Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
....all I used was the spoke calculator that I linked, and the free video tutorial over on Atomic Zombie (no special/expensive tools). Brad does an excellent, plain talking demo, in stages, and it really is simple to follow. I still reckon grabbing an old wheel and rebuilding it is the best way to go to get all the hands on experience you need, or even just redish it rather than rebuild, then do a full rebuild as your confidence grows.
One thing is certain, you can't learn to ride a bike just from reading a book. You have to jump on it and fall off a few times until you get the idea, but a few scars are a small price to pay for so much fun........
I could only find one tutorial on wheel building on the website Atomic Zombie, and that wheel has all 36 spokes of the same length. A different matter is with the spokes on two different lengths.
BTW there are much better tutorials out there.
If you think you can build a standard rear wheel or disc front wheel by using a spoke length calculator and a wheel building tutorial (no expensive tools) then you know something I don't know and I think I also speak for the many professional wheel builders out there with many years of experience. Unless, of course, you build yourself a cheap dishing tool
Although, I learnt and practiced wheel building with an old wheel, I'd be careful advising people to use an old wheel and I'll explain why I once was asked to see what this new builder was doing that was finding so difficult.... the poor guy had followed somebody's advise and picked up an old steel wheel and once he removed the spokes the thing was not longer a straight rim..... rebuilding that thing would make anyone cry . I had to rebuilt one like that for a friend once and it was the hardest wheel to build ever. ... the spokes were more like metal shoe laces .
A new rim with new spokes and nipples is the easiest way, but it can be done with used wheels too.... just make sure you don't pick a wheel like the one I mentioned above
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