wheel lacing

[jon016847]

I taught myself to lace wheels last weekend. 

I remember reading stidds - wheel building topic, but the only thing i could remeber was about twisting the hub when a certain amount of spokes were in.  I am not on line at home so have nothing but a built set of wheels to refer to ,

Man the first wheel took me about 2.5 hours to do, kept getting all confused with the spoke pattern and having to start again, lol  , when I finally figured it out, the 02nd wheel took me about 25 mins.

Now lacing is one thing, these spin like they have been involved in a very bad accident,

Not sure if I have the patience to try and true them as well

How easy is to true the wheels

Jon W

[Frosty]

Jon,

I too followed stidds guide and also the sheldon brown guide on how to true them.

I got one of these from wiggle for £30 or so quid




and the result was these;



My experience was the other way round though. I think I lucked out on the first wheel, half hour or so, but the second I ended up undoing and respoking 3 times - its bloody awkward turning the hub and getting the nips to pull through the holes whilst putting in another round of spokes!! Very pleasing at the end though.

Regards

Paul

[stidds]

Jon

I find that when I lace wheels I have to do minimal trueing as I put each nipple on to the spoke the same number of turns (ie 5 turns).  That way when you do have to true the wheels the initial tension on the spokes is the same.

I would keep trying as it is a skill that is very useful.

[jon016847]

I think, I over tigtneed the first side i threaded and then the next site it was difficult to screw the nipples fully in, so that must be causing the massive bend in the rims when i spin them, I will definalty try again,  I have paid for 15 sets to be laced and it gets a bit expensive!

If at first you dont succeed then try , try  ....

Jon W

[Frosty]

Jon,

Stidds is right, if you can get the spokes roughly done up the same number of turns it should leave a little sideways and up and down movement to true out using the stand.

I ended up spending ages getting the things as good as I thought they could be and happy with how the spun on the stand - only to have that good work look like sh*te when the tubes and tyres are mounted. The comp III's I put on have both a bit of side movement and rises and dips, so it looks like the wheel isn't true!!

I guess I should spend a bit of time working the tyre fitment better