Sooo…

First ever wheel build, using Roger Mussons book. Measured ERD according to the guide and it comes out exactly as it say on the rim, so either Hope are very good or I’m not!!

Got hub measurements from Hope and entered it all into Mussons spoke calculator and DT Swiss calculator, figures come out roughly the same for but I’m not sure I’ve done the right thing in selecting the spokes I did. First go building the front wheel has not gone well. I laced it up fine first go so was pleased with that but tensioning has been a mare and I’m thinking the spoke lengths might not be right.

I attached a spreadsheet showing the measurements and the spoke lengths I got from the calculators. also showing what I bought. Basically I could not seem to find 291mm spokes so up’t them to 292mm but I’m thinking I should maybe have just gone with 290mm all round.

Can some one check my info and put me out of my misery please….

Also, should the handle come off the park tool ND1 nipple driver, cos mine did on first use….

What’s actually going wrong ?

IM(limited)E, most rims are deep enough to accommodate a few extra mm of spoke and most nipples don’t have a limit to how far onto the spoke they can go (within reason)

Did you buy standard nips ?
What happens when you try to spin one onto a spare spoke ?

Yeah, bought standard 12mm nipples.

Basically when spinning the nipples onto the spokes with the nipple driver to take up the initial slack, when it disengages, some spokes seem quite a bit more tensioned than others. I was using a nipple driver that should go in a drill and the bit that inserts into the nipple seems quite long.

Was thinking I could maybe take up the initial slack by doing up the nipples finger tight first then going from there…..

If the erd and hub info is right and you then picked spokes using a decent spike calculator you should be fine.

When I’ve built wheels I tend to do spokes up until all the thread of the spoke is just hidden within the nipple and then switch to using a spoke key. From that point I have the wheel in a truing stand and I start looking at the Vertical ‘trueness’ as I find that’s the hardest to correct later down the line then I start working round increasing tension trying to get the rim reasonably true.

Are all the more tensioned spokes on one side of hub ??

OK, sounds like the spoke length should be ok and i’m just getting mixed up. I’ll have another go later and take my time taking up the initial slack. I’ve trued wheels before but only minor buckles, think I was just getting a bit paranoid about wrecking the rim if I carried on….

Cheers for the help.

Are all the more tensioned spokes on one side of hub ??

I think so, can’t quite remember now, it was Monday night, but I think they were.

This video my Ali Clarkson is a brilliant help when building wheels!

Between that an The Roger Musson book I’ve built up two nice wheel sets. I never bothered with an old/cheap set first, went in at the deep and an both turned out brilliant.

I hadn’t built a wheel in a long time then chose to build some quite expensive lightweight road wheels, cue lots of paranoia and over-cautiousness.

Basically I do it like Joebristol, e.g. wind nipples on until spoke thread is *just* covered. Then I start applying quarter turns of tension with the spoke key. It takes a while this way when the tempation is to apply half turns to take up initial tension, but it means you can never introduce too much error in one go.

Point is, the spokes feel all over the place to begin with. Plucking them for even tension sounds terrible, some feel really tight at the nipple, others feel really loose. Persevere slowly and steadily though, paying attention to dish, vertical true and lateral true, and it all seems to come together.

When finished I took it too Edinburgh Bicycle to use their posh tension meter, most spokes were +/- 5% with a couple of outliers at +/- 10%. Nothing to be especially proud of, but it shows that if you’re just patient and careful, those initial odd tensions just sort of iron themselves out.

Cheers Ogden, I’ll check that out.

Not spent too much but got decent parts. Set of Hope hubs that I already had, bought some Hope rims for 22 quid each. Using DT spokes so they should be decent wheels if I can get them built up ok….

Cheers 13thfloormonk, I think I am just being overly cautious/paranoid. I’ve loosened them all off so will start again this evening. Supposed to be working atm….

I’ve loosened them all off

To where? Unwind until you can just see the spoke thread so you know each spoke is starting at the same place.

After lacing the initial 16 spokes – did you turn the hub enough so that the 17th spoke is going in to the correct hole?

Yep, lacing is fine. I can even see the Hope logo through the valve hole!!

I’ve only built sets and pretty much done it as said above, wind the nipple until i just about lose the thread on the spoke. From there, I put the wheel in the forks or frame cable tied a ruler to gauge the vertical trueness before going further. Then a half turn until the slack is out of the spokes, then on to a quarter turn to finish off.

I don’t have a truing stand nor do I have anything to tell me the tension. I use the method described in the Roger Musson book. Neither set have exploded yet.

I’ll be building up building up another set during the lockdown.

Done it!! 😀

Thanks for the help. Took a step back, watched that video, and went at it again slowly and just a bit at a time. Tension seems good all round and it’s straight!!
Now onto the rear one….