Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
60 wheels per hour!!!
I assume you're saying insert the spokes that come up from the bottom first, then insert the spokes that go down from the top.
Lacing 60 wheels per hour involves only attaching the spokes to the rim. The hubs are preloaded with spokes by another worker. This too, is a very fast production job, and can be done in under a minute, so a crew of 2 spoke loaders and 3 lacers can crank out something like 180 wheels per hour between them. The laced wheels are then passed to the tensioning/truing dept, where they're brought to final condition in time frames from under a minute (one particular machine tightens all the spokes simultaneously at about 8-10 wheels per minute total time).
When all is said and done, a production department like what Giant would have can turn out wheels in about 3-5 man minutes each depending on the final quality desired. That compares to high quality hand built wheels, which take a skilled builder about 30 minutes or so start to finish when done in small production batches.