How To Build Radial Spoked Bike Wheels

[@Bikeops2021]

Yes, it was a great video. If you can't build a wheel after this tutorial, you may as well give up altogether! Cheers Jim... 👍

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks a lot Graham! Appreciate you watching and the great comment! 🙏

[@jonedmonds283]

Jim, Jon from Thailand, another great video. Thanks!👍.

[@JimLangley1]

Nice to meet you Jon! Thanks a lot for watching and commenting, glad you enjoyed the show🙏

[@jonedmonds283]

Jim, You are the go-to man.🥰 Thanks

[@JimLangley1]

@@jonedmonds283 You're very welcome Jon and thanks for the great comment, you made my day 👏👍

[@baldoh.6897]

Great video, thank you.

[@JimLangley1]

You're very welcome baldoh, thank you for watching and commenting! 🙏

[@whynugs]

I think I'm success build my own wheels just from watching many youtube tutorial. No fancy tools, just my frame, couple of straw and tapes. From that experience, truing hi and low is more difficult than centering the wheels.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and congrats on learning to build your own wheels, way to go. Hopefully you saw my other video, which is a comprehensive wheel building tutorial kzbin.info/www/bejne/jobUpp9maM2VkJo and includes a helpful section on getting wheels round. Truing high and low is actually relatively easy once you understand what's going on and I explain in depth here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jobUpp9maM2VkJo?t=2621 and in even more detail here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/epfNdpSuodBkiJY Hope it's helpful and thanks again!

[@davidburgess741]

I have a set of those Mavic of Romania rims! The rear wheel ended up with a bit more hop than the front. Seam alignment. Velocity 36 spoke deep V on my track bike has the only low spot at the seam I've ever seen. What you start with can influence the final results. Now faced with decision to buy a wheelset with offset rims triple butted spokes 32, for $450. Alternatively could build a rear wheel with 36 spokes, 12mm through axle disk, with same spokes, probably having difficulty finding 36 spoke offset rim and hubs. About the same to build rear as built pair. Spoke Calc is interesting because it's possible to get 80%+ of the drive side tension by lacing the non drive side with more crosses. Touring application. Or do I carry extra spokes, STEIN cassette tool, and Park spoke wrench. 28 unbranded spokes back there might not be enough? 230lbs.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and the comment David. I've seen lots of high and low spots at seams in aluminum rims. You just get used to dealing with them when you build production wheels since you can only send back rims that are terrible. But you can almost always pull down the high spots and bump up the lows to get the rims within spec but the earlier you do it during the truing process the better. Your new wheelset sounds like a fun one. A 32-hole wheelset should be pretty rugged as long as it has brand name high quality spokes like DT Swiss or Sapim and great rims. I would be worried about no-name spokes breaking pretty soon for loaded touring. I don't think I'd go with only 28 spokes. With 32, 1 broken spoke won't make the wheel wobble too much. With 28s 1 broken spoke will probably force you to stop riding to replace the spoke. 36 spoke wheels give you a greater margin for broken spokes. The wheel will only go out of true a little bit with a broken spoke and with so many there's less chance you break one in the first place. But, again, breakage is almost entirely caused by bad spokes. So if you run DT Swiss or Sapim they shouldn't break. Have fun!

[@x0304]

Hi Jim, It's always a pleasure to watch your videos on wheel building. I have a question from your latest video about spoke pre-tensioning. In the video, you use a "traditional method". However, I've seen more and more wheel builders using a torque-controlled screwdriver for what appears to be faster and more uniform pre-tensioning. Based on your experience, what are the pros and cons of this wheel building technique? Thanks!

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks a lot for watching, glad you're enjoying the videos so much and I appreciate the question - it's a good one. It's fine to use a drill driver tool to speed up pretensioning. I actually have another video where I compare doing it by hand with a spoke wrench versus with a Makita drill-driver and speed bit with the drill set to a low torque. Here's a link to that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZKlp6N5qr2cnbM You'll see that the drill makes it faster. The trick is not to get the spokes too tight when pretensioning. If you do, the wheel will usually come out of true and round - even if the tension is fairly even. And because the spokes are on the too tight side, you'll have to spend more time fixing the wobbles and hops. I would recommend that beginning wheel builders use their hands only for a good while to get a feel for how wheels behave before trying the speed driver method. Over pretensioning is the risk of the power drivers. But, they makes complete sense for a wheel shop that has done the testing and that usually makes their own rims and specs all the components of their wheels. They can test all the component combinations and determine exactly how tight to get the spokes and with wheel building robots that can "read" out of true and round issues and fix them, you end up with very nice wheels. Not always as perfect as 100% hand built wheels maybe, but so close that most people wouldn't notice the difference without putting both wheels in a truing stand. In case you would like to see one of the robots, here's one at work - fun to watch! kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmPFlHSghcR2ms0

[@x0304]

@@JimLangley1 Hey Jim, Just wanted to say thanks for the videos you shared in the comments! I learned a lot from them. Really appreciate it! Best,

[@JimLangley1]

@@x0304you’re very welcome, glad you enjoyed them!

[@terry7351]

Great video but how do you measure the correct spoke length?

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching! Here’s my video on finding spoke length Terry: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqe5ZXl7Z7urkM0si=kJ8l3hEIDp1ONqmd

[@terry7351]

Thanks Jim

[@JimLangley1]

@@terry7351my pleasure!

[@Tuffjobs]

Hi Jim, I doubt Caravaggio put this much attention to detail into his artworks. I presume stock wheels are made by machines? I can’t believe every wheel is made by hand like this one? I was thinking of building a wheel, but I can already envisage all the broken spokes and the rim being thrown out the window as I explode with frustration ☺️

[@JimLangley1]

🤣Thanks for watching and the awesome comment Laurence - made me laugh. Yes, it's a process to build bicycle wheels but it's actually a lot of fun and I've taught lots of beginners how to build their own. The video of mine to watch if you want to learn more is this one, where I break the steps down even more. It's one of the most watched videos on YT on the subject: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jobUpp9maM2VkJo You could watch only parts of it to get an idea if it's something you'd enjoy or if it would cause you to explode ;-) (I don't think so.) Regarding modern wheels, yes most production wheels are built mostly by machines with some assembly, quality control and finishing by humans. But there are still plenty of wheelsmiths out there who will build wheels by hand to your specifications too. Hope this helps and thanks again! If you want to see a wheel building machine, here's one at work: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kIjEhHSPrNGcaKs

[@Tuffjobs]

@@JimLangley1 I’ll watch those, Jim. A question on a separate topic. Are most rear hub bodies (not the alloy free-hub or the axle) made of steel. A friend says he’s seen aluminium and titanium hubs? I’m presuming carbon has never been used? Thanks again, Laurence

[@JimLangley1]

@@Tuffjobs most quality hubs you find on nice bikes are made of aluminum Laurence. Steel is still used on inexpensive bikes as are sold by some department stores because though heavy they do work okay. But on a nice bike, you don't see it because it's heavy and prone to corrosion/rusing. So most hubs are aluminum and there have been some carbon hubs or carbon combined with aluminum because it's another way to lighten the hubs and add some bling. And your friend is right, there are titanium hubs like the company Hope makes but it's usually the barrel that's titanium with aluminum flanges. Titanium is also sometimes used for the freehub that the cassette cogs slide over because aluminum gets torn up by the cogs over time. Lots and lots of choices out there! Hope this helps.

[@Tuffjobs]

@@JimLangley1 excellent 👍 many thanks 🙏

[@Tuffjobs]

@@JimLangley1 this hub I took off a bent carbon wheel uses straight pull spokes. This makes the hub body more complex (2 opposing spoke holes on both sides). Does a straight spoke hub make for a stiffer wheel? The j bend hubs look simpler, but are they as good? Thanks 🙏

[@officialheymanguys1]

How many holes that wheel has?

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and the question! It's a 28-spoke wheel so the hub and rim both have 28 holes. Hope this helps.