First ride on self-built wheels

Nuggs
Nuggs Posts: 1,804
edited March 2009 in Workshop
On Sunday I went out for a ride on my first pair of handbuilts. OP rims on Ultegra hubs, 36 spoke 3x.

They felt fantastic to ride. I'm sure they're not the greatest set of wheels ever buiilt (far from it), but the feeling of riding on something I had built and put the hard yards into was great.

It took me hours to build them (I hope it gets quicker!), but somehow that made riding them all the more rewarding.

For anyone thinking about trying to build their own - I say go for it. Be prepared to spend a good few hours doing it. And be prepared to hurl your spoke wrench around when you still can't get the bloody things radially true, laterally true and with uniform spoke tension*!


*I sort of gave up on that triumverate of engineering utopia and got things within what I reckon are acceptable tollerances (my definition of acceptable also changed a few times during the build!).

Comments

  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    Nice one, well done! I hope a few people follow your lead, there's nothing like the satisfaction of having made something you thought was beyond you.
  • shaw8670
    shaw8670 Posts: 264
    great, where did you get the bits without having to pay much more for the bits than the individual parts?
    Greetings from the wet and windy North west
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    It's a good feeling isn't it. I've only built one set of wheels and my experience sounds much like yours.

    I was nervous when I first put weight on them, paranoid they were going to explode. But there were no creaks, no pings, they just did the job and have continued to do so for 10,000 miles of commuting.

    I bought the bits from SJS cycles although I already had the hubs kicking around.
  • Nuggs
    Nuggs Posts: 1,804
    The parts for the wheels cost around £300ish but the tools took the total cost to nearer £500.

    I didn't do it as a cheaper way to build wheels, I did it beacuse it was a new skill that I wanted to learn.

    Worth every penny!
  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    I'm impressed that Nuggs bought the proper tools, but I'll stress that the only tool you really need for wheel-building is a spoke key (and a bike). The rest - stand, spoke driver, dish tool, etc, make it all a lot less time consuming, however.
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    You can do it just with a spoke key and use the upturned bike forks as a stand. I pushed the boat out and spent £40 on a truing stand which at least meant I could work at the dining table rather than on my hands and knees in the shed.

    A dish tool seemed fairly unnecessary since you can just flip the wheel round to see if it's centred.

    Mind you, I'd only spent about £60 on the parts so maybe wasn't looking for such a precise job as Nuggs and his £300 set.
  • Tail end Charlie
    Tail end Charlie Posts: 352
    I, too have recently built a wheel and it is a great feeling. I built a stand, using the wheelpro book by Roger Musson out of MDF and it cost less than a fiver. The hub I had already and so I only needed spokes and a rim.
    I did it mainly for the fun of it and just to see if I could do it.
    If you're thinking of it, give it a go.
  • bice
    bice Posts: 772
    Fantastic. Congratulations. Is there a website telling you the basics? I've straightened up wheels and enjoy it. I'd be wanting a £100-150 build, TBH.
  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    bice wrote:
    Fantastic. Congratulations. Is there a website telling you the basics? I've straightened up wheels and enjoy it. I'd be wanting a £100-150 build, TBH.

    http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html
  • doktorsteve
    doktorsteve Posts: 112
    A word of warning if you try to build Open Pro and tension them using Sheldon Browns pitch method.

    I have not measured the tension using a tensiometer but I am betting that the tension you get if you tune the spokes to G is higher than the 90kgf recommended by Mavic. I tried to tune the spokes on my front wheel using a piano. When I got to F I started to get nervous when I noticed some slight distortion of the rim around the nipples. I backed the tension off to around D. The spokes are not as tight as I would like but I did not want to overstress the rim.

    Strangely the rear wheel took more tension and did not show the distortion. Maybe because the drive side spokes are at a less steep angle than the fronts?

    Anyone else used the pitch method on Open Pros?
    100% ME!
    Do you think I would be this bad on drugs?
  • dilemna
    dilemna Posts: 2,187
    Sorry I don't know the answer to your above question but am posting as I got a wheel truing stand a couple of weeks ago. Have yet to use it as none of my wheels Open Pro CDs are out by that much at the moment. So have deicied to leave well alone for the time being. Bought the stand as I live in the sticks miles from any decent wheel builder. Plus in past I have spent £10, £15 or £20 getting a wheel slightly out of true - trued. I'm sure it will pay for itself in the long run. Mind you I could make a few tiny tweeks....... :wink: Can't wait to start building. I have some hubs and a rim just need spokes......but to get the correct length and spec seems a nightmare. So you shouldn't over tension Open Pros or any rim for that matter. Will bear that in mind.
    Life is like a roll of toilet paper; long and useful, but always ends at the wrong moment. Anon.
    Think how stupid the average person is.......
    half of them are even more stupid than you first thought.
  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    doktorsteve wrote:
    A word of warning if you try to build Open Pro and tension them using Sheldon Browns pitch method.

    I have not measured the tension using a tensiometer but I am betting that the tension you get if you tune the spokes to G is higher than the 90kgf recommended by Mavic. I tried to tune the spokes on my front wheel using a piano. When I got to F I started to get nervous when I noticed some slight distortion of the rim around the nipples. I backed the tension off to around D. The spokes are not as tight as I would like but I did not want to overstress the rim.

    Strangely the rear wheel took more tension and did not show the distortion. Maybe because the drive side spokes are at a less steep angle than the fronts?

    Anyone else used the pitch method on Open Pros?

    I tensioned my first pair of Open Pros using the method Jobst Brandt details in his book, increasing the tension incrementally until stress-relieving caused the rim to collapse into a soft saddle shape, and then backing off the tension a mite. By definition, that is the maximum tension the rim can tolerate.

    Those wheels have been ridden thousands of miles and have never needed retrueing, or failed in any other way. The rims show no deformation at the spoke bed, nor have I ever seen this on this model: perhaps you have a bad batch?

    Since then I have tensioned OP's by pitch, with reference either to those wheels if I'm near them, or by attempting to recall the tone. I'm no musician but I'm satisfied that my judgement is close enough for durable wheels. If I could justify a tensiometer I'd get one, but I build wheels rarely enough that it would be a luxury. Those who build wheels regularly tension to about 100-110 kgf for Open Pro, I think.
  • torrens
    torrens Posts: 32
    Those who build wheels regularly tension to about 100-110 kgf for Open Pro, I think.

    Or even a little higher I think. Roger Musson in his excellent book (available online, no personal connection) mentions I think a figure of approx. 130 kgf. I took rear ds up to this (measured with Park tensionometer) on the first (and so far only) pair of wheels I've built.
    DuraAce 7900 hubs (eyewatering cost! but I wanted normal Shimano freehub splining, which ther DA predecessors don't have), Mavic OP rims, DT competition spokes 32, 3x.
    500ish miles so far, remained absolutely (by eye) true (and I'm a perfectionist). Spokes feel really tight, which is good IMHO!

    Can't recommend Musson book too highly, it's only a tenner or so (I've got Jobst Brandt too for comparison)
  • Nuggs
    Nuggs Posts: 1,804
    torrens wrote:
    Those who build wheels regularly tension to about 100-110 kgf for Open Pro, I think.
    Mine are deffo more than 100kgf.

    The figures quoted by Mavic sound too soft to me.

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