OK – So why wheel building? Well, you know what they say, if you want a job done properly…
I’m thinking of the many wheels I’ve had built for me over the years, by a number of different workshops. Of those, perhaps a couple of pairs have turned out well, they stayed tight, true and creak free, just as they should do.
For the others… Well, I’ve seen:
- Incorrect lacing, where the valve stem ended up in the narrow gap between converging spokes
- Incorrect dishing, where the rear wheel was 5mm over to one side
- Not using parts I’d asked for; wrong rim, wrong spokes
- Wheels that creaked for months after (OK, that might be a Sapim bladed spoke thing)
- Wheel builds dragging on and taking many weeks to complete
- Wheels that lost spoke tension after less than two hours of riding. “Oh, that happens sometimes”, err, only if they weren’t built properly!
I think you can see where I’m coming from, you get to a point where you think “I could do a better job of this myself!”. That coincided with me spotting an offer from Ryan, off of Ryan Builds Wheels, for a discount on his introduction to wheel building weekend, so away we went!
Wheel building is a skill shrouded in mystery, often thought of as a dark art that would take many years to perfect. That’s certainly why I’d never considered it before. Ryan helps bust all of those myths in his unique, kick ass, style 😉
Alloy nipples? Modern ones are fine! Rims without eyelets? They’re fine too. What to build a radial spoked wheel? Well, why not, they certainly look cool!
Ryan comes from the point of view that wheel building breaks down into a set of simple steps that anyone can be taught. After which it’s just a matter of practice and time, plus the occasional nudge back on course if you wander off on a tangent!
It’s certainly addictive, you can get into a great ‘Zen flow’ state with the rhythm of methodically working your way around a wheel. Lacing, bringing up to tension, lateral truing, radial truing, dishing, tension balancing, more truing, stress relieving and then adding final tension, all have a great sense of satisfaction to them.
Professionals can lace and tension a wheel from start to finish in 20min! I’m… a little way off that yet 🙂 The main advantage I’ve got over someone working in a busy bike shop, is that I can take my time and don’t have to rush to finish; which is where mistakes can creep in.
I’ve been able to work on a range of builds so far, including some rather special cases like the one in the pictures. Here we had a gravel e-bike hub motor with straight pull spokes lacing to some fancy carbon rims! And just to make it even more interesting, with bladed spokes too…
Bladed spokes are rather interesting, they’re (slightly) more aerodynamic than round spokes, but also have the best fatigue life of any steel spoke because they’re able to readily flex along their length. Surprisingly, the spoke flexibility doesn’t result in a flexy wheel, due to the tension you add to them when building. Don’t forget that it’s possible to build wheels with ‘string’ spokes and you can’t get much more flexible than that!
(That’s not me. Those are some strange spoke patterns. AI has a lot to answer for!).
So that’s where we are; I didn’t realise when I started that it would become an addiction! I’m at the stage now where I feel confident enough to offer a wheel building service to other people as part of the trusted Spanner Bike brand. I’m also currently able to offer an introductory price that’s cheaper than you’ll find in your local bike shop too.
Are you able to help feed the needs of a self confessed ‘wheelbuildaholic’? Drop me a line if you’re in the Gloucestershire area and we discuss what you’re looking for, thanks!
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