I rebuilt my own wheel

[chris__P]

I needed to change the rims on my touring bike so rather than paying someone to do the job properly I decided to do it myself, with some loose guidance from someone who has done it before.

Much to my surprise I have managed to get the wheel built, and relatively true. I am worried however, about what might happen once I start to ride on it. I think I might have twisted some spokes, or got the tension wrong or something.

I'm going to central america soon and so I really dont want something bad to happen. If I have done a bad job, whats the worst that will happen?? Will it just come out of true, or is there a chance that spokes, or even the rim will break??

I'm very tempted to take the wheel apart and get it done properly by a bike mechanic before I go. On the other hand, I want to see how my own handiwork holds up.

Advice please,

Chris

 

[tyred]

I'm no expert but I would definitely stress relieve it first and then check for trueness and even spoke tension. If it all checks out, it should be okay.

 

[chillyuk]

Well done for trying. If you were just using the wheel locally i would say try it and see how it does, but if you are going to Central America will you be really happy on your wheel. The fact you have raised the question on here would suggest that you possibly wouldn't be. Personally I would drop it into a LBS and explain what I have done and ask them to check it over.

 

[fossyant]

Give it some test runs.

To stress relieve it, place wheel down on hard surface, axel to the floor, and firmly press the rim downwards (one hand on each side of rim) - you'll hear it ping. Repeat all round wheel, then flip over and do it again on other side. Now check for trueness, check spoke tensions are similar, re-true, and give it a bumpy test ride.

Should be fine !

 

[HLaB]

Normally I'd say it'd be fine but giving you are going for a long tour; I'd get it checked out, you don't want a small niggle to let you down. I wouldn't take it apart though I'd just take it to an expert to check it out and confirm you have done everything right. If you have it'll probably be stronger than any factory built wheel and it gives you the confidence to carry out any emergency repairs on route.

Good Luck in Central America.

 

[andrew_s]

Tension:
If the spokes aren't tight enough, you'll get the spoke heads starting to break off after a few months.
If the spokes are too tight, the rim will start to crack round the spoke nipples, or the wheel will pringle after a comparatively minor knock.
Judge tension by squeezing pairs of spokes together and comparing with another wheel. In the absence of another bike that you know has a good wheel, get the front wheel a little less tight than the rearwheel cassette side spokes. You can get spoke tension gauges, but they cost.
If you get tension too high whilst building, you can find that a minor adjustment makes the wheel noticeably worse than before and you seem to be chasing a wobble round the wheel. If this happens, back off the tension half a turn or so.

Twist:
Once the spokes start to get tight, turning the nipple twists the spoke as well as tightening, so it's best to overtighten and then back off each adjustment, with backing off just undoing the twist rather than the nipple. If you ride a wheel with twisted spokes, you get pinging noises as they untwist and the wheel may go a little out of true. You get rid of spoke twist as described by fossyant (who incorrectly called it stress relieving).

Stress Relieving
This stresses the spoke head bend so that none of the thickness of it is close to a permanent deformation under normal riding stresses. This stops the head bend fatiguing and breaking later. It also beds the spoke heads in to the hub properly. It's done by briefly increasing spoke tension well above the normal tension. You can either squeeze pairs of spokes together hard (wearing gardening gloves so you can squeeze hard enough), or you can take a bit of broom handle or similar and force the outermost spoke cross towards or away from the hub