lacing wheels

[militarymonark]

bumpity bump bump

 

[Silver Chief]

Looks like I'll have to give this a try shortly.

 

[zephyrblau]

this is something I learned how to do back in the 70s. (yes, I'm older than dirt) I figured with a little hand holding I could get back up to speed, but it appears as though the photo links above are not current. not to worry... Youtube to the rescue
here's an example. I'm sure there are other / better ones;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTb3x5VO69Y

I'd always heard that the road wheels offered by the now departed Wheel Smith (Palo Alto) were built by "robots".
back in the 80s this was pretty scary stuff, but last year I bought a 20 year old set of those wheels & they're still pretty nice !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRYEv2NDdzE

 

[Harvest Cyclery]

alright here we go watch these in order
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/cosmo9o/?action=view&current=M4H01968.mp4
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/cosmo9o/?action=view&current=M4H01970.mp4
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/cosmo9o/?action=view&current=M4H01971.mp4
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/cosmo9o/?action=view&current=M4H01973.mp4
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/cosmo9o/?action=view&current=M4H01975.mp4

militarymonark,

It is super cool your learning to build wheels, not a lot of people step up to the plate on a skill like this. I watched all your videos, cool that your helping others learn the art. I noticed a few things while watching you lace up this wheel.

It looks like your not crossing your outbound spokes under the final intersecting spoke. 3 cross should go Over, Over, Under. 4 Cross should go Over, Over, Over, Under. The cross is what really adds stiffness to wheel, very important on coaster brake wheels

Also, not required, but definitely helpful, try to have your inbound spokes on opposing flanges going opposite directions, otherwise your wheel is biased toward drive direction or the opposite of drive direction.

Last thing, try to line up your valve hole to it is not in the middle of two intersecting spokes, this makes it easier to access the valve when inflating you tubes and makes everything much cleaner in general.

Sheldon Brown's key spoke method is the best when it comes to lacing wheels, also a try to match relative spoke tension before worrying about truing, old steel balloner rims are pretty stiff and can be deceptively straight before adding tension on the spokes.

All of these suggestions are just that, suggestions, I have seen plenty of stock wheels that were not laced the way I described and held up just fine over the years, however, I have destroyed ALOT of coaster brake rear wheels and would rather just build something stiff and strong from the get go.

And where the heck did you find that old Park truing stand? That thing looks early, I've never seen one like that and now I am very jealous.

Hope this helps.

-AJ

 

[GiovanniLiCalsi]

The last time that I laced up some wheels was in 1974.
The Fiamme Yellow & Red label wheels are still on my Italian racing bicycle.
I laced up double-butted stainless steel spokes on the Campagnolo hubs.
I was lucky to have two best friends that happened to work in the oldest bicycle shop on the west coast. They both supervised my lacing at the bicycle shop.
The Wilson Cyclery originally sold Harley Davidsons and bicycles in the early 1900's.
The town of Visalia was founded in 1854.

 

[Harvest Cyclery]

http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

 

[MaxGlide]

The first spoke inserted is key

The spoke you start with is the key. You usually start at the first spoke hole to the right of the tube stem hole. When done lacing, you want the stem to be in the middle of the spokes where they go straight up, not where they cross over the stem. If the spokes cross over the stem the will be in the way when you need to pump up your tires.

 

[Gary Mc]

The spoke you start with is the key. You usually start at the first spoke hole to the right of the tube stem hole. When done lacing, you want the stem to be in the middle of the spokes where they go straight up, not where they cross over the stem. If the spokes cross over the stem the will be in the way when you need to pump up your tires.

The only thing I can add is start with the first spoke hole to the right of the tube stem hole closest to the side of the rim you are lacing first. I have laced rims where the first hole was on the back side of the rim from the side I was lacing, such as Ghisallo's. In this case you start with the second hole to the right of the tube stem hole. I agree this is the key as well as remembering over, over, under for 3 cross or over, over, over, under for 4 cross pattern lacing.

 

[HIGGINSFOREVER]

Rear hubs are intended to be laced as a hollow shell. The large notch that mfgs. built into the sprockets, although very considerate, was only intended to be used to help aid the replacement of a broken spoke.

Rear hubs on a cruiser are easy peasy as we don't have to worry about "dish", it's the road bikes with multi speed cassettes that get tricky, as the drive-side spokes get laced vertically, or in the same plane as the rim to accommodate space for the cassette.

Are the rear spokes the same length as the front 10 5/8

 

[rustjunkie]

Are the rear spokes the same length as the front 10 5/8

(generally) yes