How long, start to complete does it take to build a wheel?

Assuming you are good/a pro?
Just wondered as it seems to be one of the dark arts of maintenance I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do

Around an hour for 1 wheel.

for a pro i’d estimate ~ 30mins.
for an amatuer, how long is a piece of string?

My first wheel build took an evening (probably about 3 hours) and that was following from a book and having to back out and re-do a few times. I’d go with 30 mins to an hour if it’s your job.

speaking as a newbie wheel-builder, your very first wheel, will take an hour or so to ‘lace’, this is the fun bit, why rush?

getting that wheel tight and more-or-less round and straight, will take another hour or 2.

i built my first wheel over 3 nights: build-tighten-more_tightening

ok, all of the spokes came undone within the first 10k, so i had to re-tension it – when i kept tightening the spokes until they started to creak as i tightened. That wheel is now on my commuter, it’s fine, after a total of 4or5 hours work…

accept that your first wheel will be a bit rubbish, but still good enough, and get stuck in.

i followed the instructions in the Roger Musson ‘book’.

As a beginner it takes me 30 minutes to lace with lots of double checking.

Then truing and tensioning, stress relieving an hour or so casually doing it while watching TV. I could do it quicker but there is no rush and doing it in a frame/forks does take longer.

LBS mechanic here, and I’m fairly proud of my wheel building…
Time? Well, if you include measuring the rim and hub, I don’t think I can do it under an hour. Just lacing and truing, I’ve not timed myself but I reckon 45-55mins or so. Something odd, like Enve or similar deep section rims take longer.
I’ve seen a couple of ‘half hour’ wheels and, well, I’m not trying to be that fast, put it that way!

I’m no pro but can do one in an hour or so.

I then fiddle around with it for another hour tho!

An hour give or take – 20/30 for lacing and 30 for truing.
However, I do like settling down in front of a documentary and doing the lacing as I watch and have a cuppa and biccies 🙂 this take longer, but is a very relaxing way of doing it.

Depends on the wheel. Brompton wheels that I build day in, day out, I average around 30 minutes per wheel including making the spokes. More delicate wheels – 29er carbon, for example – more like an hour.

It depends on whether you can lace a wheel without needing to refer to instructions / another wheel? I’d say less than an hour for a competent builder but a lot more for a beginner – particularly if you have to re-lace the wheel once you’ve realised you’ve done it wrong 😳

NWMTB built me a wheel in 45 mins, including fishing through all their rims for one i fancied. This was about 30 seconds after the shop had opened, i had to get up to gisburn for a PMBA race 😀

As a former cycle mechanic, I’ve built many wheels. The quickest was around 45 minutes, but as a rule you should spend a minimum of an hour, for the sake of quality. Good high quality stiff rims speed things up, especially if the rim is already straight, as does a spoke nipple driver. Lacing used to take me about 10 minutes. The rest of the time was dedicated to truing, tensioning and relieving stresses. It’s not a black art at all, but spending a decent amount of time on it makes quite a difference to the quality.

I took 3-4 hours to do my first pair of wheels a month or so ago and they’re still tight and round, which is nice 😀 IANAPBM

All depends if you want your pump to be easy to fit or not*.

*it only happened once… okay maybe twice

If I’ve got all the bits to hand, 25 mins for the front. 35 rear.

If I’ve got to work out lengths, rummage through the workshop drawers and cupboards and so on. You can probably double that. Am extra 20 minutes of swearing per wheel while i look for the box of spokes i had in my hand yesterday……

I was doing lots of wheels at the time. I’d guess I’m a lot slower now. 90-120 minutes a pair sort of thing. But over 2 or 3 evenings.

I’m another ‘not a pro’ but have been building wheels for myself and mates since I was about 13 years old. I have no fancy tools like a spoke tension meter or dishing tool but I do have an ageing Minoura wheel jig.

To build a wheel from scratch would I reckon take me about 1.5-2 hours , I could probably do it a bit quicker but I enjoy doing it and never rush.

have you built a wheel before? Are you a typical bloke?

So the times above might be correct but first time account for
1- discovering you didn’t lace the first/second set of spokes correctly and having to unlace and redo
2- not having enough spokes to account for bent or broken ones (see point 1)
3- having to wait due to not being able to get the correct spokes (see point 2)

So a couple of weeks 🙄 or is that just me?

My particular favourite is lacing the last spoke only to find no hole

An hour sounds average, but +1 for taking the time, clearing the table and lining it with old newspaper, selecting the right beer, the right album (paused for the delicate bits and ‘plucking’ the spokes whilst pretending you can tension by ear 8) ) etc. etc.

The one wheelset I rushed I built on the bike, upside down on the floor in the kitchen (or whole bike on table when flatmate went out).

Next day managed three runs in Whistler, adding some tension in between runs, but by the bottom of the third EVERY spoke had come loose on the rear, almost simultaneously, only noticed when my steering started getting REALLY vague!

Ended the day there, went home, did wheels properly, they lasted months until the bike got stolen.

My particular favourite is lacing the last spoke only to find no hole

First time takes ~3 hours as you have to do everything once in your head whilst reading the instructions, then again with your hands, then again when it turns out you got it wrong.

After that it get’s disappointingly quick.

Stiff rims hide a multitude of sins, but if they’re not done right they still come undone, at least with lightweight alloy rims you can’t get it wrong because ‘wrong’ will be immediately obvious!

Ages for one but if you’re doing a few you can get through them fairly quickly. I’ve done 6 on a miserable Sunday afternoon.

First one a couple of hours and from that point I remembered how the lacing worked rather than needing to follow instructions.
All wheels after that around an hour but I don’t have any specialist tools other than the spoke key

I take about an hour or so.

My particular favourite is lacing the last spoke only to find no hole

yeah. Been there. Done that.
Someone muddled up the boxes of 32h, 28h and 24h rims.
Trying to lace a 32h hub to a 24/28h rim using the correct spoke length for the hub gets very confusing.

Used to build wheels on piecework.
Same rim, nipple, spoke all laid out.
Proper tools for nipple spinning.
Good jig.
Could do a pair in about 50-55 mins, but that was on a run, when you knew how much initial wind on the nipples so final tension didn’t take long.

Now, on my own wheels, closer to the hour each, including lining up hub logos with spoke holes etc.

ok so its not such a dark art that takes years and years to learn….now I know lots of STWer’s are more mechanically adept than me but based on the above will give it a go – bottled it a couple of years ago as decided all seemed too hard – but just read up on some of the bits I was puzzled by and reckon will be building my next set of wheels as do all my other stuff and find it very satisfying … :-).. except build frames was thinking about getting a steel tourer…one thing leads to another 😀

from bits to a wheel I’d be happy with, takes me 2-3 hours. but I’m no pro, and I don’t do it that often

Depends upon the spoke/rim combination IME.

Stiff spokes on stiff, round rims – an hour per wheel.

Revs on Crests – 2 hours.

I’m off work atm just had my knee replaced, so I thought I’d have a go at wheel building while I’m immobile.
Firstly built the wheel jig, that took 3 days, then started wheel (rear) but had an issue and thought I’d used too long spokes on non drive side. Decided to start again and it’s gone together quite well but I have a tension of 25/27 on drive side and 15/18 non drive side and the rim isn’t central on hub its approx 1mm towards drive side.
I’ve just left it for now and walked away until I can get my head round what to do next.
So far it’s a week for me and still not finished and I can’t ride anyway, but I have had so much enjoyment out of this exercise.

As for it being a dark art, there is something about it that makes you think it is going to be harder than it is. Not really sure why but once you just buy the parts and have a go you realise that it really isn’t difficult at all and is actually an enjoyable thing to do.

Three wheels built in 35 minutes[/url] 😀

(Very easy wheels, though – 1x Brompton ones)

It took me days, even ignoring the bit with teh wrong length spokes and the Bencooper save and that. I was enjoying it too much to waste it doing it in a hurry.

I’ve done 4 this morning (started at 8 ) including a couple of teas…..and some toast…..and 3 episodes of preacher.

Daffy – Member

Depends upon the spoke/rim combination IME.

Stiff spokes on stiff, round rims – an hour per wheel.

Revs on Crests – 2 hours.

definitely this. Hardest rebuild I ever did was a 32h open pro on rear hub with db spokes (not revs, dt comps irc)and it was going under the bottom of an 18st powerhouse so pressure to get it as right as i possibly could.
On the other hand downhill wheels just seem to build themselves, so much easier to get a straight wheel with high and even spoke tension and afaik my sub 1 hour dh builds have had a right hammering and are still fine.

Also its another debate I know but OP if you are building your own, start with brass nipples!! I would never build a wheel for myself with alloy ones, for mw its just not worth the weight saving. I’ve repaired a few not-that-old wheels that have failed becasuse the alloy nipple not the spoke broke -only to find that half the other nipples disintegrate when you put a spoke key to them.

agreed alloy nipples are the triumph if style – they do look good to be fair in coloured guise- over function as you wont be able to adjust them

Just not worth it

I built a spare back wheelfor my CX bike on Monday, it’s still in the garage in the stand and I was tweaking a few minutes ago. I’m pretty happy with it now.

Took me five hours for the my only wheel build to date (29er MTB rear wheel). I was very cautious and trued/dished it in the frame rather than a jig. It’s still round and true, there was no pinging on first rides and none of the spokes have come loose though so I must’ve done something right. Superstar Tesla Evo hub, WTB i23 rim and DT Swiss Rev spokes.

A pro can usually build a good wheel in 30 mins. Not only have they got the skills but they’ve got all their tools and work-space set out just how then need them. E.g. a nipple driver helps to screw in all the nipples quickly and evenly which saves a lot of time.

Me, it takes me about an hour to lace and initially tension the wheel. Then I spend hours fiddling with it and getting everything tight and true to fractions of a mm, basically spending all day on one wheel. However, when I am done it generally takes the abuse and stays straight for years.