I’ve a hope XC hub sat doing nothing after I finaly put my rear wheel out of it’s missery with a pair of pliars and a bottle of Theakstons Old Perculiar after it became a bit like triggers broom with a missmatch of PG and DB spokes that kept going pop on a regular basis.

So…….

LBS quoted £85.99 (£65 parts, £20 labour) to built it with silver DT comps and a Mavic EN521 rim.

The rims ~£28

The spokes are £16 from Rose (+£5 postage, but I’ll get some other stuff while I’m there)

So overall I could do it for arround half price myself, baragin! Or will I get it wrong and end up paying the LBS labour anway to get it true?

the most important thing is to be patient. sound like you aren’t in a rush so give it a go and post here if you need advice.

the wheelpro book is well worth the money (£9 i think)

I wouldnt bother with a book, I managed fine using a couple of on line guides, I think one of them was Sheldon Browns.

Its easy but quite time consuming. A tip I could give you would be to make sure you bed the spokes in properly, re-tension, bed in etc.

When you put the wheels on your bike and ride it, the spokes shouldnt go “ping”

If you can true a wheel (?) then you can certainly build one.

Follow Sheldon Brown’s advice as he says it and you can’t go (too) wrong 🙂

Sheldon Brown – Wheelbuilding

You won’t necessarily need a wheel building jig. I built all mine in the relevant bike frame until recently when someone lent me a jig (I’m getting on a bit and it’s a little easier on the back).

No, you won’t die. It’s really quite easy and best of all even if you really did somehow make a mess of it, you can take it all apart and take the bits to a shop and you’ve not lost anything (other than some time I guess).

Plenty of building guides around – Sheldon Brown’s is good. Best advice I can give it take your time and stop when the wheel explodes (29ers only 😉 )

The Wheelpro book is well worth getting, online guides notwithstanding.

You’ll be fine – my top tip is “when the eyelet pulls through the rim, it’s time to stop putting more tension in”.

Definitely get the Wheelpro book, best £9 I ever spent. He also gives you a guide to build your own wheeljig. Thoroughly recommended.

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk

Cheer’s, I’ll give it a go then, might even do some new wheels for the road bike done whilst I’m at it.

Which spoke calculator now that the DT Swiss one no longer works?

I cant ever work out the tension by pitch, I pluck a spoke and it goes twang, try again and its goes twong. ❓

FYI, expect to take a couple of hours on your first one (building up from components).

I tap the spokes with a pen or something similar, if they all sounds about the same then its good enough for me.

I think the spokes should be F# IIRC. No good if you’re tone deaf though 😉

I used the Sheldon Brown as linked up there^

Wasn’t too difficult to be honest, couple of hours sat in the garden and it was done.

Only using it on the turbo but it’s held up fine so far.

Shorter or longer spokes?

e.g. I need 259mm, do I buy 258mm or 260mm?

[edit] sheldon says go big or go home (not his words)

Rebuilt a few sets now, first set I did I had to take top my local lbs to get trued up, after I understood the basics the last few sets have been great. Just take your time, order longer spokes than required cos’ the ends get lost in the dish of the rim. Don’t drop the eyelets inside the rim, or if you do don’t be tempted to leave them rattling around in there, haha, half a bottle of single malt doesn’t help either ..
Have had no probs doing roadies/29er’s either…

…… Only using it on the turbo but it’s held up fine so far.

That reminds me, a turbo trainer makes a handy substitute wheel jig. You have to correct any rear wheel dishing in the frame though.

I’d always go shorter up to 2-4 mm

Built my first on a jig, came out ok. Just done a front for my 29er using some forks, only because its a Pro2 & I had no QR adapters. Dishing was the tricky bit for me. The Wheelpro book is good, but I think it has you looking for perfection…:-)