I just impulse bought some cheap wtb i25 rims for my 26” wheel bike. Got a stupid idea about building my own wheels which I’m bound to make a mess of!

Looking round at cheap hubs and Shimano Deore / XT seem to be by far the cheapest option I’ve found so far. My bike is currently qr at both ends (100/135) sonim tempted just to get the cheapest reasonable hubs that will fit those. But are there any convertible hubs for a low budget that I haven’t considered – ones with different end caps so I could convert to 15mm bolt through front and 142×12 rear if I changed frame and forks to something more modern at some point?

Also, when it comes to spokes nipples, is DT the best manufacturer for hem and presume brass nipples?

Novatec hubs are pretty good – a lot of brands sell rebranded versions of them, i.e. Superstar.

771/772 or 791/792 hubs can be found pretty cheaply if you shop around. I scored a new pair of 771/772s on eBay for about £45. They can be converted between QR and various axles.

DT double butted spokes + brass nipples are the standard that most people go for, but Sapim or ACI are just a good, and often quite a bit cheaper. Or if it’s a first time build, which you may or may not muck up, then have a look at SJS cycles plain gauge spokes, as they’re strong, reliable, and cheap!

Shimano hubs are excellent quality, as long as you know how to adjust the cup and cone bearing properly they will last longer than the rims. I would pay for someone to build the wheels unless you want to do an expensive experiment.

Thanks for the comments – will see if I can find any novatech ones for a bargain.

The rims were £12.49 each, so if I can get hubs for £20 each ish then spokes / nipples for not too much then it’s not an outrageously expensive experiment. If worst comes to the worst I’ll see if my lbs are willing to put them together / tension and true up the wheel properly.

Found Deore hubs for £21 rear / £13 front which is well within budget so far. Both 6 bolt and 9mm qr – just not convertible.

I’d go for it.  It might be an expensive mistake but you’ll have fun and learn loads in the process.  I’ve done it a few times and none of the wheels have collapsed despite my best efforts.

Good luck!

That’s cheap like.

i’ve done many many miles on midrange shimano hubs, they last a long time if properly greased and adjusted.

it’s worth greasing them when new, they come with hardly any grease in them, you will need a set of cone spanners, some grease, and some patience, it takes a bit of practice to get them correctly tightened to run freely without play.

It’s quite satisfying when you get it right.

as for building wheels. Go for it, immensely satisfying to ride your own wheels

That’s the spirit!

I’m thinking I might go Deore rear hub as it’s the back wheel on my bike that’s ropey rather than the front (although the new rims will make tubeless easier without going ghetto). If I ever have to change frame I’ll have to stick to 135qr.

Looks like superstar front hubs could be a flexible solution for the front wheel as you can get the hubs with adapters for both qr and 15mm bolt through.

Go for it, great learning experience. Just make sure you have access to suitable tools and take your time when tensioning the wheel up. the more times you true the wheel as you tension the better. Also if you dont have a spoke tension gauge ping the spokes and get them sonically similar!

I definitely don’t have a spoke tension gauge and they look a little pricey for me to buy for a one off (hopefully) wheel project. I will need to get a trueing stand I think though – or beg / borrow one. That said I do have a turbo trainer so maybe I could bodge something up…..

As ever on a thread when talking about wheel building: get the Roger Musson wheelbuilding book. It has plans for building your own truing stand out of wood. The hardest bit I found about building a wheel was getting the lacing right, after that it’s just a case of going round and round the wheel slowly tightening things up*. I didn’t use a tension gauge – the pluck it like a guitar string worked for me.

*vastly over simplifying things here 🙂

Upsidedown bike. It’s all you need 😉 a couple of zipties on the chainstay or fork, and you’re good to go.

I’ve been building wheels for nearly 30 years, I did have a truing stand once, but it went AWOL when I was living abroad. Since then all wheels have been built in/on the bike.

My dad taught me initially, then I would refer to already built wheels for the pattern, after a while it becomes muscle memory. The Sheldon Brown website guide is good.

I lace up on the sofa, cup of tea or beer to hand, and something calming in TV….an Attenborough wildlife doc is perfect.

Buy a good quality spoke key, dab a tiny bit of grease on each spoke thread, and use a spoke driver or flat blade screwdriver to get the nipples on quicker.

Get the key spoke in the right place, and make sure you get the right up/under combo for your cross pattern (most people build 3 cross, but it’s fun to try out 2 or 4 just for a change occasionally).

Whitestone – thanks – someone suggested that book but didn’t say it had plans for a truing stand in it. That would of course rely on me being accurate with wood work though….🤪

Jantom- maybe the upside down bike might be a safer option than my woodworking skills!

I plan to build it loosely following the book guide – I’ve got 32h rims – so whatever pattern is easiest to do. Am I also governed by the hub I build, or does that not matter too much?

Spoke tension gauge definitely speeds things up for me, but it’s very much ‘nice to have’ like a wheelstand but not essential.

If you’ve tuned a guitar you’re familiar with the alternative approach which is simply plucking spokes to establish an equal spread of tensions noting that you expect different tensions on either side of the rear especially.  Take rare calculating the spokes and while it means not ordering everything together measure your hubs and erd before calculating spoke lengths. Cyclebasket are usually the cheapest uk source of ACI, DT are usually cheapest at Rose in Germany (around  £7.50 for 20).

As above, Shimano hubs are fine so long as you stay on top of cone servicing.

I’d heartily recommend the £10 on Musson’s Wheelpro ebook. It’s not the only wheel building book but it’s an excellent and understandable starting point.

Re hub governing build, if you have a SH hub it’s best to copy the build it previously had (there will be obvious marks) but with a new hub so long as the number of holes is correct you can do what you want but brownie points for linking the logo up with the valve hole.

3-cross is the best all round unless you want marginal weight savings.

Musson’s truing stand: yes there are plans but unless you have an equipped workshop and scraps of plastic and metal plus quite a bit of MDF/ply knocking around its cheaper to buy a stand.  The wood cost makes something like the Tacx stand cheaper for most.  The Minoura is much better than many credit. It would never make sense for a pro but for a few builds a year you will never wear it out unless very rough with it.  Upside down bike frame and forks with cable ties or even elastic bands and pencils is quite doable though and many build exactly like this.

I bought a pair of novatec from Ali express for around £60

Sounds to me like we are thinking the same. I like giving things a go so I picked up a cheapo 26″ wtb i19 rim from crc for a tenner to give wheel building a go. Cheapest rim i could find that i would actually use on one of my bikes. Picked up a deore front hub for another tenner from bike-discount (and a rim strip)when I was ordering other bits recently. I am sticking to trying a front wheel first to see how I go as they are meant to be easier (dishing/offset or something). Used the dt swiss spoke calculator and just need to get my dt swiss spokes and 12mm brass nipples (about £20 +postage) from rose bikes to lace it up with and then crack on…….. so about £45 for a front wheel plus whatever to get someone who knows what they are doing to make it rideable when I am done 🤣

not looking to get a trueing stand/dishing tool or tensioner for now, i will wait and see how I go with the basics of lacing etc first as i could be crap at it so avoiding any big spending for now.

Good luck with yours.

Ive buillt quite a few wheels for myself. I always get spokes from rose bikes, usuallly dt competitions. They sell xt hubs pretty cheap as well, which i recon is a pretty good hub.

Andy4d – I did consider that rim – but then saw the i25 for a couple of quid more with a bigger internal width. Hope it doesn’t square my tyres up so much they don’t fit through the frame – or I’ll be wishing I’d gone with the 19!

I need to acquire a hub next – then I’ll measure up for spokes and nipples! My main requirements for the hub and spokes are that they’re both black. Other than ideally the front being convertible between 15mm and 9mm qr.

If you want front convertible then Shimano aren’t an option. Rear hubs are where the big saving is at and where qualify becomes more critical. Maybe a nova tech or Hope front?  If all you want is QR and 15 most convertible hubs will do. It becomes significantly more limited  if you want 9TA and 20 as well.

Get your spokes right and dish honestly almost looks after itself, minor tweaks as opposed to OMFG this is all over the place… 😁

What’s 9TA and 20? As in a solid 9mm qr rather than the usual 5mm with 9mm ends?

I think it’s looking like Shimano rear hub for cheapness and then something like a novatec / superstar for the front for the convertible element. Just future proofing in case I need to change fork at any point.

I think I’ll order a hub soon so I can then sort out spokes.

On the OMFG front it’s bound to be a disaster!

9mm solid through axle and 20mm ‘old’ Maxle/36 yep.

If it’s a QR bike then 9mm is still relevant, it’s a good way to beef up an existing fork but very limiting in terms of hub choice. 20mm is a bit better but the relevant forks are uncommon now.

It might be worth considering DT350 fronts too, they can be fairly cheap but be aware that the QR ones do not convert to 15mm, but the 15mm ones will go the other way.

Last I looked, Superstar weren’t much of an option for cheap hubs anymore but they may have restocked. Otherwise, maybe Bitex?  They’re quite good and reasonably priced.

Deore hubs have very little sealing IIRC, XT way better.

You don’t need a tension meter (unlless for a specific rim like stans, I’ve built wheels for a living, I used one once)

I’ve built up a couple of pairs of Novatec hubs, including using some of those cheap WTB rims from Planet X using these ACI spokes:

https://www.cyclebasket.com/m9b0s454p979/ACI_Alpina_Stainless_Steel_DB_Spokes_Silver_Singles_

Can’t go wrong for 21p a spoke (including nipple) for a cheap build.

I’ll see how XT compares in terms of cost vs the competition if Deore have poor sealing- think I can probably still get a rear one on the cheap.

Will check out those spokes – thats cheaper with nipples included than DT without them. It’s only for my knockabout hardtail anyway somsoesnt need to be bling.

Superstar has a few different front hubs that are convertible for about £30 which is quite comparable to novatec.

Will lookup Bitex, never heard of them. If I find a cheap dt350 then that’s a good option too – I’ve got e1900’s on my main bike and I like those.

Seems an XT hub is £36 ish delivered vs around £20 for Deore (there seems to be a few versions of Deore – are any better than each other?).

Found a ‘Halo Combat’ hub for £30 – are these any good?

Gone with XT for £35, figure I can’t go wrong with that. Just need to order spokes and nipples once I’ve workes out which ones I need. Will use the DT spoke calculator once I have the hub and rims in my hands.

JRA use Bitex hubs so they must be pretty good.

I would pay for someone to build the wheels unless you want to do an expensive experiment.

As others said, its dirt cheap to build them yourself.

DT spokes from Rose are pence. Zipties on the stays/fork will get you going and that’s all you really need. Just follow the Sheldon Brown guide.

I would buy the basic park tension gauge though. It takes all the guess work out of it, if its more that 10-15% out between spokes you’ve got it wrong, less than that and your wheel is as good as any wheel builder.

A lot of advice is down to opinion and experience, I’d never used threadlock, just grease on the threads to stop them seizing. But my road wheels do occasionally loosen a spoke (probably because the rims are quite flexy, never had this with MTB wheels). So I’d say grease your first pair because you will need to tweek them a few times in the first few weeks.

With this zip tie thing – would a turbo trainer work to hold the wheel in if I come up with a way to judge wobble etc?

Halo hubs = Novatec

ACI double-butted spokes are cheaper than DT or Sapim and fine for regular builds IME

<span style=”font-size: 12.8px;”>A small, adjustable engineer’s square against the fork blade / seatstay is also a useful dishing gauge as you can compare either side. </span>

Frame and forks better as a wheel gauge than a turbo trainer as you’ll get a better idea of trueness / dish – use a pair of big cable ties clipped-off at about 30-40mm as ‘feeler’ gauges on the fork blades / seat-stays aligned with the rim – you simply twist them in/out and watch as they deflect to gauge high-spots.

3-in-1 oil or even chainlube on the spoke threads is all you need – if the tension is high enough, no need for threadlock.

Sheldon Brown wheelbuilding guide is very straight forward

I say again no need for tension meter, unless you want to spend the money .it’s not difficyditp ensure even and correct tension in my experience.

Oil on low tension side (dries out and then doesn’t loosen) and grease on the other (allows high tension) has worked for me

Thanks for all the advice – just waiting on the Tredz roulette to see when my hub arrives. CRC have done a remarkably quick job of delivering the bargain rims to my local collect plus store as usual.

Once I’ve got both I’ll be checking what spokes I need and getting them ordered ASAP. The freehub on my existing hub is very poorly indeed – so much play in the cassette now. Might have to try and bodge a new bearing in the end ofnit to tide me over – or just use my other bike!

Joe are you in Bristol as your name suggests?  I have spoke tension meter and am just along the cycle path in Bath.  Let me know if you want to borrow it.

Mark

Hi Mark, I’m in Hanham so the Bath side of Bristol (near the Vue Cunema at Longwell Green).

That would be amazing if I could borrow it, happy to send some beer / cider / wine / hire fee your way as I don’t really want to spend out on buying one, but it might give me a better chance of ending up with a wheel that’s rideable without having to get the lbs involved to fix my mess!

Once I’ve got all the parts in my grubby mitts I’ll let you know if that’s ok? I could then pop along the cycle track to yours if that’s easiest.

I build a wheel every now and again – usually lace them up at home, do an initial tension, and then head down to the Bristol Bike Project on a Thursday (https://thebristolbikeproject.org/our-workshops/bike-kitchen/) to use their workshop trueing stands to finish off. They have a Park spoke tension meter down there too for the final check.

Like everyone else I just put em together, do up all the spokes similar, pop it in the bike with some cable ties then fanny about til its a wheel. I’ve got good pitch but it’s not like you’re trying to adjust guitar intonation or something, you’re just looking for “sort of in tune” (ime with good parts you can damn nearly just build an entire wheel by ear- I had to do a rapid rebuild of one of mine in Wales and that’s all I did, ping ping ping, give it a spin, perfectly good wheel.).

Stiff rims make it easier too. The weird thing is, it’s way easier to build a wheel than it is to straighten an existing one. But most people who’re worried about doing one from scratch, are already comfy with unbending them

Rims arrived – look pretty nice – especially for the price / they’re going on my bitza bike for local hardtail playing.

Rear hub not yet been dispatched – as it’s Tredz I might ring them next week to get an eta.

Front hub I’m in no hurry for – will probably see how my rear wheel building attempt goes before buying one – looks like £30 will get a convertible 15mm / QR one from either Novatec / Superstar or possibly a bargain dt350.

For spokes am I best using the DT calculator to workout what I need to buy? I have the hub spec I think and will check the erd on the rim – is there anything else I should bear in mind?

Let me know when you want the spoke tension meter. I would say sort it all by eye first give it ride, then retension.

Thanks Mark – going to loosely lace the wheel first which hopefully I can get right using the guide suggested above. Guess I’ll then tension each spoke up a bit and see how straight the wheel is and then work on them bit by bit and use the spoke tension as a guide.