How To Build A Bicycle Wheel

wheel building is both a satisfying mechanical process as well as an accessible challenge to any level of mechanic a well-built wheel will provide a solid performance as well as a great service life to its rider in this video we will be going over the entire wheel building process from start to finish including lacing up the wheel tensioning the wheel and truing the [Music] wheel wheel building is the process of attaching the rim to the hub using spokes and nipples as fasteners and then bringing the entire structure up to proper tension as we build our wheel we've been implementing many of the skills that were talked about and taught in our wheel truing series for a strong starting foundation give those videos a watch to better understand what our angle is let's take a look at a completed wheel notice how the spokes radiate at an angle from the hub this helps transfer rotational forces seen in acceleration and braking our wheel also has spoke heads that alternate direction on each flange some facing in and some facing out and when moving from the hub let's count how many times our spokes cross one another one two three times this is a three cross when talking about lacing cross patterns this is what we are referring to now find the valve hole notice how the spokes on either side of the hole are parallel to one another this allows the pump head to go on the valve more easily and notice this happens every four spokes these are just some small observations that are going to help us understand what our goal is while we're lacing our wheel we're going to be lacing up a 32-hole three-cross j-bend wheel in this video this same lacing process can be used for other configurations with very small alterations some typical tools and supplies that you're going to need to build your wheel are a spoke wrench to turn the nipple see this article for help selecting the correct spoke wrench for your wheel a stand for truing and tensioning your wheel a parked tool touring stand is a great option for this a bladed spoke holder like the bsh4 if you will be working with bladed spokes a nipple driver like the nd1 from park tool can help speed along the process a tension meter like the tm1 is highly recommended for tensioning your wheel a light lubricant like park tool cl1 a toothpick with the tip cut off for installing nipples and some painters tape and of course you're going to need all the parts and components to build your wheel if you have yet to select those and figure out your spoke lengths we have a great video found right here today we're going to be lacing a rear wheel lacing a front wheel and a rear wheel is exactly the same rear wheels and many front wheels that have disc brake mounts require different spoke lengths from one side to the other so differentiating our spokes is also important we're starting with our drive side or right hand spokes on our right hand side and our non-drive side or left hand spokes on our left hand side we're going to be lacing this wheel in four sets to help show this we'll be using painted spokes a different color for each set before starting our lacing procedure we're going to need to prep the threads of our spokes we're going to be using park tools cl1 as our thread prep pick up about eight spokes dip them into the oil clean off some of the excess and set them down this procedure is going to be similar for other forms of thread prep as well set your hub in the middle of your rim along with the nipples place a piece of masking tape at the valve hole on your rim this will help you locate it as a reference throughout the build pick up the hub with the drive side facing you this applies to both front and rear hubs if building a front wheel this will be the right side or the non-disc side of the hub if your front hub doesn't have a disc side the label should be able to be read from the rider's perspective pick up one spoke from the pile on your right side viewing the main logo of the hub drop a spoke in about one quarter to the right of the logo the head of the spoke should be facing outwards and the spokes elbow facing inward after installing the spoke give it a little bend to reduce future stress in this area do this for the rest of the spokes as you move forward as well now find the valve hole on your rim remember the tape find the second spoke hole to the right of the valve this is where we will install the first spoke fasten the nipple to the end of the spoke threading it just enough to stay on cover about half the threads with the nipple this is your valve reference spoke and it will be referred to throughout the rest of the video it can be helpful to mark it with a little bit of tape now pick up seven more spokes from your right side pile and working to the right drop a spoke into every other hole again from the outside of the flange at the flange grab the spoke just to the right of the reference spoke up at the rim starting at the reference boat count one two three four spoke holes to the right and install the spoke into the fourth hole now move to the right at the flange and take the next spoke count again to the fourth hole and install another spoke repeat this process all the way around the wheel we are now one quarter done with lacing before moving on let's check to see that there are no errors there should be three empty rim holes between each installed spoke every other spoke hole in the right flange should have a spoke head facing out the second hole to the right of the valve has a spoke in it if everything looks good let's move on to the second set flip the wheel around positioning the valve hole at the top once again locate your reference spoke the spoke with the tape on it it should be the second spoke hole to the left of the valve now looking at the flanges of your hub you will notice that the flange holes are slightly offset from one another find the hole in the non-drive side flange that will place the spoke just to the right of the reference spoke using a left side spoke is a straight pointer notice the non-drive side flange hole falls between two drive side flange holes drop this spoke in and install it just to the right of the reference spoke now drop seven more left side spokes into every other hole in the non-drive side flange of the hub letting them fall just ahead of the opposing side spokes dropping them in just ahead helps you remember where they will go install these spokes one hole to the right of the first set of spokes we're halfway done with our wheel now let's make some checks and then move on to our third set the spoke heads should be facing out from the left flange with the elbows inside the flange every other hole should be filled at the flange at the rim there should be two adjacent spoke holes filled with two empty holes in between citing from the left flange spokes should not visually cross the spokes from the other right flange correct any errors if needed and let's move on to the third set leave the wheel left flange up drop a right side spoke into every open hole on the right flange now flip the wheel being careful to lay the inserted spokes flat the heads of the spokes just inserted should be on the inside of the flange with the elbow on the outside grab the hub and twist in a clockwise rotation notice the spokes now radiate from the hub to the left toward the rim this new set of spokes will radiate to the right take any one of the just installed right side spokes that are laying flat and starting from the spokes flange hole count out the spokes it will cross on the way to the rim one two three spokes on its way to the rim again that's one two three crosses this spoke goes under the third spoke that it crosses at the rim skip one hole from the last cross spoke this is where you will install the spoke you can now lace the remaining seven right side spokes to the rim one two under three skip a hole install one two under three skip a hole install one two under three skip a hole install remember to flex the spokes at the flange when you have completed this side we've now completed one entire side of the wheel here's a few checks at the rim there should be three spokes next to one another and then a space at the room there should be two drive side spokes with one non-drive side spoke in between them also be sure that you interlace the third set of spokes one cross two cross under three cross install we're almost done on to the last set drop the remaining spokes into the non-drive side flange from the back before flipping the wheel carefully turn the wheel over and lay all the spokes flat grab any free spoke this fourth set of spokes will radiate to the left opposite of the existing non-drive side set as you move the spoke to the left count the number of crosses one two under three install the spoke one two under three install one two under three install at this point all the holes in the hub should be filled if you've been checking your work as you go the only remaining check is that your fourth set of spokes are interlaced now you have a completely laced wheel our wheel is laced but our spokes are still loose so the next step in this process is going to be drawing up the tension in the wheel evenly the first step in this is to zero out the spoke nipples to do this we're going to use the park tool nd1 and we're going to spin each nipple until we no longer can see any more threads on the spoke having the spokes zeroed out is a great place to start as we start drawing up tension evenly in our wheel if you are struggling to zero out spoke nipples it may mean that your spokes are too short and you may need to reassess your wheel build next add some thin lubricant to where the nipple and the rim meet this helps reduce friction and will make tensioning and future adjustments easier give the wheel a good spin to push the lubricant into the spaces between the nipple and the rim bet now let's start tensioning starting at the valve of the wheel give all the nipples an equal amount of turns this wheel was built with differential spoking so we have shorter spokes on the drive side longer spokes on the non-drive side so we can give all the spokes an equal amount of turns and it should drop the tension evenly and keep our dish correct so let's start with two turns if you're using a non-differential length then give the drive side of the rear or the rotor side of the front an extra two turns the idea here is to draw tension evenly it's often best to take your time and go slow making just one to two turns as you work give the spokes a squeeze you'll be able to feel when they start gaining a noticeable amount of tension not enough tension to be a durable wheel but enough tension to ride this wheel if your spokes are loose like these give them another turn or two once you're up to relatively good tension it's time to start thinking about truing we have some tension in our spokes if we give it a spin it looks fairly straight if yours doesn't don't be alarmed if you have a tm1 or other tension meter check the initial tension to see where the wheel is at for an in-depth look at wheel tension check out our wheel tension video here on the tm1 i'm getting a fairly low reading of 10. that's about 30 kgf for this spoke this gives me an idea of how much additional tension i need to draw up in this wheel in addition to adding tension we also need to make corrections to lateral true radial true and the centering of this wheel all of those things will add to the tension bringing us closer to our end goal first let's look at the lateral tree of the wheel and correct any deviations for an in-depth look at how to lateral into your wheel see our video here next let's check the dish of the wheel this wheel is off to the right side and so we will add tension to the left side spokes to correct this for this wheel i'm going to add one half of a turn to that side of the wheel remember that this will also increase the overall tension of our wheel for even more on wheel dishing see our video here now we'll check the radial true of the wheel correcting any deviations you find you can get in-depth information on radial truing here with that first pass done check your tensions again we are still seeing low tension readings on the tm1 with that in mind draw up the tension of the wheel by giving all the nipples half of a turn we are closing in on a great wheel continue to go through these processes until you feel that the wheel is laterally true radially true dished and properly tensioned checking our tensions again we see that our tension readings are very close to the target number of 25 which is about 120 kgf our dish is great and our wheel trueness is fantastic as well we're on the home stretch now what we're going to do now is pre-stress or de-stress the wheel what this does is it seats the nipples into the rim and seats the spoke heads into the hub there's a few different methods of doing this but we're going to suggest using the squeeze method simply squeeze parallel spokes on either side of the wheel this puts added strain on your spokes and helps mate the elbows of your spokes to the flanges of your hubs it also helps seat the nipple into the rim bed often after this process you will see a slight change in tension and possibly trueness correct these issues and squeeze again and with that this wheel is ready to go if you use this video to build a wheel or maybe more than one wheel let us know how that process went for you in the comments section and on that we'll see you next time and thanks for joining us

Channel: Park Tool

Views: 156,042

Rating: 4.9569349 out of 5

Keywords: Bikes, Bike Maintenance, Bike Repair, Bicycles, Bicycle Maintenance, Bicycle Repair, Bike Tools, Bicycle Tools, How to Build a Wheel, Wheel Building, Bike wheel building

Id: X5gs00ttvdg

Length: 20min 33sec (1233 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 01 2021