Need to rebuild my winter back wheel (road) as the rim split. Bought a rim, accidentally ended up with 4 too many spoke holes. Can I just leave empty holes at 12, 3, 6 and 9 O'Clock and crack on or will it all end in tears?
I'm sure I've got a a couple of rims in the back of the garage that have never been used and you'd be welcome to them for postage - I'm in Lancaster
Spoke lengths required would vary too much to be accommodated by your existing spokes if you were planning on re-using them.
I hadn't considered the spoke lengths, that might be a problem.
Tomaso, that would be fantastic, thanks! Can you drop me an email to paulrockliffe(at)mail2web(dot)com please.
Cheers all!
It would work - not as strong but it would work. Spoke lengths would be incorrect but again would likely work.
As a wheel builder I would not recomend this. You can lase a 18 hole rim to a 36 hole hub but not a 36 hole rim to a 32 hole hub or visa versa.
Spoke tension would have to uneven to keep it straight and round, this a recipie for disaster.
I have 32 hole rims if you want.
What's the worse that could happen? Recipe for disaster = red rag to a bull ๐
I think I did it years ago, it was fine.
I am/was a wheelbuilder, built hundreds.
Having offered a rim I bet when I go and check its a 36 hole jobbie! I'll check tonight Paul and let you know.
Yeah, that's brilliant Tomaso, thanks really appreciate it! This is for a winter wheel so it just has to be vaguely the right shape.
When the rim split I did about 400 miles on it with a 6mm buckle in it without issues. I managed to pick up some Kysrium SLs very cheap, but I've since been told off for riding them in the winter grit as apparently they're too good for that, so I need to fix my broken wheel!
What's the worse that could happen?
Hmm.
I reckon the worst that could happen is this: your dubiously constructed wheel explodes while you're doing 30mph downhill round a corner, in front of a petrol tanker that's pulling out of a refinery which just happens to be built next to a top-secret government research facility specialising in biological warfare agents. The petrol tanker driver swerves to avoid the shower of debris flying from the bike and crashes into the rotten tree trunk overhanging the road, which then falls on the tanker, causing it to rupture. An otherwise innocuous smouldering cigarette stub improbably ignites the petrol vapour, causing a massive fireball, and flaming debris land in the refinery starting a second fire which in turn initiates a chain reaction of explosions across the site. The biological research facility safety systems are insufficient for the onslaught of flaming wreckage and a number of highly potent substances are released into the atmosphere, spread over a vast area by the force of the fire, causing untold suffering to millions of innocent people before killing them horribly. The kitten and puppy sanctuary across the road is also destroyed. Incredibly, the only survivor within a five mile radius is you, at the epicentre of the circle of death and destruction caused by your disregard for good wheel-building practice. You slump onto the tarmac holding the remains of The Wheel That Should Not Have Been, asking an unfeeling universe "WHY?!"
I strongly recommend you get hold of a 32h rim, better safe than sorry eh?
๐
It'd be a mess since you'd end up with some LH spokes in RH holes and visa versa plus different angles coming out of the hub.
That said, if you can get the spoke lengths to work (and I suspect that the right lengths for a 32h hub/rim comination would be fine) realistically, it'd probably be absolutely fine - at least I don't reckon it'd break suddenly (why would it?).
Obviously the unsuported sections would be weaker than normal so the wheel would be weaker overall if you were unlucky enough to hit something in just the right place. Again, though, judging by the number of wheels out there I see with very loose spokes (so effectively not supporting the rim) or even missing ones, I don't think you're talking anything worse than what lots of people ride and you WON'T DIE (or at least no more likely than all those lose/missing spoke people)
I agree it might be alright for pottering around but when I build wheels I do not go for "that will do" and hope for the best. It is either gets built correctly or not at all.
Interesting. Any chance you could work out a probability for your scenario mintimperial?
I hadn't considered the spokes running to the wrong side of the rim, thanks for that.
I'm probably not going to run it at all, but I was bored at lunch time so I loosely fitted everything together to see what it would look like. It hasn't built up at all well, I think it needs different length spokes at different points perhaps. Some spokes are really tight, some are quite loose and one I can't even get into the nipple.
Might just need fettling, might just be a bad idea!
I've done it ages ago, but it's not worth the faff. If I remember right various length spokes and tensions. Never rode the wheel because I didn't trust it.
In the last couple of tears I've redrilled a 36 rim to take 32, but used some of the original holes where they weren't too far from where I would drill for 36, and I've been riding that wheel for 2 years without problem. Again still a lot of faff and I wouldn't have done it if I had had a choice.
To quote BigDummy (from a long time ago!), the worst that could happen is:
It'd be like watching that video of the rolling rally car the other day, but in slow motion, and the car is full of ostriches, and every time it rolls another ostrich comes flying out, and as each ostrich hits the ground it starts whooshing like a catherine wheel, and all the orange penguins who are watching the crash come running out with brooms and try and put the ostriches out by hitting them with their brooms, but the brooms just catch fire and the penguins panic and stat rolling around on the ground surrounded by exploding ostriches as the car rolls on and on spewing out ever more ostriches.
That sounds BAD!
Sorry Paul only got 26 inch mtb rims in the back of the garage - thought I had a roadie one but no.
