Self Build Wheels - how long to decide they are ok?

[sdg_77]

Well there's interesting,  or possibly I'm just sad .....

I took the new wheels for a ride around the block,  over some rough(ish) surfaces and up a couple of hills just to get a little load on them.

This afternoon I had something of a 'festival of spoke tension measuring' in the garage and found some of the results a bit of a surprise .... but no horror stories.

All of the wheels I measured are at least on the Park conversion chart and mostly in the middle or at the upper end of the tension range.
The Sherpa does not have the tightest spokes,  those are in the dyno hub front wheel from the LBS.
The Sherpa's back wheel is the tightest of the rear wheels,  this one has some variation in tensions, mostly confined to the non drive side spokes.
The least tensioned spokes are in the original wheels from the Synapse,  these have broad bladed spokes, the non drive sides really are 'slack'.  Despite that, the wheel runs true.
As you might expect,  the wheels with the greatest dish show the most variation between sides


So, thanks again for the advice and encouragement,  I'll try the new wheels properly this weekend.

regards
sdg.


For the keen the results are here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29736275/Wheel_Tensions.xlsx

Claud is my old 'sports bike' from the mid 80s with only the frame original,  this is the bike with the LBS wheels which are the nearest to the ones I built.
Self Build is the new wheels
Erwin is my Sherpa
The Enterprise is my Synapse - which is the bike I'm using the new wheels with.
Any blank cells are where reflectors make it difficult to get the meter onto a spoke.
I may carry on and measure the tensions in Gill's Sherpa and Synapse at some point.

[Danneaux]

Hi Steve!

Now you know a primary reason why I build my own wheels -- high, even tension. Secondary reasons are to save on labor costs and the satisfaction and pleasure of doing something I enjoy myself. [Fingers crossed so I don't invoke the cousins of the Puncture Imps] I've yet to break a spoke on wheels I've built myself.

I was initially motivated by cost and some horrific results on wheels I commissioned or purchased. About all I can say positive about them is I later found it stupifying how far things could be off and still turn in reasonably tight circles laterally and radially. Though generally low in tension, machine-built wheels are at least laced in a consistent pattern and the spokes can be bedded and brought up to spec better than some incorrectly hand-built wheels -- or relaced and rebuilt from scratch with good results.

I contemplated this yesterday as I charged through traffic on my 43 year-old Raleigh Grand Sports, which sported the first wheels I built myself. I looked down and saw the galvanized Union spokes sold to me by a LBS as "stainless with a protective coating" -- yeah, right (can't believe the LBS clerk managed to keep a straight face on that one) -- but there were no alternatives available to me at the time when I needed the wheels very badly. The good news? They are still tensioned properly and run true lo these many years later.

All the best,

Dan.

[sdg_77]

Well the wheels have reached the stage of 'stop now',  they survived their whizz round the block and the tensions are even to within 2 divisions on the meter.  Next up,  Sunday's SkyRide Social.  We have 8 signed up and possibly another 8 from the village cycle club, so if they fail I will have plenty of moral support,  or possibly just embarrasment ;-)

Dan - your veteran steed beats mine by almost a couple of decades!  I'm 90% sure I keep Claud for sentimental reasons only,  like the memories of touring Orkney when our daughter was ~months old,  that pretty much did for the orignal back wheel and started the cycle of replacements .....

sdg.

Last attempt at adding photos below ..... getting the valves to line up with the hub text and the rim labels was 'interesting' but I like the result.

edit ... I give up!   they are here ... http://flic.kr/p/fF33yu





[Fixed photo links so they display properly -- Dan]

[Danneaux]

My! What a nice-looking set of wheels, Steve, and a stunning garden setting to build them in! Pretty and serene enough to put one in the proper zenlike state for lacing and truing wheels.

Steve, wrt to label alignment... in the olden days, firms like Shimano and Campagnolo stamped or embossed their logos on their hubs, and they were consistently indexed. These days, hub logos are silkscreened or printed by the tampon method ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pad_printing ) and are not always perfectly indexed, so a wheelbuilder sometimes can't quite get the logo.to line up perfectly no matter how hard they try -- the logo is "clocked" a little bit ahead or behind the valve hole. Other times, the stars align and all comes out fine. For that matter, tire logos are not always printed opposite each other! Get one side aligned with the valve stem, and the the other can be "off". I try to align mine when the bike is viewed from the right, since the drivetrain side is what usually figures in photos. Nobody can see how far things are off on the other side!

Dan - your veteran steed beats mine by almost a couple of decades!

<nods> The old Raleigh was the worst/only used bike buying mistake I made, purchased in a rainstorm when I had been awake 63 hours straight working on a big project -- I didn't see its flaws till the next day and just felt sick. I restored the thing, found the original components were so egregiously bad as to be unusable(any one remember plastic-bodied Simplex rear mechs where the spring-seats pulled out on their own?), then rebuilt it with quality early-'80s Japanese componentry. I'm not really sure why I keep it except it won't bring any money on resale, rides pretty well, is lightweight, great for bombing through traffic, and draws comment 'cos it looks factory-fresh after all these years.

I keep Claud for sentimental reasons only,  like the memories of touring Orkney when our daughter was ~months old

Bicycle Sentiment, Steve! I'm infused with it myself. I somehow bond with bicycles as the most personal of tools, then see them as mnemonics for remembering happy times, journeys, and memories, and can't bear to part with them.

Please let us know how you do on the Sunday SkyRide Social. My guess? It'll be that much sweeter for riding in wheels you built yourself!

All the best,

Dan.

[sdg_77]

Thanks Dan - we are having a photos sort out at home so if the 1987 Orkney holiday shots surface I'll scan and post the one of Rachel with the home made water/windproof dungarees,  polystyrene helmet and fish and chips.

She must have liked the holiday as 20+ years later she went back for part of her university course.

sdg.

[jags]

wow nice built wheels fair play to you,bet your hooked now 

[sdg_77]

Thanks Jags - yes hooked - looking for a next project/excuse.

Probably my son's girlfriend's bike,  which is a long term loan from my wife ....


sdg.

[jags]

my next buy if ever i win the lottery is a nice shiny front wheel with son dynamo   hub  36 spoke hand made of course..mind you the wheels i have on my Raleigh at the moment  i bought from wiggle  .
mavic 319 rims/deore hubs 9 speed rear,./sapin stainless spokes.machine made but finished by hand (if you could believe that) and to be honest i can't complain they have been spot on running true sine the day i bought them.
but yeah must be great satisfaction riding a set of wheels that you built yourself knowing there perfect.

[sdg_77]

Good News - the wheels survived our ~59km SkyRide this morning ;-)

http://app.strava.com/activities/79161005

 Several new people too. So although the ride was not fast,  seeing a 3 year old take a pack of raisins out of her dad's rucksac and pass them to her younger sister one the back of mum's bike was  a delight ;-)

sdg.

[jags]

Hah my grandaughter always raids my  snack barbag for raisins

great the wheels are doing what there supposed to be doing.

[Danneaux]

What a nice loop with lots of uppy-downies to keep things entertaining, Steve; thanks for sharing the map and ride elevation profile.

Thanks also for the new wheel ride-results -- yay!

All the best,

Dan. (...who thinks these will be first of many Steve-built wheels in your future)

[sdg_77]

Now thinking of a 'strong' back wheel for the MTB to allow for 'junior's seat' ;-)

Sounds like a good excuse to try disc brakes too ......

sdg.

[Danneaux]

Now thinking of...Sounds like a good excuse to try...

And so it goes; infected with the wheelbuilding bug! 

All the best,

Dan. (...who wishes everyone would give wheelbuilding a try)

[sdg_77]

wishes everyone would give wheelbuilding a try

Seconded .... once I got going it was a great learning experience and getting home on Sunday having ridden my new wheels for the whole morning was very satisfying.

Forum members have the advantage of some quality advice & encouragement too ;-)

I can break anything*, so if I can manage it .... you can too.

sdg.

* re-furbished the swing arm on my old Suzuki trail bike without the bearing bushes .... interesting handling ;-)
* almost flooded my daughter's kitchen sorting out the washing machine plumbing
* mixed Radio 1 with Radio 4 ... on air. 
   grovelling apology to the boss the next day,  he just collapsed laughing and said all good engineers have one such story,  but only one.
* set up a monitoring system at work with all of the alarms filtered out
* more PC software debacles than I care to remember (possibly not my fault?)
* drilled a hole in a gas pipe - also in my daughter's house - decided to get a 'real' gas fitter in to repair that one ;-)

[jags]

well i have to say i haven't a bad pair of hand's but the head well thats another story
now if only you made a video of that wheel build, (oh what fun we'd have).
yeah i like to see how these things are done reading it doesn't do it for me