Building a rear mtb wheel

[LeedsNylonic48]

Hello there, I aren't the biggest, most dedicated cyclist in the world, though I do try to get out for an hour everyday, usually along the canal towpaths or basically anywhere not too congested with traffic. I aren't about to set the world on fire with speed records, it's very much just something I enjoy, usually take a few photos while out and about, admire my surroundings etc. My mtb isn't an expensive bike, I try to keep it maintained, clean etc,lubricated, but I am fully aware of its limitations. Some weeks ago I was hurtling along , (5mph) and the rear wheel of the bike made a sharp cracking noise, I didnt detect any difference in its behaviour and I wasn't far from home, so I simply thought nothing of it. Later , on inspection while cleaning the bike I noticed 3 of the spokes had snapped, all down near the hub, just outside the flange. I should say these wheels are like none I have seen before, for the records they are called vuelta airline 1, they have 24 spokes in a not unnattractive pattern, which are almost like blades. Anyways, I phoned around trying to find places that could fix the wheel but to no avail, I was ultimately told the wheels arent great wheels and I would be better buying a new rear wheel. By pure luck a friend of mine told me he had a mtb rim, spokes and hub, which he had obtained from ebay, made by a company called DMR. He told me had purchased them off of ebay and on numerous occasions tried to build a rear wheel. He said he had paid 20.00 for the rim , hub and spokes and if I thought I could build the wheel he would sell me them for what he paid, I agreed. Bad move. I have studied pictures, webpages, god knows what and just can't get my head around it. With that in mind I am wondering if theres anybody who can offer me any advice, not regarding building the wheel, but anybody whom is accomplished at this, so I can get in touch and try to ascertain how much it might cost to have the wheel assembled. You'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge here, any advice, greatly appreciated. Am on yahoo messenger quite a bit if thats preferable, thanks.

 

[Steve Austin]

Building wheels is easy. building good wheels is a bit harder. If you want to learn how, then check out the Sheldon Brown site, its got an easy guide.
If you want someone to build what you have, then try your local shop... but see next point.
If you want cheap decent reliable MTB wheels then check Merlin Cycles. I can build wheels, good wheels, but for ease of effort Merlin can't be beat

 

[LeedsNylonic48]

Cheers Steve Austin, much appreciated, am looking on a few sites and it sort of seems this DMR rim and hub are half decent , so think will take them along to a local shop, see how much it will cost for them to build the wheel up, problem here is if its going to be a daft amount I will have to consider buying a built wheel, and perhaps experiment with the DMR rim etc , try and gain a bit of know how. I will give merlin cycles a look at, thanks again.

 

[PpPete]

Whilst Sheldon's site is bible for most things, I don't find his wheelbuilding instructions easy to follow.

Wheelpro is a lot better IMO.... but of course it isnt' free.