Rim upgrade advice please

ESC

Need some advice please!

My mavic 117 rims are basically not man enough for the job and I want to change them for either Mavic XM317's or EN521's but I don't want to change the hub or spokes as they're in fine fettle so my question is: Can I just swop out the hub and spokes on to the new rims or is that just to easy and having never done more than truing the wheel this is all going to be new to me. Also opinions on the replacement rims appreciated!

Cheers

JP

supersonic

You need to check the ERD to see if you can swap (effective rim diamater)

They are the base mavic rim, but have you damaged them? If not, I'd just ride them!

diy

There is a good chance that at least a couple of spokes will brake on the way out, plus it takes a lot of patience to manually build a wheel unless you have a jig. Personally I would go for a new set of factory rims and either ebay the old set or keep them as spares. This will give you much greater choice of wheel.

ESC

'Just ride them' ehh what till they taco at 30k? As I said they ain't man enough!! Just 'buy a new set of factory rims ' man if you can't add something constructive don't bother adding anything!! As it goes I would like to change the rims as a first step in to wheel building, I mean if it goes wrong depending on what rim I get it's either 15 or 20 quid each so I'm not going to lose sleep over it! diy you suggest I get a wheel building jig so as you're so obviously qualified to reply what make/ model do you suggest from your extensive wheel building knowledge?

supersonic

The XM317 is no more 'man' a rim than what you have - except for eyeletting and would not constitute a upgrade.. Practically the same weight, the same width. The 721 is wider and stouter however,

How much do you weigh? What is your bike? You will almost undoubtedly need new spokes if you rebuild into a new rim.

Sheldon Browns page has a great articel on wheel building.

hoathy

chill

both the mavic rims you have suggested are decent I have a set of XM 317s and they are fairly light, not super light mind you. They aren't super stong either. The EN521s are a strong rim for sure. What sort of riding are you doing? and how wider tyres do you want to run?

Also, what hub are you running (don't want to polish a t*rd)?

ride_whenever

how are you killing them?

I'm quite fat (90kg) and ride through stuff, haven't had any issues with 719 rims.

I'd strongly advise new spokes with a new rim, as the bends could well be in the wrong place causing premature failure of the new wheel.

For building yourself, it's doable but will take you a while. I built my first rear over two days with an experienced wheelbuilder keeping an eye on me. The next pair took about an afternoon each. A jig makes things easier, but you can do it just about using your bike and zip ties.

The important thing, in my experience, for good wheelbuildsis a tension meter (I've only used the basic park one so cannot comment on others) and a decent spoke key (I like the spokey onees) makes things much more pleasant.

Internet connection and a cooler of your favourite beverage are nice too!

The Spiderman

Mate of mine swapped a rim,by taping the new one to the existing,(Read Sheldon Brown)and then swapping the spokes across.He used the original spokes,and despite me saying it wouldn`t work hes still riding it 2 years later.He managed to get it pretty true aswell.

diy

The reason manually building wheels is quite hard, is because in addition to a truing stand or jig you also need a dish stick and a tensionometer. Otherwise you might not get the rim correctly inline with the axle. In addition if you try to manually tension the wheel, you'll find that the rim initially doesn't show any problems, but will quickly go out of true, because the spokes wont be helping to keep the structure in shape.

Have a look here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

We can all change a broken spoke or tune out a wobble, but this is not the same job.

ESC

diy wrote:

The reason manually building wheels is quite hard, is because in addition to a truing stand or jig you also need a dish stick and a tensionometer. Otherwise you might not get the rim correctly inline with the axle.

Is there a non manual way of building wheels then? Thanks for the useful words of advice, I've now got my wheel jig, a tensionmeter and a dishing tool as well as a pair of 521's a nice shiny pair of hubs and some nice looking DT Swiss spokes. I already had the spokey so had most of the tools needed I already had.... Got a book and DVD too on wheel building so all I need now is the time which won't be for two weeks as I'm heading to Portugal on a bit of a Surfari and bikeathon, will update you all on how I get on sometime in November. Ohh Supersonic the wheels will be going on a 2010 Genesis Alptitude with a revelation fork and SRAM/ Avid kit built for general trail riding and I weigh about 80kg fully loaded!

Adeus for now

surreyxc

To anyone reading this forum, I would say just give wheel building a go, lots of great website on the subject. I know it can get very technical, but I have built up three wheels, front and rear, all without a wheel jig and they are still runnning and reasonably true within a few mm. Build the wheel up whilst sitting down watching some tele and a cup of tea. Once you have the basic build and tension in, put the wheel back in your frame and the frame on a bike stand, then make some plastic markers and tape some calipers to the frame. Okay so not perfect but worth a go before you splash out on a wheel jig, and I reckon the cheap ones are no more accurate than using the frame. If you then enjoy wheel building get the other kit. Maybe I ride light but regards to snapping spokes only time I did this was when I stuck my foot through the wheel when crashing. If you stick to the same lacing pattern 3 cross etc on a new rim then the spokes should be fine, its when you change the spoke pattern you will put new stresses on the spokes and the hub flanges. Just experiment, spokes and rims are some of the cheapest components on the bike unless you go for real exotic stuff, and they can potentially make the biggest difference to the feel of a bike. Plus once you get good at wheel buidling then you are not so fussed about hammering a wheelset if you know you can true it.

nicklouse

surreyxc
a feww mm! would not get out of the shop but might be OK for you.

diy
brakeing spokes when unbuilding a wheel. very very uncommon.

ESC
If the new rim ERD is not the same you will need new spokes. Why? the old ones will either be too long giving possible conflicts with the rim tape and then flats and also posibly not enough thread to get the correct/enough tension. If they are too short though that can some times be compensated by the use of longer nipples.

But it all depends on what side of correct the original spoke lengths were.