Wheel Building courses

agent_buchwald
agent_buchwald Posts: 256
edited July 2015 in Workshop
I am after any experiences or advice regarding wheel building courses - it's basically a hole in my mechanical knowledge that i'd like to plug. I'm in Brighton and want to know if any are recommended or if i should just teach myself and learn through experience. I'd like to be able to build my own wheels but also be able to tension and true wheels. Any help apprciated, thanks in advance.
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Comments

  • kleinstroker
    kleinstroker Posts: 2,133
    Sounds good! Would like to know as well, in SW London.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,321
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19645752#p19645752]kleinstroker[/url] wrote:
    Sounds good! Would like to know as well, in SW London.

    Drop me a PM next week. I might (or might not) have something for you
    left the forum March 2023
  • agent_buchwald
    agent_buchwald Posts: 256
    Thanks Ugo, I was hoping you'd contribute, will pm next week.
    Look 566
    Dolan Hercules
    Genesis Flyer
    Sintesi 707
    Genesis Aether
    Charge Plug
  • apreading
    apreading Posts: 4,535
    Me too - might be interested. In Reading but SW London could be achievable...

    Serviced my first cup & cone bearing a couple of weeks ago - dont know what I was worried about, really easy!

    Big things I would still like to learn are wheel building/fixing and suspension fork servicing.
  • itboffin
    itboffin Posts: 20,072
    Ditto wheels are my nemesis

    If you're in reading then your best bet would be the bike whisperer Google it, the dude is a bike fit, wheel builder, coach legend.
    Rule #5 // Harden The Feck Up.
    Rule #9 // If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
    Rule #12 // The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.
    Rule #42 // A bike race shall never be preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
  • apreading
    apreading Posts: 4,535
    I know bike whisperer does bike fit & wheel build but does he teach it too? (I guess I should ask him but I didnt think he would as it takes his trade away)
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,321
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19645761#p19645761]Agent Buchwald[/url] wrote:
    Thanks Ugo, I was hoping you'd contribute, will pm next week.

    I was referring to Kleinstroker who is local to me. Don't know anyone in your area... :cry:
    left the forum March 2023
  • agent_buchwald
    agent_buchwald Posts: 256
    Okay no worries but I'm quite happy to travel for the right skills and SW London's only an entertaining motorbike ride away.
    Look 566
    Dolan Hercules
    Genesis Flyer
    Sintesi 707
    Genesis Aether
    Charge Plug
  • graememacd
    graememacd Posts: 386
    Why not just have a go at building wheels yourself?? there's plenty of info on the internet and lots of useful info on this forum also. I decided to have a go at building my own wheels earlier this year and those wheels have now done 1500 miles. I didn't find it that hard to build the wheels but the first couple of rides were a bit nerve racking! :D
  • dgunthor
    dgunthor Posts: 644
    start by learning to true using wheel in the frame and the brake blocks as guides.

    if you get on with it get a wheel truing stand

    advance from that to replacing a worn rim which is pretty straightforward (tape new rim to old and move one spoke over at a time)

    from there to replacing a hub

    building a new set of wheels from scratch shouldn't be required very often at all, especially with the prevalence of factory wheels these days.
  • Guernsey Donkey
    Guernsey Donkey Posts: 144
    I did a one day course at Edinburgh Bicycle co-op in Edingburgh last year.

    It was very informative and gave me the confidence to build a set of wheels of my own.

    I don't think that there is any way that reading a book or watching a video can replace the knowledge that you get from building a wheel under the guidance of a good tutor. You will make mistakes but these will be spotted and corrected at the time. On your own there is a good chance that they will be spotted much later and involve a lot of backtracking.
  • agent_buchwald
    agent_buchwald Posts: 256
    Thanks for the responses - I could just watch a lot of youtube tutorials and read books and practice but I think a bit of guidance at the beginning would go a long way, i know there's no substitute for experience and i was hoping to lean on someone else's to start off with.
    Look 566
    Dolan Hercules
    Genesis Flyer
    Sintesi 707
    Genesis Aether
    Charge Plug
  • Captain Fagor
    Captain Fagor Posts: 739
    I do my own wheel fettling (i.e. minor truing in bike frame), but admittedly failed horribly to bring some life back to a pair of wobbly zondas with 7000 miles on them. I'm tempted to learn to build my own wheels, but the thing that I wonder about is spokes and spoke length. There seems to be a lot of variables there to get wrong, not least their length!
  • Guernsey Donkey
    Guernsey Donkey Posts: 144
    There are quite a few spoke calculators out there. The one I used was http://www.prowheelbuilder.com/spokelengthcalculator/ which is fine as long as they list your hubs and rims. There are quite a few others out there.

    I have built two sets. One was Stans Grail rims on Hope Pro 2 Evo disc hubs and the other were H+Son rims on Hope Mono RS hubs. Rims and hubs can be found from the usual suspects (Wiggle CRC etc) but the best choice of spokes (that are in stock) seems to be Rose in Germany. Their service is good and shipping only takes a couple of days.
    If you are looking for an ebook to read then I can thoroughly recommend Roger Musson's book. http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

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