Brutuskend's wheel building tutorial ( with pics )

[Brutuskend]

First some theory.
I'm sure most people on here have seen a radial laced wheel. And maybe a 1 or 2 cross pattern.
Well, the fewer crosses used in a wheel, the shorter the spokes used. The shorter the spoke, the lighter the wheel will end up being. The lighter the wheel, the less energy it takes to spin it up and the less to stop it. However the fewer the number of crosses, the stiffer the ride will be. IE in a radial laced wheel, the spokes are pulling directly against each other and you end up with NO give at all. It seems most older wheels I see have a 4 cross pattern, which gives them a more flexy ride. The main down side to my way of thinking in a 4 cross lacing is, beside the added weight, that the head of the spokes end up getting trapped under the spoke on the opposite side, making spoke replacement when and if you brake a spoke very difficult.

Now, what is a symmetric and a asymetricly laced wheel?

When you build a wheel there are pull spokes and static spokes. If you look at the drive side of your rear wheel, and you look at the top of the hub, the spoke at the top, pointing towards the rear, is the pull spoke. The spokes pointing forward are the static spokes. When you pedal, the pull spokes are the ones that are taking the brunt of the stress being applied to the wheel. When a wheel is said to be symmetrically laced, that means that the heads of the pull spokes (and conversely the heads of the static spokes) will either all be heads in, or heads out. Why do this?
When you apply torque to the wheel if your wheel is not symmetrically laced, the wheel will have a tendency to want to flex to one side or the other. If it's laced "properly" the pull spokes will flex inward under load and not try to flex to the side.
What is interlacing?
Here is a picture of a Schwinn S-2 wheel that I haven't rebuilt.



If you notice, the pull spokes are heads in on the drive side and heads out on the non drive side. This is a asymetrically laced wheel. Now notice that the pull spokes cross over the top of all four spokes under them. This is a wheel that is NOT interlaced. In a correctly laced wheel, with a four cross lacing pattern, the pull spoke should cross over the top of the first 3 spokes, then cross under the last spoke. That is interlacing. This gives a wheel more latteral strength, and it will also make your wheel last longer.
Here is a wheel I built for my Elgin last week. Notice how the pull spokes are all heads out, and see how the spokes are over 3 and under 1 as they move from the hub to the rim? Also, if you want to get fancy, you can pick a label, or in this case a oil port and line it up with your valve.

I built a wheel at work today, and did a step by step pictorial of the whole process. I will post it along with instructions later. But I think I have rambled enough for now tonight.

ONE more thing before I go. On a front wheel, there really is no torque applied when you pedal, so for all practical intense and purposes all the spokes are static, so how you lace up a front wheel isn't really as important as how you lace a rear. Still, it never hurts to do both of them the "right" way.

 

[Brutuskend]

A little more on pull spokes and interlacing.
Do you want your pull spokes heads in, or heads out?
The pro's and con's to each.
When you build a wheel and have your pull spokes heads out, the spoke will pass under the first 3 spokes and over the last. When torque is applied the pull spoke will cause the static spoke it crosses over to be forced inward, making for a more areodynamic wheel. The down side of this pattern is, the heads in spokes will be pointing forward. In a single speed bike, this isn't really a problem, however, if you are running a multi speed bike with a freewheel or a cassette, and you drop your chain on the inside of the gears, the tendency will be for the spokes to draw the chain inward toward the hub and make the chain jam in tighter. If you build it heads out, the reverse it true.

 

[SKPC]

Really good tutorial! New or rebuilt, they define the ride they are mounted on. After a few wheel sets, it becomes second nature building wheels but it still takes a fine hand to properly tension and get them hop-free and side to side perfect, especially the older original wheels or those with dented or slightly bent rims. A riders' weight and riding style is very important (maybe more so) if building custom wheels and this should better determine the crossing pattern, "pull" or "static" direction of spoke heads, and spoke count specifically. Personally, I have structured the spokes in my custom wheels in a variety of ways, and always with a some crossing pattern for a bit of give, and notice no difference in how the bike rides if the heads are in or out or if the spokes are crossing over or under. Perfect tension seems to be more important. 32h 3-cross seems to hold up to every type of rider, and it seems to be the best combination of strength to rotating weight. 28hole setups I break spokes on, even on pavement. The old stuff is way overbuilt (36h) and heavy for a reason. Built to last, and even then they didn't always hold up to abusive young men riding their bikes off of shed roofs or a car running over the bike.
For those who want to increase the performance of their old steeds, find yourself some high-performance hubs/rims/spokes/tires and build em up !! A low rotating weight at the perimeter will surprise you and make your bike a faster rider no matter your fitness level. We may need a "Show us your "Wheels" thread that covers all older wheel repairs and/or new builds. Looking forward to the balance of this thread Brutuskend!

 

[Brutuskend]

Wheel building and ERD.

One of my least favourite parts of wheel building is figuring out the spoke length. Luckily, things have gotten a LOT easier over the years when it comes to determining your spoke length. These days there are spoke calculating programs all over the internet. I recommend running your calculations through at least 2 different programs however since I have had several give me the wrong length. If they both give you the same number, then you are probably safe. You will still need a good dial indicator and a calculator comes in handy. One thing the programs will ask you is the rim ERD.
ERD stands for Effective Rim Diameter. There are several ways to figure this measurement out, all requiring some sort of tool. Here is a tool I made many years ago for determining a rim's ERD. It is just two different size brass tubes that fit snugly inside of one another, with two spoke nipples soldered on the ends, and a piece of heat shrink that fits over the smaller diameter tube and slides up and down. To find your ERD, find the spoke hole to the right of your valve hole and then the corresponding hole on the opposite side of the rim. Slide one half of the tool into one hole, and the other half of the tool into the opposite hole and fit the tool back together again. Seat both nipples down into the spoke holes and slide the piece of heat shrink up against the end of the fatter tube. Making sure the heat shrink stays put, remove the tool. Now fit the tool back together again and make sure the end butts up against the piece of heat shrink. Now just take a tape measure and measure from the shoulder of one nipple to the shoulder of the other. This is your ERD!

 

[Brutuskend]

Different types of rims and hub loading.

There are basically 4 types of rims where lacing is concerned. The differences being how the nipple holes are positioned in relation to the valve hole in the rim. These differences come into play in two areas. #1, how you load the spokes into the hub. And #2 which direction you rotate your hub as you are building the wheel.

Since we are primarily dealing with older style rims here, I'm going to call the first type of rim Type A.

In a type A rim, the spoke hole to the right of the valve hole will be positioned down. In other words, the spoke coming from that hole will want to go to the flange of the hub on the opposite side of the hub, or the side away from you.

On a type B rim, this hole will be up. Most modern rims made today are of this type.

On a type C rim, the spoke holes run straight down the center of the rim with no offset at all.

On a type D rim, the spoke hole to the right of the valve hole is positioned up but the hole itself is drilled at a angle so that even though it LOOKS like it should go to the hub flange closest to you when the rim is laying flat in front of you, it actually should go to the opposite side flange. This is for a type of lacing called CROSS lacing and is usually found only in some BMX wheels.

 

[Brutuskend]

Now you have your ERD. You have measured your hub and you have calculated your spoke length. Now you are ready to load your hub.

Since the wheel I just built is a newer rim and hub and it is a Type C rim loading it could go either way, but I'm going to do it as if it was a type B rim.

Hold the hub in front of you and drop any spoke through any hole. This spoke will be hanging straight down between two of the holes on the opposite side flange. Now drop a spoke through the hole on the LEFT side of the two holes that your first spoke it hanging between. Now skip one hole and drop a spoke through the next hole on the top flange to the right of your first spoke. Now just keep going all the way around, both top and bottom.

When you are done with one side, flip it over and do the other side. Some people like loading one side of the hub and then lacing. Then load the other side once the first side is laced. I find that more confusing and you are also more apt to get spokes "trapped" between other spokes as you are building. This way is easier for ME, and also faster. The down side is you have to be more careful not to scratch your rim as you are lacing the wheel.

Now we are ready to start lacing.

Place the rim on it's side in front of you with the valve hole at the 6 o'clock position. Now put one of the hangy down spokes in the hole to the right side of the valve hole. Start a nipple on the spoke. Screw it on just a few turns. Now, moving to the right, count 4 holes over and insert another spoke. Continue on until all the hanging spokes from the top flange of the hub are threaded to thier nipples. Remember, every forth hole.

NOW, since we are building this as if it were a type B rim, you want to grab the hub and rotate it COUNTER clockwise. If this was a type A rim, you would rotate it CLOCKWISE. Also, in the earlier stage when you were loading your hub, instead of dropping the second spoke to the LEFT of the first, you would drop it to the right!

The spokes you just laced will become your pull spokes. Now take one of the static spokes from the top flange and, moving in the opposite direction from your pull spokes and count over 3 spokes ( since this is a 3 cross lace) this spoke should pass over 2 spokes and then under one spoke. This first spoke will go into the spoke hole in the center of the three spoke holes remaining open. Now, moving in a clockwise direction continue loading your spokes in the center holes all the way around your rim.

Once that side is done, flip the wheel over. Now locate your next pull spoke, it, like the ones on the other side, should be hanging down. See how it is positioned in relation to the heads out spoke on the other side. It should be to the left. Insert that spoke to the left of the spoke coming from the other side. (you will notice it fits into the "V" formed by the spokes from the other side)

Now you see the "pattern". Just follow this pattern to continue loading your remaining pull spokes, then lace your static the way you did on the other side.
Don't forget to count over 2 spokes and under the last.

If you did everything right, you should have the spokes to either side of the valve parallel to one another giving you lots of room to get your air chuck in there to air up your tire. The pull spokes will all be heads out, and the static spokes will be heads in.

Now tighten all the spoke nipples the same amount. Leave just a few threads showing at the top of each nipple. This will give you a good start when truing the wheel and you won't be starting out with a egg shaped wheel.

Here are a few useful tools for wheel building. One is a nipple driver for quickly running up your nipples, one is a dishing tool to insure that the distance is equal from the edge of the rim to the lock nut on the hub on both sides.

I hope this was helpful and not too confusing!
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or need help.



Dave

I'll add more later on how to true this up if there is any interest.

 

[GTs58]

Fun stuff! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

 

[Brutuskend]

By the way. Sorry if I stepped on militarymonack's toes with this thread.

I have been building wheels since the 80's and actually learned this at United Bicycle Institute. Since learning, I have taught a lot of people how to build, Both customers and new employees at the various shops I have worked at over the years. Since I have taught this many times, I thought I might be able to get the process out there with a minimum of confusion and explain why certain things are done a certain way. Once again, sorry if this seems presumptuous.