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Written by Erik Osborn
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008 |
Building wheels is a bit like a magic trick. You take a few ounces of metal parts, and assemble them into a wheel strong enough to bash down mountains, or tour a thousand miles. It's a trick that isn't too hard to master, though. If you have patience and sense of symmetry, you should have good luck.
There's a great feeling of accomplishment when you ride a set of wheels you’ve built yourself. I felt like I'd truely arrived as a bike mechanic when I built my first solid wheel (yes, there were a few not-so-solid first tries). Aside from the ego-boost, there are plenty of practical reasons to be able to build wheels too. For one, you can get exactly what you want: do you need a sturdy but inexpensive set for touring? A strong, lightweight 28/32 spoke pair for ‘cross racing? Or maybe you have really nice disk rim or Chris King hub you want to reuse? Knowing the ins-and-outs of wheelbuilding will also take the mystery out of truing, and allow you to fix broken spokes expertly.
I'm not going to explain in gory detail how wheelbuilding works, as there are several good references out there. The Art of Wheelbuilding or Sheldon Brown’s articles are both excellent.
I will share a few tips from my wheelbuilding experience:Use only the highest quality spokes. In my opinion Swiss-made DT or US made Wheelsmith are your best options. I wouldn’t consider using any other brand. For that matter, I wouldn’t buy a built wheel that doesn’t have DT or W stamped on the spoke flanges. Every spoke I've seen fail in the last few years (my bike, my dad's bike, my girlfriend's bike) has been a no-name spoke. All of these were on store-bought wheels that otherwise looked decent with quality rims & hubs. In the same time I have seen no DT or W spokes fail. I have even re-used DT or W spokes from failed rims to build new wheels and have had no breaks yet (knock on workbench). Pretty impressive.
The only tool you really need is a good spoke wrench. I have been using a Pedro’s wrench recently which I like because it has two wrenches in one: a normal square hole for fast tightening, and a diamond hole which grips the nipple very snugly. The diamond hole helps prevent stripping the nipple (ouch!) during final tensioning, especially if you are using soft aluminum nipples. Make sure your wrench matches the nipple size you plan to use. 3.2mm is a common size for modern cross country and road wheels.
High spoke tension is essential for a strong wheel and long spoke life. You can gauge relative spoke tension reasonably well by feel: by sensing how much effort it takes to turn the nipple, or to squeeze two adjacent spokes together. But to get a good read on absolute tension, I find that a tensionmeter really helps. It's fast, accurate, and it usually tells me that I need to tighten the wheel more than I think.
I like 2.0/1.7/2.0 butted spokes. They are the perfect combination of light weight and durability for most applications: training, cross-country, cyclocross. The numbers are diameter in millimeters: fatter at the ends where the spoke needs to be stronger, and thinner in the middle to save weight. Use 2.0 straight spokes if weight isn't an issue and you want to save a few bucks, say on your commuter bike.
Pick hubs and rims with more than 32 spoke holes if you need more strength (touring or tandem wheels), or fewer holes save weight (front wheels).
For truing and dishing, I use a metal ruler rubber-banded to the frame (see photo). I position it so that it is nearly touching the rim, and so a major point on the scale (190 mm in the photo) is centered exactly between the fork legs or stays. This works well. To find high and low spots I move the ruler down so it touches the rim, spin the wheel, and listen for rubbing.
Save rim tape and rim strips. These can be reused just fine.
If you are building a lot of wheels and speed is a factor, it might be worth investing in some additional tools: a trueing stand, dish tool, and a nipple driver. But I’ve built plenty of strong wheels with just a wrench and a ruler.
Finally, if you want solid, custom, handbuilt wheels but would rather leave the wrenching to a pro, check out Bikeman's Custom Handbuilt Wheels.
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