe I'm wrong but your diagram, like the one at 8:30 seems wrong. I think you want to center the wheel in respect to the dropouts of the frame and NOT the center of the hub...right?
Hey Si... really quite cool to see the process.. One quick question.. did the master allude to using tapping the spokes to determine the Art of the tune? ref from a animated movie of a Mom tuning her sons wheels.. IM sure you know this cinematic masterpiece..
I've just watched a long haired teenager build a wheel in 15 minutes and you just made it look like you're building the space shuttle!! Not everyone is racing the Tour de France!
I learned to build wheels when I was 15. It was harder then. 36 spokes and softer less precision rims made truing a bigger challenge. The better rims have made thing so much easier. Now a days wheels come prebuilt more commonly and wheel building is not a very practiced skill as it was.
I have a hub with a dynamo with 3 gears that I need to attach to the rim of my bike but no technician knows the length of the wheel required for this hub. Can you tell the length?
I have a 24 spoke wheels and I would like to convert it to disc brake. Is it recommendable to do it. The spoke count does affect on performance with a disc brake. Could it be a little risky?
After I spoke to a few wheel building masters, I tend to leaver it up to the pros. One day I may build my own wheel set but for now I enjoy rim doing it for me!
Hi GCN, love your videos. Have to say that this once is a bit too detailed to be interesting the the casual observer and not detailed enough to show the home mechanic how to build a wheel with ordinary tools and missing out important info on thread prep, selecting our components, truing without a stand, stress relieving without a flippin' hydraulic press... Just my opinion, as I said, big fan of your other stuff!
Depending on where you live...there's a great shop with an amazing wheel building in Northern VA that teaches wheel building and you can also go to NC to the Appalachian Bicycle Institute for a class. Both are amazing from what I hear. I'm sure there's plenty of other places to learn as well. Those are just two I know of in my region.
Sheldon brown's website has some reasonably decent wheelbuilding instructions. I would look for the stuff on spoke tension by ear as well, since he says some kind of dated things about spoke nipples rounding, and also recommends doing the non-drive side dry (which I disagree with), but as far as the lacing, and general process goes, it's quite good. Another good book is "the bicycle wheel" by Jobst Brandt.
HELP 😳I want to retain my 48 spoke wheel but want to change the hub to a 3 speed 36 hole hub SUGGESTIONS ? Or recommendations/web sights to look for help. Please Thanks in advance
I've built my own, using a bike as a stand with zip ties. In all honesty it's not that difficult if you are the patient sort. Im sure it's not as perfectly true as these but I really haven't noticed a vibration or whobble. I say give it a shot on a cheap set, dont let all this "expert" "black magic" talk scare you away.
Yup. I've found you have to get balanced before you try to get it as true as you're happy with. I have a cheaper and bent rim set that requires the spokes tension to be a little off balance in the end to be true.
Finished my first wheel build today. A few pointers... As step 0. Check to make sure that all your new spokes are exactly the same size and your LBS didn't give you a short one by mistake. On the first pass , tighten the spokes at the minimum possible so that they'll hold on to the nipple. Once everything is together, if you have a rim brake , mount the wheel on the bike, use a zip tie to tighten the brake one click at a time and tighten it little by little finding the place where it touches the brake, until it touches on both sides at the same time.
😞 I've just took spokes off my old rim and put them on the new rims... I didn't know I had to get a truing tool and a spoke tension tool. I'm starting to regret re-building my carrera.
I've used pitch to check tension while truing wheels, and it can apparently be used in wheel building in place of a tensiometer: www.sheldonbrown.com/spoke-pitch.html
Eleanor Law this tends not to work because its hard to know what pitch is the right one. Best rule of thumb for me is getting the wheel as tight as possible.
It's no worse than grabbing a couple and squeezing, it's a matter of how much experience you have. But if you have a musical ear (as I do), "plunking" them to check for uniformity of tension is very accurate.
It works fine. If you follow links from that page you'll find a link to a table of spoke lengths to musical pitch. I've built lots of wheels this way and have checked them with a tensiometer, and they've always been quite reasonable. "As tight as possible" has a lot of variables. If you're using good quality parts and lubing the threads like you should, it's actually not hard to over-tension and break things. Most people who do it by feel tend to under-tension by quite a lot, which leads to weak wheels that will need truing often, and likely be breaking spokes within a couple years of regular riding (at best).
I think I might have some damage on the cup of my hub, so I was wondering if it would be worth it to invest in some tools and replace the hub myself. I'll buy a new wheel :)
Your voice over sounds like one who would explain how to rally race. A good tutoral voice orcer. I will say your laking the small details needed to understand. How you bringe that up to you. but I like it!
No. standing on them can cause damage. Pushing on the rim evenly with body weight won't give you enough tension to do the job. The best way I found is to put on some leather gloves, or use a rag, grab a pair of parallel spokes mid-span and squeeze them together hard. Work your way around the wheel on both sides (8 pairs per side on a 32 spoke wheel). I do this a few times during the tensioning and truing process, and my wheels don't make pinging noises, and they stay true from day 1. None of this "re-true them in a week once they settle" garbage.
Oh okay. I was thinking body weight might not be uniform enough so was thinking if I put them on my driveway and backed over them gentle with my car it'd apply enough even pressure. Do you think that would work?
04:28 Wrong information! It is the same method, BUT INVERS HEAD POSITION. You will have the head inside at hole 1 (its head outside on drive side), and the head outside in hole 8 (its head inside on drive side).
Do you build your own wheels or leave it to the master wheelbuilders like Marcel? Let us know here! 🚲
I have build my own front wheel with dynamo hub for ultra endurance rides. Local bike shop said it was difficult, but I did it completely myself.
I build my own. Nothing else is as satisfying as riding your own wheels. And if something goes wrong with the wheel while riding, you know how to fix it!
Front wheels are usually easier, since most of the time they are laced radially. But it's mostly about keeping a level head and having some patience.
The way I used to build wheels was to find one that was already built, and copy it.
/ashamed
I had to do it. I have a vintage pinarello bike with a special hub. So I had to reuse it and only change the rim to fix my wheel...
After witnessing this level of precision I am beginning to question the quality of every wheel in my garage.
building my own wheel is time consuming, uneconomical, mentally challenging, unnecessary, and difficult which is exactly why I want to do it.
Is it not really uneconimcal, most parts and rims are much cheaper and the tools required do not cost much. Mostly when the rim is burned out you can just reuse the hub.
:)
Bike shop wanted £30 a wheel to do it, so I thought, "how hard can it be ?"
Wasn't that difficult.
I used the back wheel as a guide for the front, then the front as a guide for the back.
Must have done about 8 now as I swap out the dull spokes on my old roadies for stainless steel ones.
@@bincvanlaere6861 At least in DT Swiss's middle range (alloy) wheels, 350 hubs, bladed spokes the price difference is 10€ at most.
I'm lacing my own wheel only because my rim and hub had to be ordered from two different shops, otherwise most online places build the wheel for "free" if you order all the wheel parts there.
@10:23 Literally right when he said "you can hear the sound from the spokes" the music came on and you couldn't hear anything! thanks...
Gawd that was annoying! Wanted to hear the spokes and out of blue comes this annoying music.
I was lost on the second spoke, hahaha
Anyone attempting this should have this book. I build all my wheels and this book has been of untold value. Professional Guide to Wheel Building
By Roger Musson
@John because books are usually where the accumulated wisdom is recorded and stored.
Video may be instant but the written word has usually been properly considered in getting it onto paper. And if it's wrong it gets corrected. Books rock!
Literally everything you need to know, very little you don't need to know, very accessible and very easy to follow. Anyone who is vaguely technical can build a good wheel with his book.
Now we all know why high end wheels cost so much. This guy is a true craftsman.
All I got from this is to let someone who knows what they're doing build your wheels.
Agreed 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Definitely...I thought it shouldn't be that hard then I seen this video 🤔🤯
If I build a wheel for someone but they're going to buy the parts on their own and all, how much do you think is a humane compensation for building the wheel itself?
Right
@@julz19 i got charged 15 usd but varies from place to place
I was listening to you Simon but also the other wheel builder on his cordless drill his motor timing was spot on every time . Thanks for showing .
Wow I can really hear his Swiss accent!
I bet I'll now hear this guys voice in my head everytime I ride my DT Swiss XC wheels through rock gardens. "Maybe in the evening you can feel also... your arms."
AtDiT "We have a rule . . ." Of course you do. This is why I love the Swiss.
sorry guys but I think he's german
Swiss guy here, judging by his accent he is probably from the eastern part of switzerland *flies away*
Building wheels is just so much fun, really adds another dimension to building up your own bike. Quite nice to just work on a wheel after a long day of work as well, just take time and go through the steps. It's highly addictive though, I now build all my own wheels + a lot for friends/family as well!
I have to agree. there is something meditative about doing your own bicycle maintenance
Kryghyzho dude I tried to build my wheel and got a oval shape
Hey! I just made a cup of tea, sat down and turned this on!
*IF* you have a DT Swiss Wheel give away, please don't let it be Si's wheels!
Just built my first one yesterday - a tough job that requires a lot of time and thinking (=patience). To me it is not really an exact science: I was working with much less sophisticated tools, those in the video are pretty high tech and price range... This way I will have to get into an extensive testing period on the bike. But I know the logic now and what is required to do this. It is a great feeling to have built the wheel by myself against all odds and service staff advice (="buy a new wheel/bike"). I think every rider should try it on a cheaper construction bike to understand and get a feeling of it.
Mann So much time and labor goes just to this .
I have ebike that I built myself and it came with an assembled wheel and hub motor.. Due to a horrible sidewalk now im forced to build a wheel.. I'm an accomplished auto mechanic with over 30yrs xp points, and during this little venture I've realized no matter how smart you are there's ALWAYS more to learn... 🤯
I always thought how to videos were meant to inspire you to do it !
Still confusing
LOL I learned this in middle school
Look up Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding page, this video is clearly not meant to teach you how to build a wheel, just to show the basic procedure.
well I just went to the page that you suggest and the written instruction in there are just bad as they mix info and the drawings are not good at all, perhaps a good video will be needed
This is over kill on building a wheel!
I think the pictures are wrong.
Thanks, I have been saying it for years, building and truing wheels is both an art and a science. Talk about tying and soldering spokes.
I literally built my front and rear wheels for the first time yesterday to replace worn out hubs. They are holding together well so far. Wish me luck on the trails tomorrow =S
One year later, how are they holding up!?
Two years later, how are they holding up?
Well... I feel we may start thinking to ask how it went on year 3... to his nearest kind... 😅
If we havent heard from the guy this long then i reckon it didnt go too well 😂😂
Did you die?
I've taught myself how to build wheels, and I've built 3 pair now in my living room. I was greatly inspired by Jobst Brandt's book 'The Bicycle Wheel'
Yep, good book. One of the few that's on point with the science.
sometimes a classic how to book does the trick! :) I had a bicycle maintenance book that I was 'raised' on as a mechanic. I still have it in my workspace.
This is something we never think about and take for granted. I would've thought the job would be done by a machine, not a human.
This vid just saved me about $100 on having my LBS replace my hub. You guys are da best.
Wish this guy was working in the south burbs of Chicago. I'd be bringing over bmx wheels and hubs and asking him to build these for me, PLEASE. Awesome education.
It's all easy when you have all the tools and follow the instructions properly. I built a rear wheel for the 1st time and have done over 1000 miles and had no issues, but I think it's more to the fact that I invested in a park tool spoke tension tool at the cost of £50 which I personally think it's a must have tool for wheel building.
I build my first pair of wheels about 3 years ago and they are still rideable. Now I have so many now I have some pairs of wheels I don't what to do with them, lol It is very addictive.
Great video, I have been meaning to get 'round' to building a wheel and after many years I may give it a try! Awesome instructions by Marcel :)
Has been riding a bike for 27 years. You look like you're 21 years old mate!
Exactly my thoughts.
The rims I wanted were only available on their own. I sourced and put it all together myself, then had them trued at my LBS.
works like a charm, build my wheel in first try.... usually i need few tries. thx
Sheldon Brown has a great tutorial for this with color coded spoke diagrams for newbies.
I can't find it. Is it on TH-cam or on Google?
@@chriswarr3676 Search for Sheldon Brown Wheel Building in Google. I tried to attach the link but it keeps getting removed.
@@kayg2125 thank you
Haven't heard AASHTA in ages, was very sad when the old man passed but it seems his legacy is still there.
I've built some real franken-freak wheels (to carry my clydesdale-plus carcass) using his guide, the craziest was a cross-4 equal length crow's foot cross wheelset in 36 hole.
Important question!!! How should I set the spoke path? When a spoke crosses another, should I make it cross from the inside or the outside? Or, should I just cross all the subsequent spokes ON the spokes that are already set?
You don't HAVE to interlace but the conventional approach is to interlace at the 3rd crossing for 3x.
Astral'o Pithecus You can build working wheels either way. I prefer to start by inserting the trailing spokes on both sides: these are the ones that run on the inside of the hub flange and ’pull’ when you put the power down on the pedals. This way, the leading spokes will cross on the inside, and will bend inward with some heavy pedaling as the trailing spokes are pulled tight. If done the opposite way, there’s a (minute) chance that looser spokes will catch on your mech cage when you pedal hard, as they bend outwards.
wheely good video this
Well spoken
deldridg wheel spoken
Ouch!😉
I learned only in my late forties after a lifetime on bicycles and goofing around with them. I now make wheels for my adult children and occasionally for friends... although the saving is not what it was.
It is a bizarrely calming and meditative process, although frustrating at times.
And you get to make some silly wheels.....
Wow, that seems complex. I used Sheldon Brown's guide to wheel building, it seems much easier to follow; had i not, i might not have even attempted to build the wheel in the first place!
Turned out alright, too! did end up having to re-do my work a couple times but i'm an idiot.
Also i remember Raoul Luescher had some wisdom to spare re: spoke tension/wheel stiffness. Highly recommend looking that up.
I think it s a real job to built a wheel.
Next week, I'm going to start my first wheels on a vintage bike.
Good job to repair and built bikes.
How to make wheel building easier:
1. use less parts
2. Fabricate most of the parts via homebrewn manufacturing, ie 3D printing and CNC?
3. Less spokes, stronger shock absorbers, but with mounts (connected to where the spokes would normally go) that allow them to absorb impacts across a larger part of the rim’s circumference, ie. 3 pneumatic/spring shock absorbers with 120° mounts.
this is exactly the sort of thinking i am very very poor at. i learn by rote, then upon successfully doing something, i dissect the process and can understand it from the inside out, but this way of learning is super slow for me. common sense stuff takes me a long time to absorb. good on ya for a good build!
Yup that's all the instruction I need...heads to ebay to buy hub, rims and spokes.
It really is too. This video is great for giving someone with no experience a taste of the process, and those with lots, something to dissect and discuss.
But there's no real need to take a course. Choose your components, find a decent tutorial and sit down on a rainy day and start. My first set I had to relace a couple times before I got the spokes oriented right, but accept it takes some patience and a quiet, focused mindset. But that might be the hardest part.
1st tym i build my own WS almost perfect..i watch on TH-cam 10x😁😁
Enjoyed the process .
I've been wanting to learn wheel building for the longest time. I've built bikes from scratch from the bare frame up, including pressing in headset bearings. Wheel building is just about the only thing I haven't tried myself.
Give it a go on a cheap wheel. The first time I did it was because I was too broke to buy a new wheel, but I had two busted wheels from two different bikes, one with cracked rim, and one with busted axle. They had the same number of spokes, so I just zip tied the rims together and swapped over the spokes one by one. That doesn't even require learning the lacing pattern, so it's an easy start to wheel building.
I recently built my own rear wheel with DT Swiss hub and asymmetric rim, but I just laced it, then took it to a bike shop to be trued.
A TRUE art form this.... ;)
You can adjust spoke tensions by sound also.
Can you convert a 12/142mm thru-axle wheel into 135mm Quick release fairly simple? I want to get a couple of entry level DT Swiss wheels but they're all thru-axle and my bike has quick release.
I have seen conversion kits. But then there's the width difference.
Yesterday, the nipple spoke on my wheel unscrewed and dislodged. So, I fixed it myself by removing the inner tube and screwing the nipple spoke back to its position. Many questions came to my mind. How can I know it is tightened enough? Is it evenly distributed the force? Can I do it myself without any additional equipments? Or Must I bring the wheel to the professional to fix it?
Thank you for your answers in advance.
Absolutely fascinating as I was thinking about building my own wheel. After watching this video, looks through off the peg options 😂 and starts another jam donut
Wow that was good, detailed, looks complicated but very impressive!
Thank you for this video. I too have wanted to build a wheel. Really appreciate this.
Building wheels this way except with a dynamo hub, where the hub itself has a larger diameter, you would use the 2-skip method instead of 4 right?
Marcel looks grieved at 10:50😁🤸🙂
Is there a reference how much tension do u put for the left and the right ? For each brand ?
I just started learning to build wheels so maybe I'm wrong but your diagram, like the one at 8:30 seems wrong. I think you want to center the wheel in respect to the dropouts of the frame and NOT the center of the hub...right?
Really cool video I liked it so much thanks for taking the time to do this video
Does the initial spoke method/sequence change based on rim holes (28/32) or is it the same no matter what?
Hey Si... really quite cool to see the process.. One quick question.. did the master allude to using tapping the spokes to determine the Art of the tune? ref from a animated movie of a Mom tuning her sons wheels.. IM sure you know this cinematic masterpiece..
I do everything with regards to mechanics on my bike........ except building wheels!! 😄 Man this is a full time job.
Please what is the compressed air tool at 8:40 ? Thanks
Build them myselft using UBI method & Yes, I'm Swiss and use a DT Tensio
I've just watched a long haired teenager build a wheel in 15 minutes and you just made it look like you're building the space shuttle!! Not everyone is racing the Tour de France!
I learned to build wheels when I was 15. It was harder then. 36 spokes and softer less precision rims made truing a bigger challenge. The better rims have made thing so much easier. Now a days wheels come prebuilt more commonly and wheel building is not a very practiced skill as it was.
A marvelous video. Tremendous. Very helpful.
Just learning how to lace a wheel saves me much when buying new set, I just have to get it to the bike shop for truing.
VAustin89 just buy truing stand and save more
Or make one, plenty of ideas of DIY stands online. I made the simplest one possible just last week: imgur.com/a/e4teG
Or just use an upside-down bike. I did my first half dozen wheels that way.
I have a hub with a dynamo with 3 gears that I need to attach to the rim of my bike but no technician knows the length of the wheel required for this hub. Can you tell the length?
I have a 24 spoke wheels and I would like to convert it to disc brake. Is it recommendable to do it. The spoke count does affect on performance with a disc brake. Could it be a little risky?
After I spoke to a few wheel building masters, I tend to leaver it up to the pros. One day I may build my own wheel set but for now I enjoy rim doing it for me!
That was a fascinating episode. Really enjoyed it, and learnt new stuff...always good 😁
"Put the spoke in four holes over"
*shows picture with like three holes total in it*
4 holes was for the next set of spokes, thats what the guy says at that point in time.
hi what would be the correct rim to use my tyre is 26x2.35 are is it not important also its drum brake sturmey archer hub cheers
i have 24 Hole Rims. would it be alright if i put 32H freehub ? how bad is it ? it's a folding bike btw. i didn't use it for racing nor for downhill.
So if i 'unspoke' my rim brake wheel, change the hub and spoke it again, i can change my rim brake to a disc brake wheel? Or am i missing something?
When truing the rear wheel how do you accommodate the hub which the cassette sits on ?
How many spokes was this wheel trying to build a 32 hole rn
So lucky, wish I had access to a pro like that!
I tried this lacing method and it drove me nuts.
Hi GCN, love your videos. Have to say that this once is a bit too detailed to be interesting the the casual observer and not detailed enough to show the home mechanic how to build a wheel with ordinary tools and missing out important info on thread prep, selecting our components, truing without a stand, stress relieving without a flippin' hydraulic press... Just my opinion, as I said, big fan of your other stuff!
I build my own wheels. I'm planning to do a video on how I do it soon. I just need to edit together all the footage.
i would pay so much money for a wheel building course, thats something i really want to learn !
Depending on where you live...there's a great shop with an amazing wheel building in Northern VA that teaches wheel building and you can also go to NC to the Appalachian Bicycle Institute for a class. Both are amazing from what I hear. I'm sure there's plenty of other places to learn as well. Those are just two I know of in my region.
Just buy Roger Musson's "Professional Guide to Wheel Building" book and you can do it. Spend the rest on hubs and rims... :)
Sheldon brown's website has some reasonably decent wheelbuilding instructions. I would look for the stuff on spoke tension by ear as well, since he says some kind of dated things about spoke nipples rounding, and also recommends doing the non-drive side dry (which I disagree with), but as far as the lacing, and general process goes, it's quite good.
Another good book is "the bicycle wheel" by Jobst Brandt.
HELP 😳I want to retain my 48 spoke wheel but want to change the hub to a 3 speed 36 hole hub SUGGESTIONS ? Or recommendations/web sights to look for help. Please Thanks in advance
I’m swapping hubs for my rim and I got a oval shape at the end......be careful as you could damage your rim
But how do you know what does get threaded in from the outside and which ones from the inside? I'm so confused by this.
I build my own but take 2-4 hours as I aim for .1mm but if got from any shop most be a good 3mm out and you can custom make them with parts you want
Thanks for the video. I didn’t get what the compression bit was for though?
Their aluminium DiCut wheels are incredible
Great Video. Thanks
I just Laced my first wheel. And Yes I agree its very Therapautic, and a I imagine a lot like "Knitting ". Lol
I'm a do it yourself type guy and I built my wheels and they came out like they were done by a professional
What is the music called that starts at 7:00?
I couldn't afford to have have Mr. Waldmann build a wheel for me.
I've built my own, using a bike as a stand with zip ties.
In all honesty it's not that difficult if you are the patient sort. Im sure it's not as perfectly true as these but I really haven't noticed a vibration or whobble.
I say give it a shot on a cheap set, dont let all this "expert" "black magic" talk scare you away.
The biggest thing is just maintaining spoke tension balance.
True story
Yup. I've found you have to get balanced before you try to get it as true as you're happy with. I have a cheaper and bent rim set that requires the spokes tension to be a little off balance in the end to be true.
Finished my first wheel build today.
A few pointers...
As step 0. Check to make sure that all your new spokes are exactly the same size and your LBS didn't give you a short one by mistake.
On the first pass , tighten the spokes at the minimum possible so that they'll hold on to the nipple.
Once everything is together, if you have a rim brake , mount the wheel on the bike, use a zip tie to tighten the brake one click at a time and tighten it little by little finding the place where it touches the brake, until it touches on both sides at the same time.
😞 I've just took spokes off my old rim and put them on the new rims... I didn't know I had to get a truing tool and a spoke tension tool. I'm starting to regret re-building my carrera.
Marcel was so soft spoken.
I've used pitch to check tension while truing wheels, and it can apparently be used in wheel building in place of a tensiometer: www.sheldonbrown.com/spoke-pitch.html
Eleanor Law this tends not to work because its hard to know what pitch is the right one. Best rule of thumb for me is getting the wheel as tight as possible.
It's no worse than grabbing a couple and squeezing, it's a matter of how much experience you have. But if you have a musical ear (as I do), "plunking" them to check for uniformity of tension is very accurate.
It works fine. If you follow links from that page you'll find a link to a table of spoke lengths to musical pitch. I've built lots of wheels this way and have checked them with a tensiometer, and they've always been quite reasonable. "As tight as possible" has a lot of variables. If you're using good quality parts and lubing the threads like you should, it's actually not hard to over-tension and break things.
Most people who do it by feel tend to under-tension by quite a lot, which leads to weak wheels that will need truing often, and likely be breaking spokes within a couple years of regular riding (at best).
I think I might have some damage on the cup of my hub, so I was wondering if it would be worth it to invest in some tools and replace the hub myself.
I'll buy a new wheel :)
One side of my spokes is flat and the other is normal any ideas on how to fix?
If its back wheel it has to be like that
Your voice over sounds like one who would explain how to rally race. A good tutoral voice orcer. I will say your laking the small details needed to understand. How you bringe that up to you. but I like it!
Are all DT Swiss wheels assembled/built by hand?
I don't have a way to distress the wheel, can I just put my shiny DT Swiss wheels on the ground and stand on/jump up and down on them?
jonthedoors body weight only you push down on both sides with one hand on each side
No. standing on them can cause damage. Pushing on the rim evenly with body weight won't give you enough tension to do the job.
The best way I found is to put on some leather gloves, or use a rag, grab a pair of parallel spokes mid-span and squeeze them together hard. Work your way around the wheel on both sides (8 pairs per side on a 32 spoke wheel).
I do this a few times during the tensioning and truing process, and my wheels don't make pinging noises, and they stay true from day 1. None of this "re-true them in a week once they settle" garbage.
Oh okay. I was thinking body weight might not be uniform enough so was thinking if I put them on my driveway and backed over them gentle with my car it'd apply enough even pressure. Do you think that would work?
04:28 Wrong information!
It is the same method, BUT INVERS HEAD POSITION.
You will have the head inside at hole 1 (its head outside on drive side),
and the head outside in hole 8 (its head inside on drive side).
I thought it was wrong, The picture shows the same each side.