So I have a cheap wheelset from ICAN, which has been pretty good but the rear hub is slightly damaged (careless attempt to press in new bearings). It still runs fine but I’ve bought a replacement wheelset anyways since the bearings are always rough now because of the damage.
I am thinking of getting a DT350 rear hub and some new spokes and nipples. I’ve used the DT Swiss Spoke Calculator and with the provided ERD of the rim, it’s given me the correct spoke lengths.
Is it really as easy as loosening all the spokes, then removing them. Putting the new spokes in the new hub and rim/nipples and slowly tensioning them (gradually, tensioning the whole wheel up) to an even tension (different tensions for NDS and DS)?
I have a tension meter so I can at least measure that. I have a bladed spoke holder and spoke wrench too, just not a trueing stand, but I can borrow one if needed after tensioning.
It seems doable, but I’ve been told that wheel building is black magic haha, the final frontier of bike mechanics.
I have spent a lot of time trueing wheels and have replaced spokes myself. but I’ve never done an entire wheel from the hub up.
Lots of resources on wheel building out there. Musson or Brandt are two names to search for. One tip I usually give is to pay attention while tensioning to get the wheel into round first, then dish, then lateral true in that order. Once you apply a reasonable amount of tension, if the wheel is out of round or the dish is off, it’s a lot more work. Final lateral trying is relatively easy towards the end.
It’s certainly doable. I’ve built a 1/2 dozen sets or so. I’ll say there are a few things that help:
Use brass rather than aluminum nipples. I like squorx.
Get some spoke prep and oil to lubricate the nipples
Pay attention to the number of turns you do before you really increase the tension. Starting from an almost true wheel is much easier. consider a nipple driver like this DT Swiss Squorx Nipple Driver - 60mm – Dreamruns.com
Very doable, just takes time. I’ve done a few sets, but I’ve always had a built wheel with the same lacing to use as a example to make sure I get all the lacing and crossovers right. And +1 on brass nipples. One other tip - be mindful of where the valve stem hole is when starting the build. You can make it hard on yourself for adding air if the spokes are angled toward the valve stem rather than away from it. I’ve got a wheelset that’s been reminding me of that screw up for the better part of a decade. I intended to relace it, but it’s not bad unless I’m using really long valve stems.
I’ve done plenty of wheel work in my garage. It’s easy to do, harder to do it well. Be careful about dishing it correctly, that’s where I always screwed up by just blindly following the tension meter
I’ve ridden my last 20k miles on wheels I built (road to gravel to enduro MTB) with no major issues. I downloaded the Musson PDF guide for $10, super-worthy investment: Wheel Building and Spoke Lengths for cycle wheels
I’d say a quality truing stand and dishing tool will make your life way way easier. I also second the recommendation to use Squorx nipples (alloy or brass) and associated tool, also much easier than square nipple IME.
I would make the same recommendations, the Roger Musson guide is good. The other thing I would add is that you are doing the hub, spokes, and nipples, why not just get a new rim and build an entirely new wheel. You could de-tension the old one and then bring it back up to true as practice.
Wheel building is fun, just be patient and methodical with the correct procedures and it will work out, otherwise you have a bad component in the system. Not black magic at all.
Check all the eyelets for any damage, and when they are unstrung, lay them on a flat surface and just see if they lay even, flat, if you are concerned. Check for any rim deformation/damage.
Biggest tip is take your time! Don’t rush. The biggest mistake I’ve seen is the spacing over the stem hole. I triple check the lengths, and yeah, you can do it. Make sure to check if the spoke holes have a direction coming out of the rim, and you lace the hubs properly.
(I rebuilt a wheelset that had crappy hoops, but I loved the hubs. I did one side chrome and the other white. They looked great when done. (It was for a fixie that had painted rims that I was adding brakes to. The brakes HOWLED when I tried stopping the first few times so those hoops had to go))
It is really easy, if you follow a good guide, to get a wheel 95% good. The final 5% can be a real pain if you don’t build many, but you can generally take it to a shop and just pay for them to true a wheel (for less than building one).
My favorite guide in Brandt. There are pdf copies of it you can find with google.
I had a similar situation last year where I had a set of really nice carbon wheels on my rim brake bike. The hubs were amazing and the wheels felt great, but after about 3 or 4 seconds of breaking it sounded like a fighter jet. I tried almost every set of brake pads haha.
I wish I had swapped the rims out instead of selling them for basically no money because nobody wants to buy rim brake wheel sets anymore.
I agree to an extent but labour here is so expensive and it’s something I’d like to do myself. It’s a low price wheelset so it wont bother me if I mess it up.
Sounds like a perfect educational moment. Building wheels isn’t hard, but there are a lot of ways that it can go sideways. Make sure the spokes are the right length, get (or get access to) the right tools.
For me: The first set I built was when I worked at a bike shop so find a local shop to help avoid having to buy some of the more expensive tools. There are alternatives for many of those tools, but I still value the Park stand that I bought, and dish tool. The later is the least expensive tool, something some people might not understand. The process of a first time build can get complicated, and fighting that with ‘make-do’ tools can be frustrating. I’ve run into so many people at local bike shops around here that will help customers that want to build their first wheels. (And people who have done one wheel or so and vow to never do it again. ) Not trying to talk you out of it at all, but having someone IRL who can help with questions (and tool-time) is priceless. IMO…
But, yeah, you can do this, and I wish more people tried building their own wheels. Education is power, and more riders being comfortable with their bikes is always a good thing.
There are three things (big things) that people building wheels need to achieve: Trueness, dish, and roundness.
Many think that on disc brake setups, trueness isn’t important, but I still check my wheels for true at least once a year. Dishing is also important, but more so for rim brake systems, and getting hops out of a new build can be frustrating. Getting a hop is part of the build process, and finding one late in the game is disappointing. They can be hard to get out.
I actually have a copy of The Bicycle Wheel, and it really helped the first builds I did. Experimenting with different builds is interesting. Like straight pull spokes. (Headache. I don’t see a future where I’d ever use straight pull spokes for a build ever again) I haven’t done bladed spokes, or different counts by side, or radials, or cross mixes. Always new ways to drive one to drink.
If your challenge building with straight pull is spinning spokes, bladed spokes basically solve that. CX-ray bladed spokes are my preference. Not the cheapest spoke and maybe not much performance benefit for some applications, but I find them easy to work with and I have never broken one outside of crash situations (well over 100k miles on CX-rays on and off road).
And +1 on roundness/hop issues being the toughest to deal with. Getting a wheel properly tensioned, dished, and true is just a matter of patience, you’ll eventually get there and it’s hard to screw up. But if you aren’t careful about roundness (basically watching thread depth) with the initial lacing, it’s almost a do-over. Even with that, it’s just time and patience. I personally find it fun and rewarding fiddling with a wheel to get it near perfect. Good shops can build perfectly good/functional wheels, but they are on the clock and have to call it good enough at some point.
If you decide to do it yourself, check at least 5 times before you start lacing the first side, and 3 more times before you start lacing the 2nd side, that you are using the correct length spokes for the correct side. When you get to the 2nd side, don’t just assume those are right because that’s all that’s left.
And to say it again, verify that the spokes are the right length. Some sites, I’ve heard, aren’t exactly perfect on the length they recommend. For the hoop swap I did, I measured the hub, and used a DT Swiss rim, plugging all the numbers into their site calculator. And then measured the hub again, just to make sure I had the dimensions right, just in case.
But do your best at measuring, unless it’s a DT Swiss hub by chance which you can just plug into their calculator.
I put different colored tape on the bunches of spokes, and the same color on the rim side they go with. Do one side, then the other, and while some people order a couple extra spokes, there isn’t much of a need to, just count out everything before you start in case they shorted you by chance. I’ve never had a problem though. I did buy a whole box of spokes once because no one seemed to have them in smaller quantity, except for the LBS that wanted almost the price of a box(!) AND the difference between sides wasn’t a concern (so I have spares).
(Also be careful when buying from a LBS, without checking them before you pay. I got spokes once and they were all kinds of brands. All looked new and were the same size, but weren’t the same brand. Kinda made me a little nervous, AND I was already over half way through before I realized what they had done )
But have fun. It’s great to know you are riding on wheels you built yourself.
) Not trying to talk you out of it at all, but having someone IRL who can help with questions (and tool-time) is priceless. IMO…
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