Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
  • Wheel Building Course – SW England/S. Wales area?
  • skyhigh_71
    Full Member

    Hi,

    Can anyone recommend a wheel building course please, ideally near to SW England, S. Wales, West Midlands area.

    Thanks.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    Buy a book, or read sheldon browns guide and learn yourself. Its not hard.

    skyhigh_71
    Full Member

    thanks David but I really want a course. Don’t have lots of time to read a book work it out myself.

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    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    The first wheel I built was a 721 rim on a hope bulb hub. I didnt use a book, i just skim read a couple of online guides.

    I took my time (2.5 hours!) and built the wheel. It turned out great, and stayed true on the back of my downhill hardtail for 2 years and then I sold it.

    I imagine a course will teach you everything, but its practice makes perfect!

    Swiftacular
    Free Member

    Have you not got a decent lbs?
    If youre in the southwest, pop in to ours (ilfracombe), and ill run you through it, but there really is no dark art to it, just practice and patience.

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    I know you said a course, but the pdf book (Wheelpro?) is excellent.
    What about bribing a local bike shop with cakes, confectionery, fine furs, jewels etc…

    Swiftacular
    Free Member

    And Davids right, it was Sheldons that i learnt from. If you dont have lots of time, maybe wheelbuilding isnt for you? Not to sound impolite…

    toys19
    Free Member

    I don’t get it, no time to read a book, but time to do a course?
    I’ve used this book since 1983 By the time I was 14 I was building BMX wheels for my mates, recently got back into it.
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Bicycle-Wheels-Robert-Wright/dp/0890371067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311110044&sr=8-1

    Its two hour read, go to bed early and by breakfast you’ll know what to do.

    TuckerUK
    Free Member

    I did my first wheel using just the frame and a correct size spoke key, reading Sheldon’s excellent online guide as I went. I was so chuffed I e-mailed him to thank him. Lovely man that he was, I even got a nice reply.

    Wheel still runs true, it was a rear, and I weigh 16 stone.

    bobbyspangles
    Full Member

    we do courses:

    wheel building course
    mail me if you want more info

    toys19
    Free Member

    Blimey 340 quid + vat!! I’ll spend half a day with you, show you how its done and help you build your wheels, all for a pasty.

    kettlegun
    Free Member

    There’s a course in Oxford that is a bit more reasonable, and they have funky demonstration wheels like this:

    It’s £85 for a day but their next course with places on isn’t until September. Here is their course calendar

    100mphplus
    Free Member

    I bought Roger Mussons book for £9, http://www.wheelpro.co.uk read it for a couple of hours, bought hubs, rims and spokes dirt cheap off ebay for ~ 50% of lbs price and then took ~ 6 hours to build my first pair of wheels.

    Had a mate who’s built a few check it over and he said they were excellent 8)

    It’s not a black art as many people believe. I think the hardest part was calculating the spoke lengths required.

    5lab
    Full Member

    another vote for the ‘just do it’ option. If you want practice, take apart one of your old knackered wheels and rebuild that, but there’s really not much too it, and if you do bugger a wheel up, your lbs will be able to fix it for you

    xiphon
    Free Member

    +1 for the Sheldon Brown guide.

    modamechanic
    Free Member

    Gerd Schraners ‘The Art of Wheelbuilding’ did it for me

    skyhigh_71
    Full Member

    Thanks everyone who posted on this. I deliberated the advice, read Sheldon Brown’s web guide on wheel building, and jumped right on in to the deep end.

    Thanks especially to Toys19 – I was ready to bring you a whole van load of pasties.

    I fashioned a wheel jig for about 30 pence out of a 6″ ruler, 2 elastic bands and 2 cable ties – on the basis the main part was already paid for being the bike frame I was building.

    Photos

    Lacing up the spokes took a Friday evening in front of the telly.

    Truing about 4 hours for both wheels over the weekend.

    I think I have them in true vertically and laterally to about 0.5-0.25mm. My only concern is on the rear wheel, which has an Alfine 11 hub, all the spoke calcs said same length spokes on both sides. The right appear a little long, left a little short (RH – spokes all the way through the nipples,perhaps 1mm over, LH, 1-2mm short of the top of the nipples). To get the dish, I just tried to get the rim dead centre of the frame between the seat stays – I used a carpenters sliding square to measure the distance between stay and rim until both sides were the same. Don’t know if that’s right but it looks logical to me!

    Hope to have the bike finished in the next few days, so the first ride will see if the wheel collapse under me!

    Cheers

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