mrblobby - MemberDouble butted... thick at the ends, thin in the middle.
If it's just for an XC build then DT Competition for all rounder wheels, Revolutions for lighter builds. I got mine recently from CRC.
Thanks for clearing that up. 🙂
My wheels will mainly be used on Surrey Hill trails so lots of roots, a few jumps and drops.
Sofabear - should you do the Bike Kitchen course I can say it well worth it. I did it this time last year and have built a few wheels since (with the Musson book as back up) and all have not killed me and remained true, even after a week in Peebles, the 'Ardrock and a week in the Alps (plus many Surrey trips). The Bike Kitchen provide much tea too 🙂
This best bit about building your own wheels is when you lace up the rim and get ot all true only to realise the pump doesn't fit on the valve due to a bit of a cock up re lacing.
Fit the home builder, apart from the cost, the advantage of the roger mission diy wheel jig is that you go on 'relative' measurments. You need a dishing tool and in the end I bought a proper one but then the rest of the straight/round measurments are done by eye. This then means as long as the wheel spins (doesn't even need to be perfectly aligned with the stand itself although it helps if it is fairly straight in the stand) then you can have it just hanging in the 'dropouts' with an Allen key or skewer rather than tying yourself in knots with fittings or adapters for different hub spacings and axle 'standards'. His book explains this far better than I can, but it also means I have easily built up on all sorts of hubs including 150x12 rear and maverick front hubs, and only something as big as 29er rim with a tyre still on doesn't fit in it if you want a quick spin to check if it's the rim or the tyre that's wobbly.
As above, if you start with a new straight rim and the spokes 'in tune' (I ping them early in the build for even starting tensions) then follow careful tension-true-stress relief cycles, the spokes will end up very evenly tensioned at the end. Pinging them for pitch as you do the intermittent trying is a good way to keep them that way: if a spoke you want to tighten is already higher pitch than its same-side neighbours then consider loosening the opposite side adjacent spokes too.
Other top tip as well as oiling spoke threads and nipple beds/eyelets (up cycle your used fork oil for this job) is to put a drop in between where spokes cross each other. Less pinging and easier to 'stress relieve' compared to clean but dry spokes.
