Wheel Truing, Wheel Building, Tools and Advice

radhartgeorge

Hello all,

Having got to grips with much of my own bicycle maintenance over the past decade, I've had a growing desire to be able to true my own wheels and eventually build my own wheels. Advice on the forums to date suggest that it is worth investing in a good wheel building jig (the Park Tool TS2.2 seems to be the universally respected model) and appropriate tools.

Before I take the plunge - which is likely to end up costing £300 or so, I thought I'd check here to see if (1) anyone else was in the same position as me and regretted it? (2) What tools are necessary - nipple gauge- which is best? spoke tension meter- which is best? Dial indicator gauges - how necessary are these?

I like being self sufficient and enjoy learning new skills but have very little patience for poor quality tools making a job harder than it needs to be. That said, there is a balance to be had as the cost of having a set of wheels trued at the shop is £30-50 or so...

Thoughts welcomed...

veronese68

I got the Roger Musson book and followed that, it worked for me and I found everything was explained logically. The Park Tools stand is good, I was very lucky and was given one by a mate that found one in a jumble sale for a fiver. PlanetX did a copy of it which is probably better value for money, but I just had a look at their website and couldn't see it. There are other copies of it around I believe.
Other tools: Dial gauge isn't necessary as far as I'm concerned. Tension meter helps but it is possible without. I built my first wheels using the tone made by spokes when pinged. To help there is a phone app that measures the pitch and gives a measurement. Not sure how accurate the measurement is but you can at least ensure they are all equal. Good spoke keys are important of course, I've got these. A nipple driver makes initial assembly a lot easier. I made one but it was rubbish so bought one, something like this although mine was unbranded and a fair bit cheaper.

paulbnix

I too followed the Roger Musson book and built the various tools he describes including a nipple driver. I also use the iphone app for spoke tensions. As a wheel building jig I cut up an old hybrid frame and mounted it on some plywood.

You do need some tools to build wheels otherwise it becomes very difficult but basically I am tight fisted and object to paying money just to try wheel building.

However the wheels I have built have all been good and true.

Nick Payne

For an initial attempt at wheel building, you don't need any more tools than a spoke key. As an impecunious student, I built quite a number of wheels in my younger days with nothing more, and rode many tens of thousands of kilometres on them with zero problems. You can use your bike frame as a jig and dishing gauge, using a piece of card across the fork blades / seat stays for both lateral and radial truing and dishing. It's a bit slower and less convenient, but you can build just as good a wheel.

After spoking the wheel and putting a bit of tension on the spokes, put the wheel in the frame, tape the card in place just above the rim, rotate the wheel so that the valve hole is in line with the card, and mark on the card where the edge of the rim is. Flip the wheel around, repeat, and the wheel will be correctly dished when the rim is half way between the two marks.

Sheldon Brown's page on wheelbuilding, though now fairly elderly, has some good information: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html.

DT Swiss have a good online spoke length calculator: https://spokes-calculator.dtswiss.com/en/.

My favourite spoke key is the Var one, as it grips all four sides of the nipple when turning it. I'm not sure if that particular model is still made, as I've had mine for many years, but the Rixen & Kaul Spokey is a good alternative that also grips all the sides of the nipple:

radhartgeorge

Thanks Veronese68 and paulbnix. Roger Musson's book will be ordered...

I'm happy to purchase good quality tools if they last and I can see they will pay their way in the long run. Time poor at the moment so making jigs and such is not going to happen as fun and rewarding as it sounds.

Is there much difference between the branded spoke tension meters (Park Tools) and the knock off versions (X-tools) that look to be of a near identical design? By way of reference, the wheel building jig that X-tools makes supposedly looks the same but has too much play to be make wheels to low levels of tolerance. I'm wondering if the same issues apply to spoke tension meters?

veronese68

I got the Park tools tension gauge as a birthday present and have no experience of using others so can only comment to a limited degree. My understanding is that more important than knowing the precise tension measurement is to ensure spoke tensions are high enough to build a strong wheel and as close to even as possible whilst keeping the wheel true. This is all explained in the book, I'd say get the book and read it before spending money on tools.
If there is play in a tension gauge that play should be taken up every time you check a spoke so the results should be consistent.

Monty Dog

Good wheel building is more about your ability to be methodical in your technique - you can build great wheels without any fancy jig, and you can build cr@p wheels in an expensive jig. The X-Tools tension meter is the same as the Park - both made using Roger Musson's design. I've also used fancy DT dial-gauges but the principle is the same - take up the tension slowly and evenly and adjustments get smaller and smaller / almost beyond the naked eye. The important thing about spoke tension is getting consistency across the wheels - particularly important with low spoke count and carbon rims. You don't really need a fancy jig, just something that holds the wheel firmly - some forks and cable ties can be just as effective with the right technique / know-how

pedropete

As others rightly said, you don't need anything beyond a spoke key to build a wheel, but it does become a fair bit easier, faster and more repeatable if you invest in some decent tools.

Roger Musson's book is probably the best investment you can make when starting, but his stand design - while very good - is nowhere near as simple (or affordable) to make as the book might suggest.You need good, straight 90 deg cuts as it's all butt-joints, and that's not as easy as you'd think with handheld power tools.

As for cheap clones like the X-tools jig, don't bother. They look the part but that's as far as it goes. You might get lucky and receive a straight one that doesn't deflect massively whenever you move the wheel (and then come back to a different point, but then again you might not. That said, I've seen Park stands that needed a lot of setup to get them straight and tight.

And definitely avoid dial gauges to begin with. You'll just end up chasing the numbers and get overwhelmed. Keep it simple but solid.