rhaines Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Hi all, I have some air leaking out of my rear wheel at the spoke nipples and am in need of some information. I am going to replace the tyre band to reseal it but also I want to respoke the wheel while Ive got the tyre off because the nipples and some of the spokes are corroded and seized. Have any of you attemted to respoke a wheel yourselves, what is the easiest way of doing it, what torque do you need to have on the spoke nipples?. do you need to make a jig for aligning the rim. I was planning to do it 1 spoke at a time to minimize the amount of movement on the rim while I am tinkering and would appreciate any help from you guys. Oh... I dont want to go down the route of sending the wheel away to be done, I was hoping to make this a diy learning project!! cheers rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigel dabster Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Where are you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhaines Posted January 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 wiltshire, near chippenham cheers rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g4321 Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Have a look at the attached link - yes its push bike wheels but is an excellent guide to wheel building. http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html You can get away with replacing one spoke at a time but the 'inner' spokes will be hard to lace behind the 'outer' spokes. It is easier to build or spoke a wheel using a jig but if you are careful you can build up the wheel without a jig by putting in each spoke evenly so that the same number of threads is showing at each nipple then use either the forks or swinging arm of the bike to true the wheel up. If you do decide to build the wheel yourself measure the offset before you start, the wheel may be offset to one side of the hub, this can be done using a flat surface such as a bench top and an accurate ruler or caliper. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totalshell Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 no matter how easy it may sound wheel building is something i would always to the experts, putting in the odd broken spoke is okay but anything else leave it alone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charliechitlins Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Only give it up to somebody else if you fail utterly and often! It's not that mysterious. The other measurement you need to take besides offset is concentricity (is that a word?) In other words, the hub needs to stay centered in the rim. Take some good, clear pictures (or make diagrams) before you take the wheel apart. Tap the spokes with a screwdriver and get a sense of how they ring, and you'll be able to tune your spokes when you are laced and trued. Ignore the ones that go "thunk"...you don't want that! Note how many spokes each spoke crosses, and notice if the inside spokes have a different bend from the outside spokes where they go into the hub, and if you have different length spokes. Install all of the 'inside' spokes first...on both sides of the hub. It gets a little messy with all those spokes dangling about. Before taking the wheel apart (if you're getting all new spokes, save yourself a bunch of time by getting the old spokes out with bolt cutters or cutting torch...just save 3 or 4 good ones)lie it on a flat surface on whatever side keeps the rim up off the table. Find something that will be the right thickness to put under the rim in 3 or 4 places so you can shim it up to that height when you have re-laced. After the spokes are in, you can lie the wheel on a flat surface and shim up the rim to the proper offset. While you tighten your new spokes, keep measuring the rim-to-hub to keep it centered, and make all the spokes just barely finger tight (lube all the threads!). Theoretically, now your wheel is true, and all you have to do is tighten the spokes evenly. It won't be the case, but it's a good start. Your swingarm (or front fork if it's a front wheel) makes a great truing stand. You can install the wheel and tape one of those little red straws from a spraycan to the swingarm to use for an indicator. Spin the wheel and watch the rim/straw relationship for side-to-side and up-and-down. Use a marker to mark spots where you want to adjust. Always be aware of where the valve hole is when you're going around tightening each one evenly, so you know where to start and stop. If you have any up-and-down, get rid of that first. The rim will move side-to-side depending on which side of the hub the spoke you tighten comes from. Let us know how it goes! I can do a complete wheel in about 30 minutes when I'm in practice. An hour when I'm not. My first few took several hours each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappington Posted January 6, 2006 Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 I have been building motorcycle wheels for years now, you cannot build a wheel one spoke at a time, 1 check the offset (the centre hub may not be in the middle) 2 strip the old spokes out. 3 Fit all the spokes looseley (2 or 3 threads) 4 fit the spindle in the hub 5 place in a jig (like a swinging arm) 6 tighten spokes at 0 90 180 270 360 degrees to make it slightly rigid 7 adjust spoke tightness to make the wheel round (not oval) 8 when round check offset and take buckle out of rim tightening and undoing spokes(tolerances are 1mm side to side movement) 9 check all spokes for a nice sprung ring 10 wheel finished took 1 hour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(and 20 years experience) 11 Good luck. :ph34r Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.