Replacement rim

[Twilkes]

After a bike shop assistant cooing over my rear wheel and me not realising why, I'm thinking I might try replacing the dented rim rather than dumping the whole thing. I bought it about 5 years ago, think I paid around £80 for it, it has a Halo Excite rim (silver, not the black that seem available now) and some kind of XT hub which was what got the assistant all worked up.

I'm happy to have a shot at replacing the rim myself (now that I realise a rim comes wheel-shaped, and isn't a flat piece of metal you have to bend around the spokes) but would I just buy another Halo Excite rim and swap it across? Or in these cases would it be more cost effective to just replace the whole thing, getting a new hub and spokes in a pre-built wheel?

 

[fossyant]

You can just swap across. It's a good way to start to learn wheel building. If the spokes and hubs are good, go for it. I've redone my commuter wheels 2 times so far, but next time I think I will need new spokes and nipples.

 

[Biker Joe]

A new rim would cost you somewhere in the region of £30, give or take a few pounds. About a third to a quarter.of the cost of a complete wheel.
As fossyant says, a good way to start to learn wheel building.
Wheel building is not that difficult but requires patience.
There are some wheel building instructions on the internet. Have a look and see what is involved. It's an interesting subject.
I wish you well.

 

[Alien8]

Rebuild the wheel - it's good fun.
http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

 

[MattHB]

id like to have a go at this too. let us know how you get on!

 

[Biker Joe]

Here's quite a nice site to get you started:-
There are plenty of others but this one has good diagrams and is straight forward.
A good place to start.
www.patricktaylor.com/building-a-bicycle-wheel

 

[Twilkes]

Okay, so this looks like it would be a like-for-like replacement:

http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/m5b105s218p1969/HALO_Excite-R/RS_GB/3847

But I've read that Mavic rims tend to be strong, so would this be an improvement, or would I have to pay more than £30 to get something noticeably stronger?

http://www.thebikefactory.co.uk/productdetails.asp?productid=63097

MattHB, I'll do your wheel for you as a practice, how's that? 8-)

 

[Twilkes]

Bought the Halo rim, should get a chance to do it next Saturday so will let you know how it goes, possibly with a photo-story like in a 1980s issue of Just Seventeen magazine.

 

[Biker Joe]

Bought the Halo rim, should get a chance to do it next Saturday so will let you know how it goes, possibly with a photo-story like in a 1980s issue of Just Seventeen magazine.

I wish you well and look forward to hearing the results.
Well done.

 

[fossyant]

Tape the new rim to the old wheel, and swap the spokes over one by one.

 

[Twilkes]

I'm going to give this a shot over the weekend, but when I looked at the spokes through the rim (ie under the rim tape) it didn't look like I could adjust them with a flat-head screwdriver - in the slot where the screwdriver looked like it should go there was already a flat piece of metal sticking out. Are all spokes the same, or do I have special spokes? Or can a screwdriver only be used when the spokes are loose?

I have a spoke key, but if I need another screwdriver I'll need to pick one up from Halfords this evening...

 

[AndyRM]

I have a spoke key, but if I need another screwdriver I'll need to pick one up from Halfords this evening...

Make sure you take it to your LBS and have them set it up correctly for you!

 

[Rob3rt]

Make sure you take it to your LBS and have them set it up correctly for you!

Have them set up a screw driver?

 

[Twilkes]

I initially thought it was a dig at my truing skills, so I'm happy with a Halfords-Screwdriver joke. 8-)

 

[Twilkes]

For example, this guy has some kind of spanner thing which doesn't seem to be flat-head ended (no audio at work so can't hear what he's saying):


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NJwEcm-NTw#t=3m15s


Is it that a flat-head screwdriver will adjust the spoke, but it's just a bit of a fudge for people who don't want to buy the proper tool?