Do not fear wheel building. The most important skill you don't have yet.

Use these resources:
Sheldon Brown Wheel Build Article:
www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbui...
The Bicycle Wheel Book:
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Spoke Length Calculator:
leonard.io/edd/
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=======Rock Hopper Build======
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======Rawstercross Build=======
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========Panaracer Tires=======
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=========Jenson USA=========
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==========Tools=============
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Square Taper Socket: amzn.to/2plgK8g
Bottom Bracket Tool: bit.ly/3DkAxcn
Cheeeeap Tool Kit: amzn.to/2FG9MRs

[@oldshovel]

Awesome. I totally agree on all counts.

[@tomatostakefabrik9429]

Love to see a Spiny-Old Shovel calibration ( of some kind I am aware of geography limits)

[@Mikemalone7873]

@@tomatostakefabrik9429 Right? Even despite the language barrier... Don't cha know...

[@tomatostakefabrik9429]

Eh?

[@rollinrat4850]

The best set of wheelbuilding instructions I've seen is in Jobst Brandt's book 'The Bicycle Wheel'. This is 'the Bible' of wheelbuilding. I used that book to teach myself to build wheels. Ive run a small garage wheelbuilding business for the last 20 years. All my tools paid for themselves in the 1st year and then some. The book also explains all the physics happening in a spoked structure. The best way to learn to repair wheels is to first learn to build one. Then you begin to understand what's happening in the wheel and how all the adjustments effect each other. Thirty years ago I too was intimidated by the idea of wheelbuilding. I just dug in and determined to learn from trial and error. It's not as difficult as you'd think. It simply requires patience and the ability to concentrate and focus on the task. Wheelbuilding is definitely something you want to do when you're not distracted. I've been reusing spokes and rims on my personal wheels for decades. If you know their history and can reasonably inspect them, there is no problem. I cannot reuse my customer's old parts in wheels I build for them professionally. It would seem like common sense to me....

[@gobgobcachoo]

My lbs couldn't true an old wheel I had. Called it done for. I took it apart and relaced it. Put over 100 km on it and it's awesome.

[@qualm43]

I built my first wheel in 7th grade for a custom rim/hub bmx wheel. That was probably the most valuable thing I learned regarding a lifetime of bicycle maintenance since then.

[@MasterBassoon]

I just laced up my first wheel a month ago! I wanted a coaster brake on 69 peugeot so I took the old hub out, and laced in the new hub with new spokes and followed the spoke pattern from my other wheel. Way less intimidating than I thought, actually pretty easy once you get in the groove

[@drbobjohnson812]

congrats on jumping in and doing it

[@BradWadeNL]

Absolutely! I built my first wheel back in 2018 and it was much simpler than I imagined. The shop I worked at give me a few tips, but encouraged me to figure out most of the stuff on my own. In the end, after the two years of riding the wheel (before the bike was stolen) it stayed true, strong, and took a lot of abuse. Give it a shot!

[@davidtaylor5205]

Man. This is truly an informative video! I’m off to strip an old wheel down give it a go.thanks for the inspiration. 👊🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@TheSpaceBrosShow]

Video right on time, I was just thinking of trying my hand at lacing some dumb fixie wheels for a dumb fixie to do dumb fixie things on

[@rollinrat4850]

Fixed gear wheels are simplest and strongest of all. I beat my decades old, fixed gear 'cross bike hard on mtb trails.

[@jeffreyardziejewski2547]

Ali Clarkson has a great video on the subject. I’ve used it to build five sets of wheels so far I still don’t have a truing stand. I’ve just used the frame and some zip ties.

[@SiopaoSauc3]

I've successfully laced up a couple of wheels. Getting them tensioned and true has been the challenge.

[@ilikewasabe]

Please please can you make a building a dished wheel guide without using a dishing tool. Would really help allot!

[@rollinrat4850]

That's really simple. You don't really need a dish tool but they're nice to have. Simply Flip the wheel over in your truing stand or your bike's fork or frame. When it's dished, one indicator finger or one brake pad will always be at the same distance from your rim no matter which way the wheel is put in. Front wheels are very straightforward. Rear wheels with different spoke lengths and different spoke tensions are a bit more challenging, but practice makes perfect. To get the rim to pull over toward one side or the other requires turning the shorter, tighter drive side nipples more than the looser, longer and more shallow angled non drive side spokes.

[@ilikewasabe]

@@rollinrat4850 thanks for the advice. Trying to build a wheel for my sisters since my parents have a couple of 24inch classic early 90’s mtb. Do i need different lengths of spokes for the rear wheel? For the drive side and the non drive side?

[@rollinrat4850]

@@ilikewasabe Yes. The wheel is dished to accommodate the cassette. Eric put a link in the description for a spoke length calculator. Search 'EDD Spoke calc'. I use that one too. Its pretty easy. You need to be able to measure your components or find them in the database. Its always a good idea to measure your parts as a 2nd measure. Building a wheel with the wrong length spokes is a waste of time and money. Its a real letdown too. Databases sometimes have conflicting info. Before you start building, Either read Sheldon Brown's wheel building instructions or read 'The Bicycle Wheel' by Jobst Brandt. Wheelbuilding certainly isn't rocket science, but it's one of the more technical aspects of bicycle mechanics. Be patient, carefully plan and execute your build.

[@blakeszkoda5732]

Thanks Eric! I’ve been waiting for this!

[@user-mk2on5yj6w]

Thank you for inspiration.

[@clarinet210]

Thanks so much for making this guide and especially for addressing the reusing spokes question

[@omarsrigs7480]

Wow! I hope this video gets tons of views! Most amazing video and brought me so much value of the scare of even wanting to build a wheel until this moment. Thanks Eric! Empowered me and helped me go and build a wheel.

[@Tomas.Giudici]

I have tried, oh boy I had, beleave me, 4 wheels, different brands, different spokes, and all of them (rear ones always) last me about 6 month until they start to snap 1 spoke at time. I'm done with it, last week order a brand new Shimano r501 wheel set. Ps: I learned from Sheldon's brown website to

[@janeblogs324]

3:50 SKIP A HOLE. SKIP!!! Camera work top notch!

[@madtho]

Wow. Great vid, really well presented. I bet this gets a lot of us giving it a try. Thanks!

[@Grrg]

Thanks for the inspiration, that was a super timely pep talk

[@LordHolley]

You seriously made that so easy to understand. Thank you so much for making this video! I'm gonna go take apart a crappy wheel in my shed and put it back together....right now!!!

[@brooksbanister]

Not tryna point people away from your channel, Spinney. But Ali Clarkson has a superb, in-depth video on lacing wheels, too. Very clear, and shows the difference between radial, 1x, 2x, 3x, etc.

[@EriebyCycle]

Exceptional video. Thanks for that!

[@Wydliez]

Thank you for the video ❤

[@michaelmann6482]

Great video. I work in a shop and my mantra on nearly everything including wheels is “it’s not rocket science; it’s a fucking bicycle.” Except electronic shifting. That is rocket science.

[@stuartpotter4923]

I suspect I'm gonna watch this a lot over the coming weeks.

[@Yantis91]

Appreciate this Just about to build my first wheel and you did a vid on this. Crazy!

[@bgymr9722]

I love positive content on YT. Yes, anyone can do this. If you have trepidation about doing it get a bike where the rear and front wheel are still matching. Take one of them apart and use the other one as a patern. While assembling watch Spindatts video, and it will make even more sense.

[@johnnydoe66]

I tried once to build a wheel and failed miserably, so I will continue to just let the experts at my LBS do my wheel builds for me. For now, I will just request you read that book out loud, word for word for a sleep inducing playback, kind of like my government class I had in high school....lol

[@jbandt]

The tediousness of tensioning and truing is what gets me. I lose patience with it.

[@arthurkatahdin9502]

Same

[@BradWadeNL]

Take breaks! Does the mind (and heart) wonders!

[@rollinrat4850]

Wheel building requires patience and steady concentration. You can't avoid this. Wheel building isn't suited to folks without patience and determination It really helps to learn in an environment where there are ZERO distractions. I learned late at night after my family went to bed. DETERMINE to learn from mistakes and persevere! Don't give up. Do or don't! Can or cannot is no excuse. With time and experience it only gets easier. After you build several wheels and true and repair lots more, it all becomes 2nd nature.

[@patreilly4293]

Great video! I’m about to build my first set of wheels using 50-year-old Weiman rims and Maillard Normandy large flange hubs. New spokes though. 1973 Schwinn Sports Tourer.

[@murphykenji]

I love looking at the Sheldon Brown page! I used it and I revisit it when it's been a while.

[@michaeloverfield7198]

Love the video! I broke a spoke a few weeks ago and tried my hand at replacing it and whaddya know, it was easy! I'll have to get a wheel build in one of these days now...

[@tibiynb]

Agree that it's a great skill to pick up, but lacing is the easy part!! 🤣 Still find tensioning and truing tedious after a dozen wheel builds!

[@timleborgne]

Thank you!!!

[@Alderonn10]

Videos like this are why I'm a Patreon. Well done

[@123moof]

Relacing a crap/scrap wheel is a great way to learn this stuff. It also helps to keep a similarly laced wheel handy so you can debug your lacing pattern against. Dishing can be checked with two identical cans (beer) and a stack of quarters. For tensioning I find that trying to slowly tension up (always tightening) works well for me. Get light tension all around, take out hop (radial out of round), then lateral wobble, then check dish, and finally go around tensioning any slack spokes (any well below the average tension of the rest). When all of those are good, I add a half turn of tension all around and repeat the truing check, which usually goes pretty quick by the second or third pass. A $25 tension checker is worth it. I have yet to need a proper truing stand, the bike frame or fork works well enough for me.

[@spidennis]

Just did my first wheel, about to do the exact same thing for the rear wheels to my quad.

[@Spindatt]

Nice!

[@bodilidily]

So glad a kept my old wheels. Time to experiment!

[@jamesporter5630]

Ok, convinced. The ‘65 Raleigh Sports I’m rebuilding will ride on home grown. Thanks.

[@BennyRhymes]

Great episode. Will be referring back to this when I build a wheel next winter. I did a spoke nipple change (less daunting) this year and trued the wheel myself. It was slow but went much better than expected. Thanks for the content. Love this type of stuff.

[@underbikedoverconfident1142]

You can do it!

[@dalailambda9420]

My favourite lacing pattern is 3 leading 3 trailing (36 hole rim required), soooo coool looooking....

[@frank215]

I just built wheels for my fixed gear. I royally messed up then tension so I had to drop them off at a LBS to true them up. I think next time I'm going to buy a truing stand second-hand and try again. Overall great experience, and the wheels rip!

[@danielkim4839]

can you do a follow-up video on how to measure out proper spoke lengths? I understand that some rear wheels require different spoke lengths. Thanks!

[@brasstinmancrazy]

Nice one thank you. I think the initial sticking point for some ppl might be how do you work out length spoke if you are building a new wheel?

[@artvandalay2736]

they do need to be meticulously trued, but can save a lot of money lacing up wheels before you bring em to a shop

[@mstark77]

Fantastic

[@durbysuniga7225]

Totally hilarious with your opening monologue!!!

[@grandpashreddypants]

This is awesome. I have a proprietary hub on a belt drive fixed gear and wish I could lace up some sweet rims. You may have empowered me to take a shot.

[@dougfromsoanierana]

Gotta be honest - I would screw this up 20 times before I got it right. And probably toss it against a wall in frustration, so I’m happy to pay a professional. It’s not expensive. Happy to support the bike shops.

[@mackturtle82]

I learned to build wheels from the guide George French had on the G-sport BMX page nearly 20 years ago. some concept, except he was building 20" wheels with 48 spokes in a 4x pattern.

[@4unkb0y]

Shoutout to the Oracle of Sheldon! If y'all haven't contributed, chip them a few bucks to keep this amazing site going!

[@Ming3r]

I followed the Ali Clarkson wheel building video and that was pretty great.

[@whitneyb.8185]

I missed building wheels so much when I left the bike industry, that I went and got all the tools I used in the shop for home use. My favorite part of building custom bikes is deciding how I’m going to build the wheels for it.

[@chris1275cc]

Its one of the best bike related skills you can learn, even if you aren't interested in designing/building your own wheels from scratch, just understanding the basics means you can take a factory wheel and "tune" it for your purposes and weight. I can highly recommend Roger Musson's "professional guide to wheel building" (available as a PDF/E book) not only does it tell you how to build a wheel, it gives you plans to build a truing stand too, he also updates it every now and then to include newer tech/developments, its on the 7th edition now I think.

[@mick9850]

I am currently building a wheelset at the moment as this vid dropped. It's cathartic, I love it. I suspect bike nerd OCD deters people from having a go.. if you rode BMX when our shit was a lot weaker than these days, it was an essential skill to replace rims, we didn't follow the rules much either (reusing hubs and spokes are a sin on the internet). You use what you have, get the wheel true enough and start riding.

[@rollinrat4850]

(Not so) common sense is often a sin on the interwebs. Folks need to think for themselves more often and seek facts. You know the history of parts you're using in a wheel. Or rather, you'd best know! When we DIY, we take responsibility upon ourselves for our own safety. Lots of folks can't be bothered with that so they get to pay. That's job security for mechanics like myself! I need to take responsibility, that requires my time which is not free. DIY has perhaps the highest potential for the highest quality because no one can possibly give a shit more than the end user.

[@derekmosher4561]

Last time I built a wheel I rode BMX , last time I rode BMX was 40 years ago , use what you got to do what you need . Looking forward to the new shed , will there be a beer fridge ?

[@anielyantra1]

This is inspiring! I have laced wheels....but I didn't realize I was still running old paradigms in my head. To complete my bike tools I would like to get a wheel building tool. I know it is not necessary. I have put the wheel back on the bike and used the brakes and my guide. The guide would just be easier and more pro.

[@chrisallen9154]

I am guessing that you are referring to a truing stand and a dishing gauge when you say "wheel building tool"?

[@grindeyyyyy]

I get to build a new front wheel at the end of the month, the 1st time I did it it took weeks

[@treimar]

I just laced my own wheels, but I did bring em to the shop to be tentioned up and trued, because I don't want to buy a truing stand.

[@Spindatt]

you can get some pretty good inexpensive ones! or use the frame or fork depending on the wheel

[@blacklion79]

What stops me is the price of even the cheapest truing stand, tension meter and dish measurement tool.

[@littlegoobie]

I have a wheel building system that works every time and it's very easy. I use money and give it someone. I figure, wheels made out of good components last so long that they're not worth my time to learn, it's not like fixing a flat or other very routine work. Anything that's a quick bolt on replacement is worth doing because it takes near zero skills and minimal tools/time, like a bottom bracket replacement.

[@sheamusdalton9764]

Spindatt taught me how to build wheels

[@thebr0wnhornet]

Hardest part of my first build was figuring out spoke length was wrong

[@timshelhamer7374]

You only talked about the simple part. Getting the right length spokes and truing the wheel are what makes wheel building intimidating. That’s why I’ve yet to build my own.

[@BlueTrane2028]

truing is essential to learn if you've got a kid that rides with any amount of abandon (like BMX). I've fixed up a few that I thought were too bent to be fine.

[@coreyreeder3549]

Ah, still out of my skill set I think. I’ve screwed up a few wheels trying to true them myself. Someday I really would love to learn it though

[@anllvr]

Actually it's pretty fun. Especially if you have a truing stand...

[@Spindatt]

I love building wheels

[@henryoddsball2164]

Great video! Wheel building it’s really not that hard and it opened up so many doors when building your own bike. If you are learning grab an existing wheel, take in the car put it back together

[@SIGNALacquired]

this is wheel "assembling", not building. Building entails doing it from scratch: which means buying the metal and shaping the metals.

[@javiersuarez6782]

Dang dude, perfect timing! I'm currently building up a steel hardtail (Pipedream Sirius s5) & about to tackle my first wheel build! I do work at a shop so I'll have great people to ask lots of dumb questions and check my work but as a mere intermediate level mechanic it's still a dauting task! Love the encouragement! specially in an industry full of snobbery and elitists!

[@rollinrat4850]

Just dig in. Determine to learn. You can't learn without getting dirty and making mistakes. That may be the best way to learn. I've always learned best by DIY. The lacing part is methodical and easy if you can follow instructions and concentrate. The key to building truly reliable, ultra strong wheels is FIRST in proper, practical and logical design. Ultralight overpriced junk is only good for race day.... Second, the tensioning and truing process. Even spoke tension between all spokes is key for that aspect.

[@karlkarlsson6635]

You lost me at 02"20.😅 "There is no Phalange" (Friends).

[@simongiavaras7787]

I just can't afford the bits when a full wheel is cheaper :(

[@davidbierbaum4881]

One should read a book on wheel building, if one wishes to have a well rounded education. Excuse me as I run in terror from the avalanche of rotten fruits and vegetables being thrown my way.... For me, I think the problem would be building a rear wheel, with it's offset tension problem.

[@johns3106]

Lacing isn’t the hard part…the hard part is figuring out spoke lengths for old hubs and rims that nobody has the specs for!

[@Spindatt]

Measuring is not difficult

[@endangeredgnome5337]

You still made this too confusing. I do 8 spokes at a time, 1 side of the wheel at a time. But thanks for the content.

[@rollinrat4850]

That's how it's taught in that book Eric showed, 'The Bicycle Wheel'. I believe it's the simplest way to learn and best for DIYers who occasionally build wheels. There are other methods that are faster for people who build lots of wheels. Its all a matter of familiarity.

[@janeblogs324]

That's what he did, 8 at a time, 1 side at a time

[@peterjurczyk61]

Interesting but nobody knows... that what i do target strangers jump them then ignore....who....must be a secret...

[@WitchyKatz]

You skipped the most important and confusing part of building a wheel...looking at a hub flange and looking at the inside diameter of the wheel and how to decide what size(length) spokes to buy...the reason I have never built a wheel on my own.

[@gregschramm8180]

NO

[@electrocit673]

Agreed! here is a small (not small) story, I wanted to try a 650b conversion to go from 25mm tires to 38mm with fenders (this was about 5(+) years ago) but I did not want to spend a lot on an experiment (now it's more common to do this). I got a cheap set of Sta-Tru wheels cost me about $70 for the brand new wheelset (now that same wheelset cost $130 new ouch) but it had a freewheel and I wanted a cassette hub to make a 2x10 (38/22x11-34) gravel/touring/commuter bike. The original hub was a formula hub, so I got a formula hub with a cassette hub (looked exactly the same but cassette instead of freewheel) for $14 and re-laced the wheel using the spokes and nipples. Wheel is still going strong and even though I had originally plan to upgrade the wheel set if it worked, I have not because the single wall it lighter than expected and it has been bombproof!

[@glennpettersson9002]

If this was Harry Potter you'd be Prof. Lupin and this would be Defence Against the Dark Arts. I know, that's Ridiculous!🙄

[@zackb-wheal6771]

can you build me a wheel please :D

[@markifi]

the first five minutes of every Spindatt video is time wasting

[@walcottav]

Hogwarts has found its next Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. 🧙‍♂️🪄🔮🛞