building my first wheel

I am confident I can do this as I have trued wheels for years. But never really had the reason to build a wheel. Now I have a hub and a rim. But I dont know what length spokes I need. All I know about the hub is its a Bontrager…

Is it easy to measure the flange diameters? and is there much tolerance in spoke lengths?

Too long a spoke, you risk pushing through the rim tape with the spoke end, or not having enough thread on the spoke to tension it properly. To short a spoke, you’ll not have enough thread in the nipple and it may fail.

I’ve used a spoke length calculator online before, sorry haven’t bookmarked it. The factors in spoke length are rim nipple seat diameter, flange size/spoke hole centre radius, dish, and spoke pattern employed. These may or may not be the right terms!

Note, the chamfer in the spoke holes of the flange is so the spoke elbow can avoid touching the flange and so avoid a stress riser.

Watch out for trueness in every plane, my first wheel was fine side to side but wobbled lots up and down. I gave up on wheelbuilding by the way…….

I’ve got this book, it is very good.

Professional Guide to Wheelbuilding.

I’ve used an old upturned bike with zip-tied on quick releases as a jig before. The rear triangle holds the wheel as normal, and the QR’s are attached to the frame so as the nut on the non-lever end overhangs the shaft, so it can be screwed backwards and forwards to interfere with the rim. Alternatively, use a steel frame and a clock gauge.

It’s about 10 times easier than you think, but don’t mess about. buy Roger Mussons online book:

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

After which, it’s very very easy.

I really enjoy putting wheels together now. A great reference.

DTSwiss used to have a spoke calculator on its website – including a wide range of popular hubs and rims. Think it’s still there.
Then Roger Musson’s book and voila. Admittedly I’ve so far only used it to rebuild an existing wheel with a new rim, but it worked a treat for me. And, come to think of it, I’m still riding that wheel and have never needed to true it or anysuch. Funny that I’d never thought of that!

This is the guide I followed when I built my first wheels, worked a treat and the wheels are still going strong apparently 😀 It’s for bmx though so not sure if exactly the same will apply to a mtb wheel.

sheldon brown’s site has a very good guide. google for ‘spocalc’ for an xcel spreadsheet for calulations, instructions on how to take measurements, and plug ’em into the sheet. if you don’t have xcel download openoffice ( openoffice.org ) – that works fine.
if you’re capable of reading instructions it’s pretty straightforward. i’ve built a few wheels, including one with an alfine hub ( though to be fair i’d do that differently if i was going to do it again ), and they’re all in service still, and have required very little attention.
’tis generally cheaper to just buy ’em though, if you don’t have the bits. 🙂

Go for it and enjoy. There’s tons of bs about re building wheels and not everyone gets it.

Rich, just get the wheelpro book, it’s explains EVERYTHING!