Wheel building question

bailsofhay

Hi all,
I have been wanting to try my hand at building a wheel so in a last second impulse buy on ebay I got a refurbished 07 Mavic crossmax sl front hub for super cheap. After reading some of their tech sheets I am slightly confused, do I need to use the proprietary mavic spokes or can I use any correct length straight pull spokes so long as the nipple interface is correct for the rim ( which I don't have as of yet)? A mate who builds motorcycle wheels is giving me a hand with the actual build so long as I source the correct parts I am just a bit worried if I am limited to proprietary mavic parts this may become too expensive(and the wife will kill me) for me to justify as a first attempt.
Cheers

Chunkers1980

Yes you are. You bought the wrong hub.

bailsofhay

I guess there is a reason I got it for £6.50 . I don't mind putting a bit into it (around £60 give or take) so do you by chance know where I can get a full spoke set from? I have only seen individual ones but they want £3.50 a spoke which would consign this to resale or the parts box in my shed.

ricardo_smooth

Contact just riding along in sheffield. They'll be able to supply the parts

njee20

Complete waste of time - you'll have to get a Crossmax SLR rim, which is about £120, then spokes are about £3 each, and you'll need 48 IIRC, if you can even get hold of them. Bitch of a first build too.

JRA will be of no real help, they'll be ordering parts from Mavic. Sell the hub and try again.

bailsofhay

Yeah I came to that conclusion after a bit more research today, its so much more trouble than I want. Gonna sell it and start with a cheapo build.
Good old impulse buying, cheers for the advise/ suggestions though.

Chunkers1980

Just buy a cheap wheel. Unbuild it and then rebuild as practice. Nothing you need to use.

The Rookie

I have a sealed Quando front hub you can have cheap if you want, 32H, used but perfectly useable, a bit heavy, decent bearings, stnd 9mm QR.

bailsofhay

Hi Rookie, thanks for the offer but I went to the dump over the weekend and found a wheel with some missing spokes for £1, even had a shimano hub so once I get some spokes I'm away (probably after lots of swearing and wondering where I went wrong).

The Rookie

Nice find, my daughter got me a rear wheel with Shimano M475 hub, Equalizer 21 rim and just 2 missing spokes for £4 once, OK I've now replaced nearly 50% of the spokes but have an old formula front wheel with the same size spokes and shot axle that is donating them!

bailsofhay

Yeah, There always seems to be something going there which I recon would be good for spares I just wish the wife would agree. For some reason she doesn't want our sheds to be solely for half junk bike bits, personally I don't see where shes coming from.

The Rookie

bailsofhay wrote:

half junk bike bits.

Sorry, I don't understand that description, as there is no such thing (they are all useable) then then shed can't be half filled with them!

OK so I'm lucky and have a 6x4 and an 8x6 shed just for bikes/bike bits (and some in the greenhouse and garage!)

bailsofhay

Nice bit of logic, I may have to try that line on her. Might be a hard sell as she has visions of our 9x9 being some sort of summer house in the future, at the moment it's a winter retreat for the bikes.

danchandler

Chunkers1980 wrote:

Just buy a cheap wheel. Unbuild it and then rebuild as practice. Nothing you need to use.

That's how I learnt to do it. I thought the sheldon brown guide was a bit over complicated, one of the lads on the trials forum did a 'how to' thread with lots of pictures and it just seemed easier to follow.