I'm building a (Lovely) pair of wheels for someone. I laced them up at home last night and brought them and my jig into work today. I've got all day, between customers, to get them absolutely bang on. I've already decided this is going to be the best pair I've ever built and, so far, it's looking very good indeed.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh mechaincal bliss…..

🙂

Once you accept that it takes as long as it takes, it is genuinely cathartic. Best done with a nice pint of ale next to you, though…

They don't mind the wheelbuilding here, but I'd get sacked for drinking….

😉

Front is now within 0.5mm in every direction. I'm mulling over how much tension to put in them, Stans 355 rims shouldn't be built as tight as some, I'm told….

Tension-wise, I reckon as much as you dare… just before you think the nipples will start to round off

Depends who's riding them – If its for a racer then crank up the tension a bit more, if not then I find loosening the tension creates a bit of dampening.

I certainly agree though – nothing quite as relaxing as a whole evening with your mind lost in counting spoke key turns.

do you use a spoke tension meter by the way?

No, I don't have a tension meter. I use my fingers…. I don't do enough wheels to warrant one, and I've heard they aren't much use anyway. No matter, this is as tight as a gnats chuff now, as tight as I dare on someone else's £70 rim, put it that way!

Oh, they're 29er wheels as well

Sorry, £45 rim.

mmmm, mine are on the verge of collapse, still not bad on 1 tension in 6 years running revolutions too, but I must remember to take them into the LBS…. I will never ever have the time to learn myself, BUT I am a bit jelous your enjoying yourself!

Did the scooter pass the MOT?

Tinsy, well, I haven't heard otherwise form the seller!

Wheelbuilding's great. I used to do it p!ssed when I was a student after coming back from the pub – never seemed to cause any problems and I quite enjoyed the chilled out feeling of doing it 🙂

just done part1 (lacing up, first tension and de stress) of a build this morning while waiting for it to warm up outside. now going to have lunch followed by 2-3 riding on the moors in cloudless sunshine. magic.

Niiiiiiiice!

Can we have an update? What hubs are they on?

I bet the hubs are some old hope pro 2s

building with quality components is very satisfying.

building with crap is like djing with boxing gloves on!!

niiiice.

a day of staring at holebase (a program) here and wondering how such an attrocity can be released as a "working product"
its got more bugs than a dogs bed.

might buy myself some wheel building bits and play at wheel building some time, just because i can

Rich – Pro 2s, No Tubes ZTR355 rims, black DB spokes.

Seriously, lovely rims to wotk with, very easy to true up indeed, no creaking, got them nice and tight, all finished an on their way to the owner tomorrow. Very light too, IMO.

Update for Tinsy – Scooter passed MOT easily. :o)

We have som digital scales here too – Front is 829g, rear 951g. Remember these are 29er wheels. So that's light!

man of your calibre dunt need a tension meter anyroad.
once your good at it its got nowt to offer.

Careful with the tension on satans rims, they do crack around the spoke holes…

PeterPoddy – Member
I'm building a (Lovely) pair of wheels for someone

Typical put someone else before you

yer soft sod 😉

Building wheels is very, very satisfying 😀 I went for a blast on the CX bike round the Haldon Red run this evening on a front wheel I built up last night. All still true after a good battering!

I really enjoy building wheels from recycled components – I know some people think you shouldn't re-use rims, spokes and nipples – but I've been doing it for personal use for years.
My LBS lets me have a rummage in their throwaway pile, so this wheel was made from a lovely Suntour XC Pro front hub (cartridge bearings still running smoothly after probably 15+ years), a DT Swiss RR1.1 rim that was straight, but had a tiny flat on it (straightened that with a vice and adjustable spanner), and some DB spokes & nipples from a decentish no name wheel. 3 cross pattern for a nice strong build, and trued it up in the forks using the brakes and an allen key taped on as a guide. Lovely (and free 😉 )

Agree,Stans rims are much nicer to build than others,don't know why,they just feel nicer…….

Agree,Stans rims are much nicer to build than others,don't know why,they just feel nicer…….

Yeah, why is that? I've built a few Mavics, a couple of DTs, a Sun SOS, but the Stans rim just trued up very easily, the slightest tweak of a nipple (ooo-errr-missis!) made a difference. Odd.

Maybe they're not very stiff laterally (or in torsion). That'd certainly explain it.

Stiff rims are certainly harder to true.

As a have stumbled on a thread with experienced wheel builders, can I ask a question.

I have a pair of 4 year old FSA XC-300 wheels and last weekend a managed to break a spoke nipple, the threaded section is ok but the top part which holds the rim in place sheared off (the part that looks like the top of a mushroom has sheared off), is it ok just to replace the one nipple; or should I have all of the nipples replaced as a precaution on the premise that if one has failed the others will be stressed similarly

Just replace the nipple, it should be OK. Although it will have knocked the wheel out of true as well, so if you don't know how to true wheels, it's LBS time really to get it sorted. it's not just a matter of tightening it up….

I'll bet you've got a riding mate that can do it for you in about 5 mins though… 🙂

PeterPoddy

Thanks for the confirmation that I can replace just the sheared nipple, as for the wheel running out of true, I have had a little tuition on truing wheels so should be able to get it close.

Although this could be the excuse to get some new wheels, been thinking of some Hope Pro 2 on 355 rims

Ops: just spotted you are building the same set of wheels so I will take that as a sign of approval

THis may give me motivation, I need to build 2 sets of weeels up, well one full set and true up and a few spokes to replace on another. You have to be in the zone though to be arsed doing it I find. I have been looking at them for over 2 month lol