fitting a rim

[wisdom]

This week I hit an unavoidable pot hole which broke a spoke on my rear wheel.Cabletied the broken spoke to the adjacent one and set off for home.As expected rhe wheel was out of true but made it home.Wheel off tyre and tube removed and off to the well respected lbs.I left it with them and received a phone call rim is cracked at the broken spoke hole.
they can put me a rim on but it would be a cheaper option to get a new wheel.This was their recommend choice.They swapped my cassette onto the new wheel and gave me the old wheel back as it has a decent hub.
Now back on the road for forty five quid.
would it be feasable to get a new rim for my old one and have a go at building up the wheel and how difficult would it be?
I have a friend who has a truing stand I can borrow.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Yes it would be feasible. However, you need exactly the same rim because rim "sizes" differ and therefore the spokes could be too long or too short should you use a different rim.
It is also quite easy to do a rim transplant. You simply tape the new rim onto the old wheel and transplant each and every spoke exactly to the opposing rim in the same position. Thereafter it gets a bit difficult, but with a trying stand, some will and help from the forum, you can do it.

 

[rusty bearing]

Perfectly feasable. Tape the new rim to the old one keeping the valve holes together, take the tension off the spokes and move them across one by one that'll save you time relacing. Presumably you'll have to stick a new spoke in for the broken one, just copy one of the others. I like to get the spoke tension right before truing the wheel. Somewhere here was a discussion on doing this by sound when you pluck the spoke, there is an android app for that.
Finally don't forget that the drive side spokes are tighter than non drive side. Generally non drive are @2/3 of the drive side tension.
Have fun