Replacing a rear wheel rim.
Discussion
Do you know how to true a wheel?
If yes (and I mean properly, not just what you've gleaned from a website), you 'could' do it.
However, its not easy, and inevitably you WILL get it wrong the first few goes.
If you value your face, then pay a bike shope circa £15 + parts to rebuild properly and safely.
Building wheels is easy - any monkey can lace a wheel (although they always cross the valve hole) however, building strength and trueness into that wheel takes years of experience...
If yes (and I mean properly, not just what you've gleaned from a website), you 'could' do it.
However, its not easy, and inevitably you WILL get it wrong the first few goes.
If you value your face, then pay a bike shope circa £15 + parts to rebuild properly and safely.
Building wheels is easy - any monkey can lace a wheel (although they always cross the valve hole) however, building strength and trueness into that wheel takes years of experience...
Edited by Neil_Bolton on Tuesday 27th February 14:09
- Buy another similar rim (ie. try to keep the spoke length the same, don't go from a shallow to deep profile one)
- tape it next to your current one with the valve hole in the right place
- one at a time, undo a spoke nipple, move it over to the other rim and rethread it.
Get it all roughly tensioned and get a shop to do the final truing if you're not happy doing it yourself.
- tape it next to your current one with the valve hole in the right place
- one at a time, undo a spoke nipple, move it over to the other rim and rethread it.
Get it all roughly tensioned and get a shop to do the final truing if you're not happy doing it yourself.
best instructions you will receive will be to go to a bike shop and let them do it. Unless you have hours and hours to spare - as well as the patience of a saint - little fingers (no sausage fingered wheel builders in existence) - money for a wheel jig - and huge confidence in your abilities. It is a bitch of a job...............
sjg said:
- Buy another similar rim (ie. try to keep the spoke length the same, don't go from a shallow to deep profile one)
- tape it next to your current one with the valve hole in the right place
- one at a time, undo a spoke nipple, move it over to the other rim and rethread it.
Get it all roughly tensioned and get a shop to do the final truing if you're not happy doing it yourself.
- tape it next to your current one with the valve hole in the right place
- one at a time, undo a spoke nipple, move it over to the other rim and rethread it.
Get it all roughly tensioned and get a shop to do the final truing if you're not happy doing it yourself.
WHy bother t
tting about for an hour or two amd getting all confused and bothered, when you can just drop it in for a bike shop to for about 20 of your finest notes. Really, if you have to ask how, get a bike shop to do it.
I only learnt due to working in a bike shop for several years and doing in day in and day out. It is most definitly a 'black art' of the highest order.
I think it's like plastering, you either have the knack or you don't. However, if you don't try you'll never know. Neil_Bolton said:
WHy bother ttting about for an hour or two amd getting all confused and bothered, when you can just drop it in for a bike shop to for about 20 of your finest notes.
tting about for an hour or two amd getting all confused and bothered, when you can just drop it in for a bike shop to for about 20 of your finest notes.I thought that but decided to build my last set of wheels (for my commute singlespeed) as I had most of the bits lying around anyway. Followed some instructions for lacing them and trued them using an allen key blu-tacked to the frame. After stress-relieving them and re-truing a few times, they were nice and straight with decent tension. I must have put 1000 miles on them now and they've not needed any more attention yet.
I'm not allowed to work overtime so my spare time is effectively free - so for a couple of hours work in front of the TV I saved £30+ of wheelbuilding charges and learned/practiced a useful skill at the same time. It's not rocket science, and if your wheel goes wonky in the middle of nowhere the "can't be arsed, pay a bikeshop" approach won't be much use.
I taught myself and can usually lace a wheel in 20 mins and sit the wheel jig infront of the TV for trueing up.Its not that difficult,as long as you get the wheel ovality right before the true.The only issue lies in what quality of wheel you are trying to re-rim? By the time you have bought spokes and a rim and labour,will up to a point outweigh the cost of the re-rimming.
Sorry to sound like an old git, but wheel building is a black art, I have built thousands. Lacing a wheel is not difficult if you tape the new rim to the old one, getting it true takes a bit more know-how, but getting the right amount of tension in the spokes so as to complete a sound and safe wheel that will last, is a different ball game.
Reusing the original spokes is a bad move, especially in an old wheel that has been throught the wars.
Reusing the original spokes is a bad move, especially in an old wheel that has been throught the wars.
saddle bum said:
Sorry to sound like an old git, but wheel building is a black art, I have built thousands. Lacing a wheel is not difficult if you tape the new rim to the old one, getting it true takes a bit more know-how, but getting the right amount of tension in the spokes so as to complete a sound and safe wheel that will last, is a different ball game.
Reusing the original spokes is a bad move, especially in an old wheel that has been throught the wars.
Reusing the original spokes is a bad move, especially in an old wheel that has been throught the wars.
What he said.
Just because you can, and it looks kind of ok, doesn't mean it is a good wheel.
A properly built set of XC wheels will be stronger than a badly built set of DH wheels.
TBH, all these people who have spent ages 'learning' how to do it, ultimately, the time they spent making mistakes etc, they might as well toddled off to the bike shop and paid someone £15/30 to do it and have some comeback should it have a problem.
Its all very well knowing how to true a wheel as well, but just yanking the tension up to get the thing straight does not equal knowledge.
For example, those budding home wheel builders, would you know how to dial out up and down misalignment when building your wheel? Do you know how best to chase down tension?
Like Saddlebum said, its most definitly a black art - a bit like carborettors. (sp?)
50% because of the black art thing, and 50% being lazy!
I'd put it in the shop every time!
The amount they charge more than offsets the hours of swearing and fiddling it would take me to do the job, not to mention the months of recovery when my home made wheel would fall apart and sling me into a rocky ditch! Not worth even thinking about DIY IMHO
I'd put it in the shop every time!
The amount they charge more than offsets the hours of swearing and fiddling it would take me to do the job, not to mention the months of recovery when my home made wheel would fall apart and sling me into a rocky ditch! Not worth even thinking about DIY IMHO
Neil_Bolton said:
saddle bum said:
Sorry to sound like an old git, but wheel building is a black art, I have built thousands. Lacing a wheel is not difficult if you tape the new rim to the old one, getting it true takes a bit more know-how, but getting the right amount of tension in the spokes so as to complete a sound and safe wheel that will last, is a different ball game.
Reusing the original spokes is a bad move, especially in an old wheel that has been throught the wars.
Reusing the original spokes is a bad move, especially in an old wheel that has been throught the wars.
What he said.
Just because you can, and it looks kind of ok, doesn't mean it is a good wheel.
A properly built set of XC wheels will be stronger than a badly built set of DH wheels.
TBH, all these people who have spent ages 'learning' how to do it, ultimately, the time they spent making mistakes etc, they might as well toddled off to the bike shop and paid someone £15/30 to do it and have some comeback should it have a problem.
Its all very well knowing how to true a wheel as well, but just yanking the tension up to get the thing straight does not equal knowledge.
For example, those budding home wheel builders, would you know how to dial out up and down misalignment when building your wheel? Do you know how best to chase down tension?
Like Saddlebum said, its most definitly a black art - a bit like carborettors. (sp?)
All fair points, but if you always take that attitude then you'd never achieve anything. When I used to build my race wheels I had a great deal of satisfaction knowing that I'd done it myself. Likewise, each wheel I built was better than the previous one, so more satisfaction there.
Just because it's economically sensible to pay someone else, or not worth the time it takes, doesn't mean that there is no reason to do it yourself.
Fair enough, if it's a one-off situation like the OP, then he may as well get a bike shop to do it. But if the idea of doing it himself interests him, then have a go, what's the worst that can happen - he'd have to buy a new wheel anyway, so nothing to lose!
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