Building Wheels

In melborune so can’t help there but people should share the love with wheel building it’s not rocket surgery you just need time and a little help from someone who has done it before but it can be dangerous if not done right.

I have the following hot tip:

When you’re dropping nipples into the eyelets and one of them gets wedged in the rim, fish that fucker out immediately. Don’t just think “Oh, I’ll get it out before I put the rim tape and tyre on”. Because you won’t remember and then after the first ride it will become unwedged and you will have what sounds like one internal spokeydoke to entertain you when you are rolling slowly.

Another book that’s cheap online is Roger Musson’s one at wheelpro.co.uk. I got it a couple of years ago and if anything it’s easier than the 2 mentioned at the start of this thread. He tells you how to make the stand from wood and a dishing guage from cardboard with very good accuracy.

http://cyclingdeal.rtrk.com.au/?scid=31771&kw=4351290

Also cheaper direct from their website. Then again, these guys do import the Stars wheels, so quality can’t really be assured.

I take it you are pointing out the $120 flip flop wheelset as a comparison with building your own. This definitely does set a nice low price point for those of us just starting at building a SS/fixed bike and unsure whether we want to build a bike that will do short distances for a year or so, or spend more money on higher quality. That wheelset definitely has its place and will help lots of people try SS and fixed.

I have a particular scenario that i have not seen covered in any other thread so here it is:
I have a set of tubulars matched to c-record hubs and i want to convert them to clinchers. If i was to try rebuilding the wheel to some clinchers would i be able to reuse the spokes and nipples?

Only if you can find clinchers with the same ERD, or the same calculated spoke length if you lace in a different pattern.

In short, don’t bother, too much hassle, plus you’ll have new unfatigued spokes on your rebuilt wheelset.

As usual, Blakey’s right, don’t even go there!!

I can see that Blakey is an admin on these forums and obviously has a good reputation, so I wish to make this comment with the greatest respect but will “go there” and give contrasting advice from Roger Musson’s Wheelbuilding book, which is the best and most practical book on the subject that I have found.

In short, he encourages re-use of spokes and says that they are quite OK. I encourage you to read his PDF book before flaming me for my temerity - it is not hard to find. Your opinions of his book may be good too.

And Blakey, I may meet you some time so please take this as i am intending.

Your comment was taken as intended, my meaning was this:

If the rim has a known history and hasn’t done 10s of thousands of kms, then the spokes are likely fine for reuse. But if not, then they could well have some fatigue damage at the elbow which will shorten the life of the next build.

To additionally constrain yourself to a small selection of rims with matching ERDs or having to use a weird lacing pattern (not radial, if they’re C-Record sherrif stars!) just to reuse the spokes is dumb. It’s not as if the rim has worn out and is being replaced like-for-like which is a simple as transferring the spokes over.

Penny wise, pound foolish.

There is a big Excel spreadsheet referenced on Sheldon’s site that has many ERD measurements for rims. You could look for rims with similar sizes there for a start. Through Mavic’s history there have been many rims that were offered as both tubular and clincher - like the CXP30s that I have a fair few of as clinchers. You would be safe just looking out for the same model and swapping over - but that is going to be a rare situation and like Blakey implies, skewing the most important part of the new build decision with the aim of saving the cheap part of the old build.

+1 to Blakey’s comments: I’d never recommend reusing spokes, unless the wheel has hardly been ridden. Furthermore, I have never, and will never, reuse a nipple. Any resource that advocates reusing nipples is probably not worth your time. Nipples are included with new spokes, and their cost is so minimal, so why would you not use new nipples?

I’ve noticed a few rims that use the same spoke length, especially rims with a similar profile to a Mavic Open Pro, such as the Velocity Razor and a couple of Ambrosio rims. You may get lucky.

(I have to say, I’ve never heard of someone choosing their spoke length before they choose their rim.)

Rebuilding a hub and spokes onto a new rim is in my mind a acceptable solution if you want to save money while changing from tubular to clincher rims. It’s not as simple as “old” v “new”, consider the type of spokes, the number of miles they have seen, any damage or uneven tension they may have endured.The spokes may well be high quality or have almost minimal wear or stress.

If a new rim with the same depth is found, you can tape the spokes together in their original lacing pattern before removing them from the rim or simply lay the new rim on top, loosen all the spokes and then transfer the spokes one at time.

I was gonna build my own wheels but knowing me I would fook sumthing up. Therefore I was lucky to find a guy that does a great job for cheap.