zombyman

i'm a pretty good mechanic, but one of the only things i don't know who to do yet is wheel building/truing. i had this ancient wheel on my mountain bike for about 10 years and just tacoed it beyond repair, but it has this really nice XTR hub on it. i would much rather rebuild it myself so i know how to do it in the future but should i go directly to the wheel with the XTR or should i practice on something a little cheaper first? if so, what would be the cheapest setup i can get? i'm also a big road biker so it wouldn't be a waste of my time if the practice wheel were to be a road wheel. and one last thing, where would i be able to find someone/something that would be able to guide me through the process? all answers are appreciated.

hbsyncro

wheel building is pretty easy. i'd just do it with the xtr unless you have $ to burn to buy more stuff. rear or front? sheldon brown has a good guide and there are others too. i get my spokes w/the help of the lbs for correct length, but you can do that online also (if rear, drive and non-drive are dif lengths). for a stand you can use an old fork or your bike. once i gave a rim, spokes, hub and directions to a fixie kid in my neighborhood who knew **** about bikes and he rode over the next day on the wheel to show me his handy work! have fun

Panthers007

I'd suggest that you start here:

https://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Then come back with questions you will have - about spoke-length, tension, truing-stands, spoke-wrenches, etc. And other books and narratives on wheelbuilding.

Good luck!

wmodavis

I add my +1 to Sheldon Brown's stuff. Zinn's book also has a good section on wheel building and the Wheel Pro book here is quite good. I've used all of them. Note, there are several correct ways so they may not all agree especially on the finer points of lacing but pick one and follow it and you won't go wrong.

Retro Grouch 

Just do it!

Wheelbuilding is more attention to detail than having some mysterious knack. I would strongly encourage you to start off with your XTR hub and a good quality rim like a Sun Rhyno Lite or Velocity Aero Heat. Either of those rims will tension and true up nicely provided you take your time and pay attention to what you're doing.

I don't think there's very much to learn by building a "practice wheel" with crummy parts. You can practice the laceing process but the real test of wheel building is in the tensioning and trueing process. Low quality rims don't "feel" the same when you're tensioning, they require a lot more fiddling and trueing, and the finished result is generally less satisfactory.

TwoShort

+1000 to the Sheldon Brown writeup.

I'd go right to the XTR. Based on my experience, if you're not trying something tricky like a really low spoke count, you can get perfectly wonderful results even the first wheel you build as long as you are patient and careful. Building wheels well and fast enough to make sense for what you can charge for wheel building is probably hard; I don't know, I can't do it. Building wheels well if you are willing to spend a lot longer than that is easy, and fun if that's what you're into.

My tip: Stick a little masking-tape flag to each spoke as a twist indicator.

operator

If you don't know what proper spoke tension is, go buy the park TM-1 before you start wheelbuilding. Or buy the DT swiss tensionmeter.

Al1943

I prefer Jobst Brandt's "The Bicycle Wheel" for wheel building. His instructions for 3-cross produce the same results as Sheldon Brown's.

Mike T.

Mr Davis gave you the link to the finest single source of wheelbuilding information - the Wheelpro e-book. Also, check out my own wheelbuilding tips for motivation.

Panthers007

I don't think spending over $500 on the DT spoke-gauge is a serious suggestion. The Park Tool TM-1 would be a good investment - and easy to re-sell if you decide building wheels is for the bats. But if you really find what many others have found - that wheel-building is a lot of fun and great for relaxation - then you might want to look into the FSA spoke-tensionmeter. This was designed by Jobst Brandt who wrote the the book on wheelbuilding - literally - The Bicycle Wheel. This is a lot less costly than the DT one from Switzerland, and is arguably the most accurate and the easiest to use:



Good luck on your new adventure!

zombyman

thanks for all of the input but i'm still a little hesitant on what i should buy though. it was a rear wheel, it had titanium spokes, alloy nipples and a mavic 117 s.u.p cd ceramic (none of these items are very cheap). all of my equipment was handed down to me by my dad so i dont have nearly enough money to replace what was on that wheel. does anybody know where i can get all that stuff cheap or will i just have to downgrade? and if worst comes to worst and i do have to downgrade, what should i downgrade too?

Panthers007

You can build a perfectly good rear wheel to replace the one that's toast. It's for a mountain-bike, yes? I'm not too familiar with what rims are available as I primarily build road-bike wheels. I'm sure someone here can suggest a good rim for, maybe, under $50? The spokes go for around $1.00 apiece. And you have the hub - which would cost you a larger sum of money - so with the XTR hub, you're already 1/2 way there.

Spoke-wrench: $3 - $10.

Learning how to put together a truing-stand: Free or close.

Park TM-1: Around $50 - or look for a used one on eBay, etc.

This could become both therapeutic and make you some money down the road.

AEO

when rebuilding from a used hub, use the same cross pattern and make sure you lace the spokes so that they don't make any new dents in the flanges.

operator

I was joking about the DT swiss tensionmeter. But hey if you're rich, why the hell not.

Panthers007

Um...Because they're not as good as the FSA and cost more than twice the price?

And yes - I knew you were kidding.

operator

There's no way the FSA is better than the DT Swiss. I'm holding it right now, with the carry case.

zombyman

i also just realized i have no idea what i'm doing when it comes to a truing stand, spoke length and tension.

although i could probably build a truing stand out of something in my garage.

operator

Zip tie and overturned bike

Jeff Wills

I've built perfectly decent wheels using nothing more than a flipped-over bike for a truing stand. However, I learned on a Park TS-2 stand. A good truing stand allows you to concentrate on getting the wheel round, straight, and tensioned. Once you've got the process down, you can start to improvise.

I've also build indecent wheels:
https://home.comcast.net/~jeff_wills/...es/bike042.htm
but then I never claimed to be normal.

Panthers007

Oh yeah! Welcome back from exile, you bad dog!

AEO

spoke length:
https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc/
https://www.dtswiss.com/SpokesCalc/Welcome.aspx
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

wheelpro and spocalc assume you use 12mm nipples, where as DT you can select.
it's best if you measure the hub yourself than use the presets by DT, as they're not 100% correct.

Panthers007

Here's the easiest one going - and may well have the rims & hubs you are researching:

https://lenni.info/edd/

Always double-check finding with at least one other calculator.

zombyman

thanks you guys, does anybody know where i can get some cheap titanium spokes?

cbchess

I'd skip Ti spokes for you first build- get some DT swiss double butted

AEO

dt competition 2.0/1.8 from cambria.