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Wheel Building Resource

GarethPJGarethPJ Posts: 295
edited April 2010 in Workshop
Hi,

Does anybody know of a good resource on wheel building? When it comes to wheels I'm reasonably confident, I can true a wheel and redish a wheel, I even once replaced a rim by the trusty method of taping the new rim to the old and swapping one spoke at a time. I still, however, feel nervous about building a wheel from scratch.

The mechanics of it seem pretty simple, after all you can just copy the spoke pattern from an existing wheel and everthing else is just an extension of what I know already. I think the biggest problem I have is in getting the right spoke length, how is that calculated?

TIA,

Gareth

Posts

  • amaferangaamaferanga Posts: 6,789
    Sheldon Brown
    More problems but still living....
  • skellator3skellator3 Posts: 200
    get hold of a book by jobst brant its the muts nuts
    dont only ride a bike
  • ballspondroadballspondroad Posts: 181
    Roger Musson's sensible and straightforward book available is available from www.wheelpro.co.uk. Harry Rowland's notes at www.harryrowland.co.uk/7394.html are also handy.
  • ride_wheneverride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    I learnt by doing, under the watchful eye of one of the guys at my lbs after hours for the cost of a few beers and top drawer banter.
    Neeermad
    Carbon 456
    456 lefty
    Pompino
    White Inbred
  • GarethPJGarethPJ Posts: 295
    Thanks for all the advice guys, there's plenty to go on there.

    One of the problems with living in the sticks is that it's quite a distance to the nearest bike shop. There are three within about eight or ten miles that I know of and they farm out their wheel building to somebody else. So the latter isn't really an option.
  • balthazarbalthazar Posts: 1,565
    The Bicycle Wheel:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bicycle-Wheel-J ... 505&sr=8-1

    £30 + !! Crikey. It's worth it though. I'd better look after my copy.

    Otherwise, Sheldon's website is very good, and many here like Roger Musson's ebook, which sounds like it treads similar ground to Jobst's book, but without the theory section (I've never read it though).
  • NervexProfNervexProf Posts: 4,202
    http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php
    Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom
  • dennisndennisn Posts: 10,601
    The Art of Wheelbuilding - Gerd Schraner
  • Monty DogMonty Dog Posts: 20,614
    It terms of spoke length, you can re-teach yourself basic trigonometry or let DT Swiss Spokescalc do it for you:

    http://www.dtswiss.com

    Sheldon Brown's is a great step-by-step guide.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • FatGutsFatGuts Posts: 20
    Barnettes Manual version 5 PDF:

    http://www.icelord.net/bike/BarnettsBicycleManual.htm
  • rakerake Posts: 3,204
    the main difference you will encounter respoking rather than just retruing is getting the stress out of the bends in the spokes if using new ones, this can be done by grabbing them and squeezing. the easiest way to get the round and true somewhere near as a starting point is to thread the nipples on untill they reach the bottom of the visible theads on the spokes before you start to build up the tension. that way they are all pretty much the same length. then turn each nipple the same amount as you work around the wheel. do it in small increments and feel the tension as it builds up. its easy to forget which spoke your on so start at the valve hole and work your way around clockwise until you get back to the valve hole then you know you have done them all. make sure nobody interupts you and forget where you are, you may want to hit them over the head afterwards. :lol:
  • mankybianchimankybianchi Posts: 117
    try this http://www.yogarup.com/wheels/method.php


    Apparently he has some video on youtube too.
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