Not a question for you LBS pro’s, I’m sure you can get wheels radially and laterally true, with even spoke tension in seconds, but for us DIYers, how anal are you about getting them straight?

My basic wheel jig just has a pointer, and I eyeball that to about 1 or 2mm probably. The final test is can I see a buckle when I take it out of the stand and spin it in my hand. Generally if I’ve done as above the answer is no, and even better when it’s in the bike with a tyre mounted.

I think it’s better concentrate on even spoke tension and properly seated spokes at the flange without twist and stress at the nipple. What’s your benchmark?

cytech is or was 4mm!
for a new build, cock on 😆
i do it by sound in the end,

Was a bit anal when I built my first wheeler. Got about 1mm out laterally and radially and managed to get even tension thanks to Roger Musson’s book. Never had to touch them them since and still running great and true.

I have a clock gauge (DTI) so I aim for between 5 & 10 thousanths of an inch, never had a problem yet.

With MTB wheels I generally get them within 2 mm using the gauges on the Park stand then prioritize even tension over perfect truness for strength reasons.

On anything that’ll use a Rim brake I go full anal, managed to get a the last one I built to within 0.2mm all round, the biggest wobble on the gauge was from the stickers, very satisfying, got through a lot of tea though.

until the dial gauge on my wheel stand shows that the biggest change in trueness is where the stickers are.

I can get them perfect without too much trouble and used to when I did it in a LBS and still do if I’m building for friends but for myself, within 1mm is fine – it makes no noticeable difference when actually riding and I’d rather get the tensions even (particularly on a used rim) than the wheel perfectly round/straight.

Have you seen how much a tyre is out fo true never mind the terrain you are going over?

1-3 mm generally
As above even spoken tension is more important – i have reused rims and spokes so perfect trueness is not an option [ well not for me]

I have some shop made ones they are not any truer than mine

Have you seen how much a tyre is out fo true never mind the terrain you are going over?

It’s got to the point where I;’m quite pleased if my on-one Floater tyres don’t rub on the stays when I spin the perfectly true wheel they’re mounted on 🙂

I guess I go for about 1mm. There is no practical point in making it perfect, the first wonky landing or crash will just buckle the wheel anyway.

😯

I’d definitely be unhappy with >1mm, ideally less though. I learned to build wheels way before disc brakes came along, so it was actually quite important.

The rims on my Dahon actually vary in width as you go around them, so they can be true on one side but not the other !

1-2mm for me. If my tensions start moving away from each other I stop there. Like others. I’d rather have less true but more durable.

Like the OP, my final test is wobble with a tyre on.

The point where the distortion at the rim joint is the biggest variation – preferably significantly more than the variation anywhere else. That’s about 0.5mm I reckon. Though it depends what I’m working with – if the rim isn’t straight enough to get reasonably even spoke tension with that then I’ll back off on the accuracy to get more even spokes tension (with a good rim I’d expect to manage pretty even tension with that level of accuracy).

For MTB’s Since using disc brakes? 1-2mm can be tolerated TBH, before that with rim brakes I wanted it pretty much on the button…

I still want road wheels to be bob on, but TBH I’m getting pretty lazy and just buying factory road wheels as they are relatively cheap than building them, last “road” wheel I built was for the back of My Fixie last year, which has no rear brake so trueness is really only important to making sure the tyre clears the mudguard…

CTC standards for hire bikes are a max of 3mm laterally or radially

I tend to go with <1mm if I’m in a hurry laterally, but definitely <1mm radially.

for others I’ll try a little harder.

so long as there’s enough tension for it not to fall apart it’ll be good. That said my last rear build (old hub, old rim, new spokes) had the spokes done well up and it still didn’t hold tension. front is spot on though. Just the way of it sometimes.

Prob +/- 0.5mm which is when the stickers or joint become the limiting factor.

Which is why it’s frustrating to fit a tyre with a wobble, as JY says.

cytech is or was 4mm!

Err no, you’ve got your facts wrong there. Cycle Construction regs (BS something or other) quote tolerances in mm for rim and disc brake wheels, (2mm I think for rim brakes, but remember this applies to BSOs…) but Cytech teaches building to a minimum of 0.4mm, aiming for 0.2mm both laterally and radially. (The eye is accurate to around 0.1mm)
When I taught myself I was within 0.5mm fairly quickly, now I aim for the 0.2mm.
I’d love a set of gauges for my Park TS2… 🙂

What’s ‘fine’ or ‘acceptable’ is neither here nor there to me. I go for as good as I can possibly make them every single time. I enjoy the geekiness of wheel building. Hub logo should point at the valve hole, and be the right way up to read from the saddle. Spoking pattern should be correct for rim or disc brakes (Symmetrical, asymmetrical or reverse symmetrical) Tension should be correct for the rim and even. Dish = perfect, nipples oiled (fnarr fnarr) wheels stress relieved then double checked.
I’m not saying I’m a brilliant wheel builder, but if someone’s paying me to do it, I do it as well as I know how to. 🙂

I always try to get +-1mm but I have built wheel from used parts with a very bent rim where 4mm was the best I could manage initially – after a few rides I got it to perfection, and that wheel is still going strong 2000km of loaded touring later

Sounds like I could do with pinching a DTI and mag base from work, oh and practicing of course.

PeteProddy, you’re disqualified as you get paid to do it, 😀 (though I do agree about having the hub logo in the correct place).

Not tried fancy spoking patterns yet, but that’s the plan for my next set for the road bike.

5-10 thou lollllololol

OP you are spot on, even tension is more important than surgical accuracy.

But both are possible, nay probable, if you do it right. 🙂

I wouldn’t be happy with +- 1mm I probably aim for more like +- 0.25mm. No fancy tools I use a ruler taped to the frame / fork. If I can’t get it right I leave it for a few hours before having another go, can’t do it all in one sitting. Final adjustment usually involves no more than 1/8 turns on the spoke nipples at a time.

In reality 1-2mm is fine for disc braked rims though.

5-10 thou lollllololol

I find that with that amount of accuracy the tension is pretty cock on too.

Dibbs, yes, agreed.

I was actually building a pair of wheels today when I remebered and resurrected this thread. I took a little video….

[video]http://youtu.be/mtt0nOg7bDo[/video]

Accurate to the thickness of a piece of paper all the way round. I was very happy with that. 🙂

Getting a good balance between lateral/radial to within 0.5mm and more importantly even spoke tension checked on Park spoke tension gauge.

Then, critically all re-checked and adjusted once tire inflated as road at 100psi or MTB at 35psi places large loading onto wheel which always affects wheel build

Whether wheel built for customer or myself, always to same quality that I’d be happy using on my own bike.

What Eser Shore said. I used to be fairly casual, but since I got a park gauge, just the cheap one, I found that simply using that to get roughly even tension (its easy with a simple gauge to get much more even than park recommend) your wheels come out not only strong as, but much, much easier to get much less than 1mm round and true (I’m not going to try and estimate the difference between fractions of a mil, its just really straight).

I geek out about it. Dish 0.10mm or less. Lateral no more than 0.10 but usually decided by stickers or weld. Vertical 0.5mm or decided by weld. Spoke tension is normally +/- 3%.

All pointless I know and I spend far too long on it, but I enjoy wheel building.

It depends on how steady I can hold my finger next to the rim. Within a couple of cm is good enough for me 😀
I have actually bought myself a stand now, although not built a wheel in it yet. Previously I just used an allen key or my eye+finger and built them to about 2mm. I find it hardest to get it radially true, but I guess that with big tyres off road, I’m not going to notice, and I dont. FWIW I’ve not had to touch my handbuilt wheels since building them (only done 3, but oldest is 18months).