Re-dishing a wheel skill level?

How difficult is it to re-dish a front wheel to allow for a non-boost to boost conversion of a Hope pro 4 hub?  Is it a 30mins hard to get wrong type of thing or a likely to go wrong quickly thing?  I hadn’t actually realised that the old forks on my mk5 Soul weren’t boost (it’s a boost frame) and so my new forks don’t fit 🙁 and I want to ride.  I can get the Hope end cap this afternoon.

It’s probably not 1/2 an hour if you have never trued wheels before. Have you access to a wheel building jig?

But at the end of the day it’s loosening one set of spokes and tightening the other.

You’ll need at least a dishing tool and a spoke wrench.

If the wheel has less than ideal spoke lengths and aluminium nipples then you may round the nipples or may not be able to get the tension right.

I would give it to the lbs.

Not hard on the assumption the wheel is already true, just about being methodical. Slacken-off spokes say quarter-turn on one side and then tighten the ones on the other side to pull the rim over. Repeat as necessary. Always start and finish at the tyre valve so you know where you are. Wheel jigs and dishing sticks make life a little easier, but not a guarantee of perfection. Drop a spot of oil or chain lube if the nipples are a little stiff/graunchy.

I’ve built wheels from scratch before and I normally have the mechanical aptitude of a baboon, but really enjoyed it.

It’s not a half hour job, but it’s not too bad. Someone lent me a wheelbuilding jig with the words “you’ll either find this quite therapeutic or it’ll drive you absolutely  ****ing mad! Luckily it was the former. It’s a very satisfying thing to do. Stick some tunes on, make a brew and off you go

If it goes well, movement required not too excessive, nipples not rounded and you don’t cause it to go too much out of true, then a 10 minute job. I built a wheel yesterday afternoon and one this morning and both took an hour start to finish so really not a big job just to re-dish. Just do small movements, i.e. half a turn on each spoke all the way around wheel and check after each full set of turns.

Thanks all.  I think I’ll give it a go as the wheel is pretty true to begin with and it only needs to move 5mm.

It’s entirely about condition, this. If the wheel’s in good shape and the spokes are free it’s easy, you can literally just add tension to one side and take it out of the other. (people say “reduce tension first” but I always do it the other way round, pretty much no used wheels are at the limits of tension anyway so adding a little is unlikely to hurt and it’s generally better for the shape of the wheel to be pulling not pushing.

You don’t need tools, just a cabletie (to be your dish tool) and a spoke key (plus a flat spoke tool if it’s flat spokes)

However, if you’ve got any stuck nipples it can snowball rapidly. Be careful especially with alu nipples, make sure you have the right spoke key. And if the wheel’s already out of shape, or has been straightened in the past, you might find that once you start messing with it some old issues come out. I had one older wheel that I’d been bashing back into shape with quick fixes for a decade and as soon as I started messing with it it just sort of sproinged and ended up needing retensioned from scratch. But that’s an extreme, that wheel was probably all out of balance and pulling itself in 20 directions at once.

Still, the absolute worst case scenario unless you do something really ridiculous is that you end up taking it to a shop, which you’d be doing anyway. There may be another option though of getting a spacery adaptor kit instead- ie spacers on either side. That avoids the redish entirely and works fine but it can be a pain in teh ass when you take the wheel out! The redish is definitely a better way.

As the others have said – its not tricky just be methodical.  I have done it in a frame and using a ruler to check dish is equal and a cable tie as a gauge for straightness.

You should also look up spoke twist, when tightening nipples the spoke can sometimes”wind up” and twist making you think you’ve turned the nipple, then when the wheel is loaded i.e you get on you bike and roll you’ll hear lots of pinging, this is the spokes untwisting causing the wheel to go out of true.

Again non of this is complicated but there’s enough simple but important considerations that if you have a problem you’ll end up with a headache.  The Wheelpro ebook is all I’ve used to learn how to build wheels and I happily build and ride my own wheels now with no issues, but it’s taken a good few hours to learn each step.

As above, as long as the nipples are free to turn it’s a 5 minute job. Just work round the rim adding 1/4 turn at a time to the side you want to move it, take 1/4 off the other, and repeat untill it’s central in the forks.

No fancy tools or jigs needed. Don’t be tempted to do more than 1/4 turn at a time as bigger jumps seem to pull it out of true quicker.  Lots of small movements and you won’t even have to true it afterwards.

A bit of hot air on the nipples can help loosen up whatever spoke freeze / thread-lock / anti-sieze  the factory used.

It’s not too difficult as you just loosen off one side and tighten the other…but you *may* find you don’t have enough spoke thread to pull the rim over. I’ve run into this in the past…

Stevelol
Free Member

You should also look up spoke twist, when tightening nipples the spoke can sometimes”wind up” and twist making you think you’ve turned the nipple, then when the wheel is loaded i.e you get on you bike and roll you’ll hear lots of pinging, this is the spokes untwisting causing the wheel to go out of true.

Yep, people think of this as a flat spoke thing but it happens just the same to round spokes, it’s just not as obvious. Easy enough to deal with- molegrips and a bit of cereal box cardboard to protect the spoke from the grips work great- but slows things right down.

Pinging isn’t always this mind you.

Well, I should never underestimate my own ineptitude. Lefty loosey, righty tighty are reversed when coming from the spoke side…  I moved it the wrong way before having to work it all back amd then over!  Not sure about tension yet but they are now fairly central with only a very slight wobble to sort.  Is there a tension quick check or rule of thumb before I hit my first set of rooty steps as I quite like my front teeth?

I just do it by ear, but I find that easier than it probably is for most people just cos I’ve got good pitch. Have you got a wheel you trust to compare it to? Just pinging one after the other can be all you need.

Remember the 2 sides will usually be different. People have strong opinions on tension but the truth is there’s a huge range that’ll make for a perfectly good wheel so for you the best thing is just to be uncontroversial and in the middle. As long as it’s basically “pinging” it’s probably not going to cause you any immediate trouble! I don’t want a bong or a pong, or for that matter a TING!