Just built my first wheelset

964cup

Just smugness really. Quite pleased with myself. Novatec A291SB-SL 20H front, F482SB-SL 24H rear, Stans ZTR Alpha 340 rims, Sapim D-Light spokes, brass nipples. Radial front, 2-cross rear. 1340g (565 front, 775 rear) for a set of tubeless-ready clinchers strikes me as not too bad for £333 including valves and rim-tape. Managed to get the spoke tensions within a one unit range on the TM-1, and the wheels are true within half-a-mil or so laterally and vertically.

About six hours' labour, all-in (allowing for building the rear wheel twice, since I cocked it up the first time). Sore thumbs and fingers though - mostly, I think, from applying the rim tape, of all things: tubeless, so two layers of Stan's yellow, which needs lots of stretch and lots of smoothing into place.

First ride this weekend, so if you never hear from me again, you'll know why.

That is all.

tl;dr: Built some wheels. Shrugs all round.

craker

What sort of tools did you use? eg trueing stand, spoke tension gauge?

I'm eyeing up a self build - I did a mountain bike wheel last year, it was straight enough (built on a turbo trainer with a piece of cardboard as a straightness rule) but I think the spokes are under tensioned. If I do build a set I'll probably go with a higher spoke count as I think that will be more forgiving.

964cup

Park Tool TS-2.2 Truing Stand
Park Tool WAG-4 Dishing Gauge
Park Tool TM-1 Tensiometer
Park Tool SW-7 Three-sided Spoke Key (the one thing I'd change; I've just ordered individual keys for all the common nipple sizes)
An old spoke to help insert the nipples (screwed in a couple threads from the wrong end of the nipple)
Mobil 1 (!) as spoke thread lubricant, 'cos it's what I had to hand. I preferred the risk of spokes unwinding to the risk of them seizing.
A regular flat-blade screwdriver for initial nipple tightening

It's probably worth noting that the tools cost about as much as the wheelset, so I'm some way from it paying off in reality.

StillGoing

I've recently rebuilt a damaged front tub. The hub and spokes were fine but the rim was cracked. Getting the wheel vertical was fine, but completely round drove me nuts. That you did it in 6 hours is impressive. Well to me it is.

term1te

I built some vertually identical wheels about 18 months ago. Very pleased with them. I did find that the spoke tension dropped after I'd fitted and inflated the tyre, apparantly it is a known issue with those rims. This caused the dishing to go a bit on the rear, so I retensioned it with the inflated wheel in place. No problems since. The awful Stan's decals peel off ever so easily if you want to save a few more grams.

964cup

Term1te wrote:

I built some vertually identical wheels about 18 months ago. Very pleased with them. I did find that the spoke tension dropped after I'd fitted and inflated the tyre, apparantly it is a known issue with those rims. This caused the dishing to go a bit on the rear, so I retensioned it with the inflated wheel in place. No problems since. The awful Stan's decals peel off ever so easily if you want to save a few more grams.

That's helpful, thanks. I'm waiting for the tubeless tyres to turn up; when I've fitted those (Hutchinson Intensives) - which will be a challenge in itself if the last set I fitted is anything to go by - I'll recheck the wheels before riding them.

The stickers are hideous, and will be coming off.

964cup

philthy3 wrote:

I've recently rebuilt a damaged front tub. The hub and spokes were fine but the rim was cracked. Getting the wheel vertical was fine, but completely round drove me nuts. That you did it in 6 hours is impressive. Well to me it is.

I found the trick with this is to adjust alternately - so rather than always pulling in a high spot (where the rim is too far from centre) you also release the spokes opposite the high spot instead. The other thing was to do it gradually, using initially half a turn on the spoke directly at the problem point and a quarter turn on the spokes to either side of it (so as not to affect lateral true) and then a quarter turn with two eighths.

StillGoing

964Cup wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

I've recently rebuilt a damaged front tub. The hub and spokes were fine but the rim was cracked. Getting the wheel vertical was fine, but completely round drove me nuts. That you did it in 6 hours is impressive. Well to me it is.

I found the trick with this is to adjust alternately - so rather than always pulling in a high spot (where the rim is too far from centre) you also release the spokes opposite the high spot instead. The other thing was to do it gradually, using initially half a turn on the spoke directly at the problem point and a quarter turn on the spokes to either side of it (so as not to affect lateral true) and then a quarter turn with two eighths.

Yep, did all that, but kept finding the spokes were becoming too slack and still had a high spot. It was made worse by it being internal nipples and if they fully unscrew, they're a bugger to first get out the hole and then get back on the spoke thread. I got it to as close as I could and will hand it over to someone who has the knack if it doesn't run well.

cycleclinic

Don't wory about high spots or low ones. Get the tensions even (adjust in pairs) and the roundness will sort itself out, it always does for me. If its 0.5mm or no problem. Some rims have a bit of bump at the weld and radial true is a bit more out again not a problem as you'll never feel it. The main thing is even tension.

Beaware the Park TM-1 under read by at least 10% so if 944cup you went for 1200N DS rear tension (if so good man as that the tension limit of the rim) you will have a bit less than that. If you find a spoke loosens off in due course do not be afraid to raise it to 1300N on that park thingy. Also next time you do this watch out on the NDS tension as 1 unit on the park gauge is actually quite alot. Go by feel as well as the gauge. Try and shoot for +/-5% tension variation from the mean.

Well done anyway.

StillGoing

It's a carbon tub I worked on so no welds. Spoke tension I can only do by sound as I haven't invested in a tension meter. Vertical adjustment I've done with a truing stand.

964cup

thecycleclinic wrote:

Beaware the Park TM-1 under read by at least 10% so if 944cup you went for 1200N DS rear tension (if so good man as that the tension limit of the rim) you will have a bit less than that. If you find a spoke loosens off in due course do not be afraid to raise it to 1300N on that park thingy. Also next time you do this watch out on the NDS tension as 1 unit on the park gauge is actually quite alot. Go by feel as well as the gauge. Try and shoot for +/-5% tension variation from the mean.

Well done anyway.

Thanks. I ended up compromising - the tension limit for the rim is between readings on the TM1 (between 19 and 20 for a 1.6mm spoke). 20, IIRC, is theoretically 128kg/f, rim limit is 125kg/f. So I aimed to be at or a little under 20. I was under the impression that NDS spoke tension is less important, provided its reasonably even; certainly on my wheel it's considerably lower than on the DS. I felt the important thing was to get true and dished without exceeding the tension limit on the DS.