Rebuilding an old wheelset

[John D. Williams]

I've rebuilt wheels before but this set is throwing me a loop, hoping for help here. It's from a 1934 DP Harris-Snyder, not sure of the age of the wheels. They were a cross 3, outside-outside-outside. I am following Youtube directions to rebuild, have the front relaced, but the hub is askew from the rim and no amount of wiggling and tugging is getting this straight so I can true it. Should I change it to outside-outside-inside which I believe is (or was) standard? Should I have not spoked one side of the hub then the other (as per some videos)?

 

[Archie Sturmer]

Not having the actual wheel in front of me, I would first guess that the wrong spoke hole on the hub for the second side may have been off by one?

If they were off by two holes, that would make the correction appear to be simpler, by moving each spoke over by two holes on the rim;
(but I would just start over).

 

[GTs58]

 

[John D. Williams]

Not having the actual wheel in front of me, I would first guess that the wrong spoke hole on the hub for the second side may have been off by one?

Thank you. This makes sense to me even though I thought I had it right. I will take a closer look.

 

[John D. Williams]

Yep I watched this one. Archie Sturmer might have the answer. Thank you.

 

[the tinker]

Got a couple Schwinn 26 inch rims from a fellow CABER yesterday. I haven't done a wheel in nearly ten years and commented to him that, " I hope I can still do it." Never was fast lacing a wheel. 20 minutes was about it. He said, "You tube has some great vids on lacing wheels. Before I started, I watched a short and to the point vid to refresh my memory. It's called, "How to lace a 36 hole BMX wheel- 3 cross pattern." I think I did it in 15 minutes... Take it all apart. Watch the vid. It's easy.

 

[Archie Sturmer]

For the outer spokes (installed last), sometimes I lace all outside crossovers, and then afterwards go back and change each of the last crossovers to be under.

An extra step, but sometimes I find it helpful.

 

[nortonguy]

All anyone has to do to build good wheels is to get Jobst Brandt's book on the subject, which walks you through everything there is to know about wheels and building them. Used copies are available on Ebay all the time, done and done.

 

[SKPC]

I will say that the leaning video is pretty good. It helps if you are good mechanically. My only suggestion in addition ito the vid is to count holes, not crosses. All you need to remember for most normal wheels are the numbers 4 (all wheels), 10 for 3 cross wheels and 14 for 4 cross lacing, no matter how many spokes are in the wheel & hub....28hole, 32hole, 36hole, etc. She counts spoke crosses in order to determine the correct hole to use on the rim for starting the 1st crossing spoke placement.....all the others follow, so if you screw this up, you will fail. I would not advise this, but instead count 14 holes over on the rim from the installed spoke (at the rim) that you are crossing over at the hub.
If it is a 3-cross lacing pattern, count 10holes over. 4-cross, 14 holes over on the rim. One more tip to be aware of. See the photo below.

After you loosely lace the wheel, take the bows out of the spokes at the flange by force bending them to align with the flange, exiting straight. As you can see above, this one needs work. Make sure every spoke comes out straight and clean from the hub. For every wheel, I measure the ERD of the rim and all required hub dimensions, double checked then written down. Determine how many "crosses" you intend to use, go to prowheelbuilder.com and enter your measurements into the calculator. IT is never wrong. I do this for All wheels no matter new or old. Going backwards or making mistakes is common and we have all gone backwards with wheels before. Good luck!

Thread 'Everything Wheels.'

Nov 6, 2020

"Everything Wheels" thread seems missing so I will add one. Everything and anything.
I just finished up a nice custom 26" set for a bike and could not get any brand 559 tire to seat on them. Turns out the bead seat diameter was not 559mm(22"), but 664mm(22.1875")! 1st ever out-of-spec rims for me. Salsa Delgado 26" clinchers. I was pressuring up the tires to 65lbs (ballooner) and they still would not seat, even with grease. This really stumped me until I compared them to a good wheel. . So I bought some similar rims to replace them. Deconstructed and...

• SKPC
• Replies: 199
• Forum: General Discussion About Old Bicycles

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Truing the wheel to dead straight is where the rubber hits the road and that really tests your Zen skills...especially an "old wheelset".

 

[John D. Williams]

It worked, thanks everyone! It has a slight hop which I will deal with after riding it a bit. Looks good! From the clearance at the front fork, and the fenders, I'm pretty sure this was originally a 28 inch rim bike that was converted during the 1930s change to the much easier 26 inch clincher tires. The ND hub has an amazing spin.