[Closed] How hard is it to build a set of wheels

start off by reading [url= http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php ]wheelpro[/url]

It's a good read, have some patience, building wheels is very straight forward as long as you take your time and do it step by step

Only done one set but dead easy, once you've done 3 spokes you just repeat. Also used wheel-pro but plenty of you tube vids.

Its a good skill to have, what you will learn building a set will help when it comes to maintaining and truing existing wheels.

Sheldon Browns sites worth a read thru to.

I built some wheels with the help of Wheelpro. It was a very thing to do but it's cheaper to buy ready built wheels rather than separate hubs, rims, spokes and nipples.

To get an idea, replace one of your worn out rims by taping a new one to it (valve holes aligned) and just swap the spokes over. You'll get an idea of how to tension a wheel without starting from a daunting pile of bits on your kitchen table...

Or just jump straight in the deep end!

If you're methodical and using new parts it's not very hard at all.

Passable ones 3/10
Good ones 7/10

Are you happy doing everything else mechanical on a bike (assuming you have the tools)? Building wheels isn't for the total mechanical numpty, but not all that difficult if you can cope with normal mechanical jobs.

I'd recommend http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html - though actually I've always followed the instructions in http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Bicycle-Wheel-Jobst-Brandt/dp/0960723668 (which appears to be available online http://poehali.net/attach/Bicycle_Wheel_-_Jobst_Brandt.pdf )

I did a pair this morning. Old hubs, new rims and spokes. It's been ages since I built a pair but I remembered it all pretty easily, took about 90 mins to do both.

Key thing is to take your time. Set out everything you need, make sure you're at least using new spokes & rims (much easier that way) and get rid of all distractions. Trying to do it alongside other stuff is just asking for trouble. Plenty of online guides so use them and make sure there's a nearby bike shop open for if/when you balls it all up!

I've built 4 or 5 wheels. Enough to know it isn't rocket science. Enough to be confident about trueing any wheel on the road. Also enough to be happy to pay a few quid to get an expert to build them better than I can.

But then I'm 16 or 17 stone. Less flabby riders might not need such good wheels.

Something that I aim to learn. My uneducated view, is that once the basic's have been understood i.e. direction of spokes and lacing patterns, dish, round and true (my basics!), it's probably not too hard to build a wheel, follow a sequence and there it is!

However, I regard being able to build a [b]good[/b] wheel to be a much more difficult/skilled thing to achieve!

A black art, where with time and practice and use, the dextrous, mechanical hand-eye skills blend with experience and understanding, experimentation, failure and success to enable the wheel builder to become a true crafts-person.

By which I mean someone who is able to interpret their own or another rider's subjective and/or objective requirements, where their developing understanding of which rim profiles are best combined with which spokes and hubs and are able to [b]feel[/b] how they can use spoke tension to give a wheel that feels right to the rider.

Or maybe Im getting carried away with the romance of it all?! 😉

Technically....it's knitting for blurkes (I'm on 250-300 wheels built so far and I still occasionally get a duffun').

thanks folks...

Yep can fix pretty much everything else on the bike (mainly thanks to advice from here) so this is the next logical step.

Does the weelsmith guide tell me what spoke lengths I'll need.

Also, do I need a stand of can you do it in an upturned fork?

I did mine from the sheldon brown site, using his wheel jig bodges. Its easy but time consuming at first. Plan to do it in stages.