[SageBrush]

OK. (rubs hands together, rolls sleeves up).

Over the course of my riding, I've managed to accumulate an impressive number of fully working hubs, but dead rims. I used to give these away most of the time to other hopeful would be DIY wheel builders (never chased them up to find out if they ever managed to rebuild the wheels), but having several fully functioning Hope Bulb/BigUn hubs lying around, still attached by sadly twisted spokes to well and truly pringled rims, it looked increasingly as though I was throwing money down the drain, and I took the sad parts to a bike shop.

Shop - "That'll be £199 to rebuild those Big'un hubs with new bearings onto Trailpimp rims"
Me - "$&£#! Eh?"
Shop - "Rebuild is £35 per wheel labour including bearing replacement, Bearings are £20 per hub, and the rims are £44.95 each"
Me - "$&£#! I can get the bits way cheaper than that! Can I provide my own bits?"
Shop - "For quality reasons we don't build using parts that customers provide."
Me - "$&£#..."
Shop - "And we're booked for repairs until (date three weeks from now)"
Me - "$&£#!!??"

So. I've never built wheels before. When I pringled rims, I just used to buy new wheels. But with other more cash-intensive hobbies occupying my credit card these days, I need to exercise a certain amount of restraint towards spending. A new pair of wheels I'll get soon will be the last for a while, and I'd like to resurrect some 5 sets worth of Biguns and Bulbs I have here.

I do know how to true rims to a rideable condition after a bending, but not to build new wheels. How hard is it really? What do I need to start? Sorry if this has been asked before...

 

[MisterMental]

hi
where bouts in the UK are you?
in the shop that i work in essex we charge 15quid for 1 wheel or 25quid for the pair but well prolly do it cheaper if you buy the rims n stuff from us
and hope bearings are about 4quid each
so its about 16quid for a rear bigun (having 4 bearings) and 8 for the front (only having 2)

 

[SageBrush]

Driving to Essex...

I've got 5 and a half sets of hubs... The idea is to rebuild them myself. That's cheaper though if it includes the complete wheelbuild and bearing replacement work.

 

[sub6]

It's really not that bad. It's just rather time-intensive, becuase in order to do it right, you have to take your time and do everything in small increments. If you do, you'll end up with a pro-quality wheel.

My hints:

1 - get a high-quality spoke wrench. It makes it much easier, b/c you won't round off as many nipples.

2 - use brass nipples - they don't round off as easily, or break as easily, and they feel smoother as you turn 'em.

3 - use 14g spokes for your first build, maybe 14/15 db spokes. Don't use 14/17 or some such; they wind up too easily and make for a lot of pain.

4 - don't use Spoke Prep, don't use glue (yeah, I've seen that one ), and don't use Loctite on the spoke threads. Use grease. It makes the wheel FAR easier to build, and tension, and FAR easier to true in two months. There are people who would disagree with me on this (the spokeprep fans) but I've built a lot of wheels with grease on the spoke threads and trust me, they won't loosen up on ya. You can achieve higher spoke tension this way, which makes for a stronger wheel that's less likely to detension.

5 - put grease on the nipple seats (around the spoke hole inside the rim). This also makes it easier to true a couple of months down the road.

6 - do the tensioning slowly, one turn at a time. If you rush it, you'll end up with uneven tension.

7 - read this for the nuts-and-bolts of wheelbuilding:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

8 - read this for some great destressing/tensioning tips:
http://www.execulink.com/~dtierney/wmc/faq.htm#WTQ1

9 - if you follow the rather exhaustive detensioning process described above, you won't have to re-true your wheels for a LONG time, in my experience.

 

[SageBrush]

For a while I used to buy from this guy http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/ who made wheels as true as a circle of Hell :devil: but as I understand it he had a run of bad luck in his business. A great shame. In fact Roger's wheels are the only ones I have left which are working.

There's a set on my friends bike who does some crazy stuff on his machine. It's getting to two full years after these were built - never been trued since purchase - obviously the rim is showing signs of distress but the build is still as true as anything. I wanna build like him.

 

[D_D]

I find its easyer to build wheels from new rims than to true bent rims. So if you can true a badly bent rim you can build a wheel.

The hardest part to get right the first time is the lacing, its easy to make a mistake so follow some instructions.

Use a good spoke key and take your time, use whatever lube you can find (I usually use engine oil) on the threads.

Finding spokes at a decent price can be hard, anyone know of a online uk source?

You can make a truing stand out of some old forks, or just use your bike, I have some dirt cheap sus forks with removable crown and arch so I can swap the arch with a wider one made from wood to fit rear wheels.