How would you fancy your chances in getting the wheel in the videos below back to straight? It’s an ultegra 6700 rear with 20 spokes. Lateral wobble about 12mm, roundness is not too bad. Spoke tension is all over the place. I’ve had a good go but it’s still not good, and expect it’ll go bad again after riding. I expect replacing the rim (e.g. with an Archetype or Halo Mercury) might be the best/only option, obviously will need new straight-pull spokes which will need to be compatible with the unusual Ultegra hub.

Videos

Cheers,

Spoke tension is all over the place

ime if you can’t the rim to true with even spoke tension then it’s time to fit a new rim.

get rid of the lateral wobble – 12mm is *a lot* and see how the tension is then.

you could try releasign all the tension in the spokes and then startign again – it’s soemtimes easier.

*i’m far from a wheel expert*

have you tried detensioning and looking at how round the rim is. can be an indication of wheter it’ll go round again.

The wheel is actually more knackered as a lot of the nipples are seized, but that wasn’t possible to tell before I started. I’m just after opinions as to whether, given the starting condition, one might expect to fix it. I bought this secondhand and am wondering how annoyed I ought to be.

To echo others here, I think I’d release all tension, get the nipples back to an even position (use a spoke driver for this) and then start from scratch. If it can’t be made vaguely true with even tension, new rim time :-/

Oh, and I’d probably fit new nipples too, for the couple of quid they’d cost.

If you can’t release the nipples, then little choice but to cut the spokes and remove the rim. If the rim lies flat with no more than a few mm distortion, it should be OK to rebuild – anymore and you’ll struggle to maintain even spoke tension with so few spokes. You should be able to buy replacement Shimano spokes if the hub isn’t knackered but probably best to rebuilt with brass, not alloy nipples. You might have to put this one down to ‘experience’?

probably best to rebuilt with brass, not alloy nipples

They don’t use standard nipples so you’re stuck with the Shimano ones.

Just looked at prices for replacement spokes / nipples. The NDS ones are £5.99 each, the DS ones £6.99 each (I have no idea why the prices are different) so £130 for a set. Replacement rim is £99.99

Those parts prices are daft, but thanks for finding them – I couldn’t find a rim price. The whole wheelset was ‘only’ £90, so it’s not looking tempting! Hopefully will get a reasonable partial refund from the seller as it’s clearly not fit. If ‘normal’ straight pull spokes will work in the hub, I’ll just do that and use the archetype or mercury rim – still at least £60, but not £230.

I bought this secondhand and am wondering how annoyed I ought to be.

£130 for a set. Replacement rim is £99.99

Significantly, if you weren’t aware of the issues.

I was told it ‘needed a bit of a true’ but I was expecting maybe 3-4mm and 20mins on the truing stand. Main point of the post was to see if the amount of wobble would be classed as ‘needing a bit of a true’ or if it needs £230 worth of spare parts!

Main point of the post was to see if the amount of wobble would be classed as ‘needing a bit of a true’

I’d say no. but depends wheter you can fix it; seized nipples would imply not though…

With only 20 spokes I think it’ll be very difficult to rebuild that into a strong wheel, especially without much wheelbuilding experience. It may be beyond economic repair.