Test Ride Complete
No “ting-ing” or other signs of major shifts. Spokes seem to be about the same tension. Lateral trueness is less than 0.5 mm but is a little noticeable when braking (rim brakes). Circularity could be a little better but well within what the tire compensates for. Overall pleased with my first (re)build even though it was about as simple as it can get.
First ever lace up. I actually enjoyed the process and think it looks ok, except the spokes are all so horridly slack.
I’m nervous the spokes are too long, but I don’t know how much they’ll pull up when I tighten it
Obviously still a work in progress… 
Looks fine so far, there’s a fair few turns before I’d be getting worried about lack of tightness!
Thanks 
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I’ll update after some more turns.
Nice. What rims and hubs are you using? Looks wide and hookless - gravel?
DT240 and Duke 30mm aluminium rims.
They are a project/opportunity to learn a skill and get an upgrade for my XC bike.
Very nice! I like the changing nipple colors.
Thanks!
I had a lot of help getting them tensioned and true which was awesome. Laced both wheels by myself which was very satisfying.
Benefit to being off with Covid, I’ve had some time to get the tyres on and sealant in. I’m not sure about the colour of these Maxxis tan walls, but very impressed with their volume on the 30mm rims. I think the tyres are quite heavy so it’ll be interesting to see if my 2.35 Vittoria tyres install the same. Plus hopefully I’ll get a new set of Schwalbe’s before summer.
I have an old rim that has hit quite a few rocks, so is pretty dinged up and untrue. Spokes and hub should still be fine. I don’t think I’ll want to build my own wheel in the foreseeable future, but am planning to get a truing stand so that I at least can take care of the wheels I already have.
Is there any benefit in keeping this wheel to test truing on, given that the rim is so dinged up? Otherwise I’d probably give it away on craigslist to someone who wants to lace a new rim onto it.
(Disclaimer: As most people here probably, I have more wheelsets than bikes and really don’t need another spare wheel 
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Swap the rim yourself, it’s a great intro to wheelbuilding, and you’ll learn all about truing. I could never work out what to do until I did a rim swap myself. Just make sure the new rim matches the old rim in dimensions so the spokes have the same length. Then tape the new rim to the old rim and move the spokes over one by one.
I’m not sure if I’d use the wheel as it is for truing practise, if the rim is very bad, it might not behave like a normal rim and make truing it a bit frustrating. Also unless you’re the type of person that enjoys taking things apart just to see how they work, I don’t think you need a practise wheel for truing - just use a wheel that actually needs it. As long as you don’t go overboard tightening spokes, you won’t break it.
Nothing to lose trying to true a bashed up rim. If it goes wrong and you Pringle it, you’ve lost nothing. If you manage to get it reasonably true, you’ve learnt something whilst minimising the risk of buggering up a good wheel.
@Pottery how are your LightBicycle rims/wheels going?
I’m going to be doing my second wheel build this coming winter. This time with carbon rims laced to some Onyx hubs.
Still leaning to BTLOS rims. I can’t find anything as light that has the weight limit (and supposed strength) of the BTLOS.
I had a terrific guide when I built the previous set last year, I’ll be stuffed if I can find it again now though 
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Still going well, enjoying the few sets I’ve built using their rims, with no issues to report.
Recent sales have had me buying more factory produced complete wheels though, it doesnt seem like the DIY method is as cost effective for me, but it would depend on the specific type of setup one is needing.
Wheel Build Number Two.
Onyx Vesper hubs
BTLOS M-i27AL rims (289g and 294g)
Pillar TB2016 spokes
Aluminium Sapim Secure Lock nipples
Very satisfying again. And pleased with how they’ve come together.
I again laced them myself and brought them all up to initial tension before a mate helped with the truing.
Spoke tensions are all about 14 on my ZTTO tension gauge and about 16 on his Park tool one. ~120kgf according to the PT chart. Rims have a max of 130 so that seemed like a good place to aim for.
I love the creative use of Legos!
Nice! I’m interested in doing something similar, prob with dt swiss hubs though. How did you calculate spoke length?
I used about four or five of the online calculators and looked for the pattern/consistency.
already over 1 year in use, but still very happy with this set:
initially choose erase hubs, but due to supply chain issues picked up these beautiful hubs instead!
