[Closed] How easy is it to build your own mtb wheels?

It's a learning curve and best to learn by practicing. Getting sideways tru is easy enough but preventing egg takes a few more goes.

How much truing of wheels have you done? A childhood of riding trials and regularly re-truing wheels got me into it.

Lacing is easy enough and there's some good youtube videos to help stop you doing anything too daft.

a few hours.

enjoy the process and don't measure the time would be my advice.

Never trued a wheel in my life.. 😀 But that doesn't put me off - have to start somewhere.

Sheldon Brown has a free guide. Read it through first though as it explains a lot of the why's which help with figuring out what you're doing with a baggy load of spokes Vs the neat drawings on the screen.

Buy a stand. Yes you can do it in the frame or forks, but a stand means you can do it on the dining room table not on a cold garage floor.

First time, I'd put aside an evening to do your first wheel. And accept that you may have to do it twice as there are a lot of stupid mistakes that can be made such as incorrectly identifying if you have a left or right hand rim, or you end up with the valve trapped in a triangle of spokes rather than between two parallel ones.

Buy a tension gauge. It's very easy, particularly with big stiff MTB rims, to build a perfectly true wheel, with tensions all over the place, that then unwinds and falls apart in a couple of rides. The cheap park one is fine.

MTB wheels are easy, building lightweight road rims is the hard part. TBH I don't think I really learnt how to do it properly until I bought some Stans Aplha's which had to be done perfectly otherwise they ended up horribly flexible.

My advice/opinion then would be to start by truing all your existing wheels in a stand and get perfectionist on it. You can do it in a frame/fork but having a proper jig really helps and will allow you to fine tune what you are doing better.

Learn to feel spoke tension and what tightening and loosening spokes does to the wheel before starting to build. You can literally turn once and watch the rim move if you have it in a jig to help learn.

Get the Roger Musson book as a starter.

Lacing is a matter of choosing a pattern and then following the methodology, hardest bit is getting the logo on the hub aligned with the valve hole.

The hoops come round and true (or should) so when tensioning you need to go round the whole wheel doing things slowly and evenly to keep it true. If the wheel goes out of true then basically you've rushed it and over-done one or two spokes.

Basically it's like following a recipe but in the same way that you might not get a brilliant cake there's a bit of a knack/black magic in getting a "perfect" wheel.

Patience and practice is more important than having all the kit IMO - for my latest build of 90mm carbon fatbike wheels I still had to use my frame because my wheel jig isn't wide enough. Lacing is probably the most daunting for a beginner - copying an existing wheel is best and don't worry about starting again. With practise, you get a feel for how many nipple turns you need for each stage of the build, progressively using smaller and smaller adjustments down to a quarter-turn or less. I can get tension to within 5% without a tension-meter, but the meter really help to make sure you get it right / don't over-tension.

i'm a wheel-building novice, i bought roger mussons book, i followed it, and i now have a pair of wheels that have survived a year of commuting.

the first wheel took me 2 evenings, because i took it slowly, and enjoyed the process. the second wheel took me about 2 hours.

great fun, i'm about to build another pair.

Roger Mussons book is all you need. I've built about 6 sets now of fat, 29er and road and built a few for friends too.
Just follow the very clear instructions and you can't go wrong. Good luck and enjoy! 😀

Start with straight bits and don't screw it up, easy 😛

Musson's book worked for me.

I've laced 2 sets now but trust my LBS to tension/true for me.
Best thing I learned was to have an existing wheel to copy. Made lacing up a piece of cake.

The hoops come round and true (or should) so when tensioning you need to go round the whole wheel doing things slowly and evenly to keep it true. If the wheel goes out of true then basically you've rushed it and over-done one or two spokes.

+1 This is how I see it. Take it slow and steady, even amount of turns on each nipple.

Great responses. I'll get the Musson's book and give it a go. What's the worst that could happen? 😕

[img] [/img]

I've replaced two busted rims myself and neither of them has exploded or gone wonky during a ride, so if I can manage it I'm sure you'll be fine!

You [i]will[/i] be paranoid it'll unravel the first time you ride on it though 😆

It's easy if you have patience and are logical. You don't need a truing stand but it is way easier using one. A tension gauge makes it easier still but it will still take a couple of hours first time round as you start to get a feel for how much you an adjust the spokes by each time.

It's a good skill to have.

It's very satisfying building your own wheels and +1 bazillion on the 'paranoia' comment up there!

I've Never read a book on it, or thrown wads of cash at Park branded stands, but I've built a fair few wheels for myself and they've all been fine... maybe I've been lucky, but I prefer to think it's simply not very hard...

Like many things in life people want to believe it's some sort of dark art, it's not. Patience and logic are what you need to apply there's more than enough information available to someone with a bit of basic Google-fu, but buy a coffee table book if you must...

The first pair I did were for a BMX I had BITD, I copied the pattern on another wheel I had and made sure the spokes were tight and it was true enough. It's not massively difficult so I suppose the hardest bit is actually making yourself have a go! I bought a cheap-ish truing stand to do MTB wheels but the BMX ones I did were just trued in the frame and forks they were going in.

I put off trying it for ages, but it turned out to be miles easier than straightening a bent wheel! All pretty painless. But you do have to be methodical, and not just follow the instructions but really understand what it's all about, I reckon.

Good thread....

I'm tempted

There's always answers about wheel building on here.
1.With a book it's easier than tying your shoe laces and any idiot can do it.
2.All broken spokes/buckles are the fault of a rubbish wheel builder and you should have it rebuilt by a professional.

Another vote for roger musson's book and just take your time. I made my own truing stand and don't use a spoke tension gauge. Have built three pairs now, it's very satisfying and I'm trying to find excuses to build another pair.

I've built about a dozen pairs of wheels now using this guide:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Originally i used v-brakes as the "jig" now I use some zip ties and a pen, and turn the wheel the other way in the dropouts to make sure it's centred.

I've never used a jig or tension meter.

A lot of the wheel building books go in to lots of detail that I'm not sure is really necessary for a 32 spoke wheel with normal hubs/rims (i.e. no super light weight 300g rims etc)

Building wheels is certainly no black art. As everyone says, its about being methodical and patient.

I've built and rebuilt about 10 pairs of wheels since I taught myself to do it with Sheldon browns guide printed out, and the cheapest wheel jig I could buy.

Having a wheel jig DOES make it easier, although I still tend to set wheel dish using the frame the wheel is going in.

Being methodical is the most important thing, followed by de-stressing the wheel repeatedly during the final tweaks. IMO, de-stressing is the way you spot the uneven spoke tensions without a stress meter. If the wheel pings more than a couple of times when you first get on the bike, its not been de-stressed enough.

I started learning by replacing a split rim by taping the new and old rim together and transferring spokes one by one and then adding tension. That was super easy and made me realise that I could build wheels, so I did!

I'll never be a pro at it, but wheel building is the kind of thing where the DIY end point is the same as the professionals, its just they build a wheel in 30 minutes (or whatever) and it takes me about 2 hours. Since I only build for myself, I'm ok with that. Generally I lace and do the preliminary tightening in one session, then go back another day and do the truing. Doing it that way stops me getting impatient about it and rushing.

I've never used a jig or tension meter

Similarly I've survived 25 years without a tension gauge and the results are much better using it but its perfectly possible to get by without

Do it. Buy Roger Mussons book and amaze your friends with your skillz. As said, it isn't a black art. A nipple driver and a tension gauge will make it easier. As will a truing stand, of course.

Don't rush and enjoy the journey. I wish I'd started years ago.

I bought a kit ( https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/rose-centering-set-ii/aid:17131) from rose bikes, the park tool nipple driver, and used Mussons book. My first wheel has had near daily (hard) use since last summer and is still true. After such good results I don't think I'd buy a factory wheel now!

The one piece of advice I would say is take your time. Don't try to rush it in one night as suggested by someone further up. Spend an hour or two one night reading the book and getting the gist of it, the next evening lace the wheel, and the last evening tightening everything / truing.

Taking your time's the thing, make a cuppa and perhaps enjoy a leisurely biscuit as you potter on. The worst that can happen is you balls up and have to start again!

Get a scrap wheel. Strip and rebuild it.

Do this several times because it's about the skill. The knowledge part of wheelbuilding is just several liitle chunks of knowledge you can absorb in 30 secs each.

You don't need to buy a jig, just flip your bike upside down, and there you are - a ready made wheelbuilding jig.

There is one possible safety concern - if you're sufficiently cack-handed you could over tension a spoke until it breaks and in that case it can fly out from the wheel like a spear. Keep your body/head out of the line of fire when you're actually making them tight.

This is extremely rare, but it's the reason wheelbuilders wear a thick apron.

[i]You don't need to buy a jig, just flip your bike upside down, and there you are - a ready made wheelbuilding jig[/i]

you can do this but for most of us sitting in the lounge with an inverted bike is a non-starter and spending hours crouched on the garage floor isn't that enjoyable.

If you think you'll do a few wheels build/buy a decent stand, sit at a table in a warm room with the radio on and enjoy the task. If not, talk to friends or on a local FB group - they may have a stand you can borrow.

https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/rose-truing-stand/aid:553818?channable=e8467.NTUzODE4&gclid=CIyDpbfQgtICFYO77QodLlcHOg

kayla1 - Member
The worst that can happen is you balls up and have to start again!

which means another round of coffee-toast-tea-biscuits.

i don't know about you, but to me that's a win of epic proportions!

over the next few days, i'll be building my 2nd pair, i'll stick up some photo's and commentary as i go...

wwaswas - Member
'You don't need to buy a jig, just flip your bike upside down, and there you are - a ready made wheelbuilding jig"

you can do this but for most of us sitting in the lounge with an inverted bike is a non-starter and spending hours crouched on the garage floor isn't that enjoyable.

If you think you'll do a few wheels build/buy a decent stand, sit at a table in a warm room with the radio on and enjoy the task...

right - here are my rims:
[img] [/img]
(kinlin XR22's, £40 each)

here are my hubs:
[img] [/img]

here's how i measured the hubs:
[img] [/img]
(note how i've lined the left-flange up with a line on the paper)

here are the measurements of my rear hub:
[img] [/img]
(taken with a ruler)

here's how i measured the diameter of the hub flanges:
[img] [/img]
(guess what? - i rounded to 45...)

the Kinlin rims claim an effective diameter of 595mm. i measured the internal diameter at 589mm with a tape measure, adding 2x3mm for the thickness of the rim gives me 595mm

so, i've taken my measurements* off to an online spoke calculator, bashed in the numbers, and wrote down the suggested spoke lengths.

i've done a bit of rounding, as the calculator says i need 289mm spokes for the left side of my rear wheel, and 288mm spokes for the right/drive side of my rear wheel. i'm just going to buy 288mm spokes so i don't have to worry about getting wrong.

(*2 hubs = 4 flanges, 4 offsets)

i've bought Dt swiss comp spokes, in boxes of 20, and 12mm brass nipples, in boxes of 40, from Rose bikes. Obviously i'm going to end up with spokes and nipples left over.

more in a few days...

[quote=ahwiles ]
i've bought Dt swiss comp spokes, in boxes of 20, and 12mm brass nipples, in boxes of 40, from Rose bikes. Obviously i'm going to end up with spokes and nipples left over.
more in a few days...

Good luck! Rose have completely pissed me off with my order, 1st order no nipples in box I suspect they fell out due to crappy box. replacements sent to wrong address. Another set on their way to me, wouldn't be my first choice to buy from again.

Get the shop to install the BB and headset when they ship the frame. Everything else is easy. Oh and buy wheels rather than build I reckon.

Built my first wheel using Sheldon's guide and remembered how to do it from then on.
Very enjoyable process.

Not sure how a whole book is required when the 4 or so paragraphs on Sheldon site cover all I needed to know?