I need a new rim on my rear wheel and I’d like to do it myself. I’ve trued plenty of wheels using zip ties on chainstays but never built one. Practically I have no concerns, but I want a decent wheel at the end of it.

So, how essential are a truing stand, dishing gauge and spoke tension gauge? Even buying cheap ones and the rim/spokes cost more then an equivalent new wheel. I’d need to be building lots of wheels to make it worthwhile.

Get the Roger Musson book, there’s plans in it to build your own truing stand and dishing gauge but you could also use a set of forks or a frame turned upside down. I’ve not bothered with a tension gauge – a ping of the spokes and listen to the tone is close enough.

TBH, the hardest part is getting the lacing right. After that it’s a case of following the steps and proceeding steadily and surely, just half a turn of the spoke key at a time then as you approach correct tension just a quarter turn. The rim is (or should be) perfectly round and true to begin with so it’s easier to keep it that way than mess it up and then try and get it back.

You can make a dishing tool for next to nothing.
I used some spare wastepipe and bolts..
Tension is probably down to how confidently you can guess by tone. Rim’s have different ranges but I just use a free guitar tuning app to get them to a similar rim.

None of the above are essential at all IMO/E, I built my first wheels in a frame.

Just go for it. With a close erd you can swap the rim over, no need for new spokes.

I have build a couple of front wheels without any fancy tools, just trued in a fork using cable ties and guessed the tension without any issues. However I have always been put off doing a back wheel as I believe it is more important to get the dish right, dunno if that’s the case though.

OK, cheers. Will take the plunge!

You can build a rubbish wheel with all the tools and a really good one without – the only essential is a decent spoke key as it’s more about knowing what you’re doing and being methodical rather than some ‘ninja’ skill acquired by buying fancy bike tools. If you can’t find the same rim, find out your rim ERD and find something the same / +/- 1mm if poss. Plenty of re-rimming videos on YouTube etc and it’s practise that makes perfect. If you feel it’s going wrong, simply unwind all the spoke tension and start again.

Have damaged too many spokes to make reusing worthwhile so will be a hub up effort.

However I have always been put off doing a back wheel as I believe it is more important to get the dish right, dunno if that’s the case though.

It took me 10 mins to make a dishing tool.
Rigid Plastic pipe, a drill and some long bolts..

I use coins and two empty play-doh containers as a disshing tool 🙂
Built the roger musson stand though.
If you follow the methodology in the book, you can’t get it wrong, I’ve built 5 wheels following it and all going strong!

This is a reasonably decent little video of Luca Shaw being talked through the process by his mechanic:

It’s nearly inspired me to have a go at turning my old 26″ pro 2 evos into 650bs.

Shackleton
Full Member

So, how essential are a truing stand, dishing gauge and spoke tension gauge?

Not at all. Doing it in the bike is just a bit more faffy but nothing bothersome. Cable ties, a bike, and a good quality spoke key is all you need. And a beer. And a couple of wooden cocktail sticks to ease the process of putting the nipples in the wheel.

I put off trying it for ages, but it turns out that building a wheel from scratch, especially with a new rim, is easier than straightening out an old battered wheel. With the former, you’re basically just working with the wheel, with the latter you’re fighting it all the way.

What is worth getting, imo, is one of these:

It’s not just a speeder-upper tool, though it does that- you coul make your own. It’s also repeatable enough that it actually gets the wheel into not bad shape just by itself.

I made one of those with a poundland screwdriver, it’s a great tool.

One other key component to wheel building or even rim swapping is time.

Set aside a decent amount of time to make sure you don’t rush it.

I have never used a dishing tool, flip the wheel. I have a truing stand but it’s not essential. I have not used a tension gauge but do aim for even tension by maintaining consistency during the build and monitoring picked spoke pitch.

Instead of a cocktail stick take one old spoke, or order one extra, screw a nipple all the way on so just a few turns of thread protrude. Use this as a nipple loader and driver combined in one tool. You can bend a crank in it to aid screwing the nipple onto the spoke. Then grab the nipple when it is threaded and unthread the tool. Repeat. You’ll speed up nipple driving so much and it makes it easy to put all the nipples on to the same depth too, speeding up trying and keeping spoke tension more equal. My last wheel (my fourth) barely needed trued.

https://makezine.com/projects/build-bike-spokenipple-driver-old-spoke/

Spoke tension meters are cheap enough on Ebay, I built wheels in the past without but was surprised how out the tension was after checking. Building a true wheel and building a wheel that stays true are two different things.
Ali Clarkson’s youtube vid is a good watch but
you can definitely build a decent wheel without a jig.

Been building wheels for 30 years. Used truing stands when I worked in bike shops as a student, but at home I do it in a frame/forks.

Tension by ear and dish by eye. If you get the spokes the right length then the dishing will mostly do itself.

Good quality spoke key and a nipple driver are really the only specialist tools you need.

Relieving the tension and making sure the spokes are settled against each other as you build us really important, I use an old crank arm to help this (see Sheldon Brown’s guide for more info).
In fact his guide is probably all you need. The Musson book is good, but IMO is overly detailed and a bit long winded.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

I’ve never used a dishing tool – as above, just flip it and split the difference in offset.

Easiest swap is tape old rim next to new with valve holes lined up and move spokes across.

If you are reusing an old hub, make sure that the spokes end up in the same alignment / direction of pull as the original wheel. Indentations and maybe small cracks will have developed in the old hub flanges, and if spokes pull in new directions these can split open very rapidly in the new wheel (guess how I discovered this…..).

I used to use the Sheldon Brown instructions, but this video from Ali Clarkson is just better.

Ali Clarkson wheel build

Decent spoke key, nipple driver, Roger Musson book and plenty of time. Thats all you need to start. Once you find yourself enjoying it, buy a wheel truing stand. Dishing and tension I do by eye and feel.

OP how are the spokes damaged?

Indentations and maybe small cracks will have developed in the old hub flanges, and if spokes pull in new directions these can split open very rapidly

Hope hub? I’ve never had that issue in other brands.

Shimano XT and (predictably) Hope. I’ll forgive the Hope as it was 18 years old and onto it’s third rim 🙂

The Shimano was almost immediately after the build on about the 2nd ride (I didn’t build that one, but the guy that did is very experienced so it can’t be that common).

Found the Ali Clarkson video to be very good:

I’ve built loads of wheels using nothing more than the sheldon brown wheel guide.

None have failed yet.

Remember you are not a bike shop and this isn’t going to a customer never to be touched again.
You can check and adjust it as often as you like after building.

I was about to post the Ali Clarkson vid as well!

The only tool that I’d say I find necessary is a tension gauge but a lot of people don’t. A lot of people say to pluck them but they all sound the same to me. Some suggest that a tension gauge isn’t that accurate but it gives you consistency in the tension of the wheel and the park tool app that goes with it really helps as well.

I’ve used zip ties, bluetack and business cards in a frame to build 3 sets now. To dish the wheel I put it raised on two cups on a flat surface and then slide coins underneath and flip it.

Hope some of that helps.

Counting the number of turns on the nipples as you thread them on keeps the wheel round, keep meaning to buy the DT tool, can shove it in the drill driver to speed things up.

I dont bother with a dishing tool, keep flipping the wheel in the truing stand till its right. Have a pretty sturdy jobsworth one (park copy) that does a good job.

No decent wheel builders in the local shops and the one I did use which was an hour round trip used shit nipples on a wheel build, so not been back.

Its not that hard to build a wheel, its time and patience. Also find using good quality nipples makes life easier. Will only build with the DT Squorx, which handily come with their rims.

A spoke tension meter is handy but not essential. The spokes all want to be at equal tension on each side, so if your wheel is trued and dished perfectly yet spoke tensions are all different, the wheel will go out of true very quickly

Rather than zip ties i tape a ruler to the chain stays and clip bulldog clips to it to check the true. This gives you much finer adjustment/measurement potential than zip ties imo

As above, be slow and methodical as you go and the rim effectively trues and dishes itself

Oh and don’t forget to line up the valve holes like I did!! Don’t have the energy to redo it so it’ll laugh at me for years…

I used the Roger musson book for lacing and then was having trouble tensioning so posted on here, someone posted that Ali Clarkson video and I found it great for dishing and trueing. I do like to use a tension meter though, but haven’t really used the dishing tool I bought…

If you don’t have a nipple driver (yet) – just use a normal small screwdriver & rest your opposite thumbnail on the last thread on the spoke as you tighten, when the nipple pushes your finger away move on to the next one – after that tighten them all a half turn at a time until they start to come up to tension, they should get pretty close by doing this – after every round check for wobbles & deal with them as soon as they arise, check the dish by eye as you go too & don’t wait until it’s super tight to try dish the rim over a bit.

I’ve built loads of wheels using nothing more than the sheldon brown wheel guide.

None have failed yet.

Same here, or I used it for first one and after that I knew how to do it. None have ever given any trouble, none have come loose, gone out of true etc,.

Cheers all, some very helpful advice.

I’ll echo what everyone has said above.

-Musson’s book
-Clarkson’s video
-DIY truing stand
-DIY nipple driver (cheap Screwdriver bent using a MSR pocket rocket and molegrips then filed into shape and Oregon file handle drilled to fit)
-A spokey spoke key
-3m insulation tape to mark spokes if I walk away.
-I bought a folding minora dishing tool which I don’t like.
-I have a park tool guage which I now use but the wheels I built without it are still running true.

Does anyone else put on an old style rim tape or pvc tape and write on the numbers 1 to 32 over the spoke holes with a marker pen, I find it useful.

One question I have on wheel building (I have built 3 or 4 wheels and all going strong), is when you use the Nipple driver or other method so that each Nipple starts at the same position for truing, what do you do if you have had to compromise on the spoke lengths.

So for example, if the Spoke length calculator says I need 262mm and 273mm, but I can only get spokes in even lengths, so I go for 274mm spokes, do I need to somehow wind those nipples on 1mm further when I first start putting the spoke on.

I know you are only ever 1mm out on spoke length, so do folk bother – I did think of getting a second spoke driver and adjusting it (on the grinding wheel) so it was 1mm shorter.

Some of the screwdriver type nipple drivers have adjustable pins to cope with this.

The alternative is to go round the rim once tightening each of the 1mm longer spokes two full turns or so, since each full turn advances the nipple 0.45mm onto the spoke thread.

@paul_m – the nipple driver is only really a starting point (i.e. to get all of the nipples threaded on to a similar point) before moving on to the spoke key. Once you have a reasonable amount of tension in the wheel you can then check the dish and adjust as required.

Why would you need a dishing gauge? Put it in the bike, see if it’s in the middle. Even easier if you build in the bike, the dishing just naturally happens as you tension. For a professional, sure, but it just seems totally surplus if you’re doing it at home and have the bike on hand.

spaniardclimber
Free Member

I made one of those with a poundland screwdriver, it’s a great tool.

Nah, the genius of the specific nipple drivers is the adjustability, you can set the point at which it cams out. Which means that every spoke ends up exactly the same depth. It’s a really big time saver and a much better starting point for the actual tuning- with quality parts, you get a really even base for your key twiddling.

(I honestly reckon that you could get a usable wheel just by using the driver and a drill and a little luck. Not a good wheel, but a moderately round and somewhat straight one. I’ve never tried, but even just spinning it together I’ve had wheels come up astonishingly close)