Wheel building, anyone?

[Bo-Gilly]

Thanks Grahame, for a very informative insight into the mysterious art of wheel building

[Jon H]

That was very interesting on Wednesday to see how it's done.

I got all enthusiastic today and started looking at prices of the bits & pieces, and even calculating the spoke lengths required. Using Ribble prices as a starting point, the price I came up with for the parts was more than they charge for a handbuilt wheel with the same spec. So for cost-saving there doesn't seem much point, although I might still do it for the fun of playing with nipples for a few hours.

[Jon H]

Has a go at putting together a set of wheels last night. Open Pro rims on Ultegra hubs to make a decent set of training wheels.

Decided to start with the front one, as it would be easier what with all the spokes being the same length and no dishing needed. All went fine until I got towards the end of the first set of spokes. Took a while to figure out what was wrong, but eventually realised I had a 28 hole rim and a 32 hole hub. Hub will be returned to the numpties at a well-known mail order firm that rhymes with nibble for a replacement.

So, tried the rear instead. Followed the Sheldon Brown instructions step by step and it was a piece of cake. Even managed to get the logo on the hub lined up with the valve hole for full Brownie-points from Guru Grahame. Just got to do the final tightening and trueing and it'll be good to go.