Wheel Rebuilding

How much does it cost to have a wheel rebuilt from all of the
components. Assuming i had all the parts, how much do you think it would
cost for the actual labor? Any ballpark figures you can give are
helpful. Also, how difficult is this? Is it something I could easliy do,
and, if so, what tools would I need?

Thanks


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Figure on about $20 to $30 labor to build a wheel. That is, if you have
all of the parts it should cost you about $20 to $30 to have the wheel
laced, tensioned and trued.

If you do it yourself plan on about 20 to 30 wheels to learn how to do
it correctly yourself. I'm too lazy to learn how to do it myself, and I
don't want to experiment upon my own wheels. It's easier for me to just
pay my local wheel builder to make me a wheel. I have found a really
good local wheel builder who does a really great job (he is awesome). I
know that every time I bring him a wheel that he'll do a great job of
building it or fixing it. It's not worth it to me to learn how to do it
myself given that I'd have to build 20 to 30 crappy wheels before I get
the hang of building a good one. Building a good wheel is part art and
part science. It takes time to learn both the art and the science part.


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How did i know JC would be the one to answer this? I even typed in
lowercase letters for you.

Thanks though. Would my local bike shop people be able to do it or do I
have to find a certified wheel builder with a Phd? I guess I'll just
have to get up and walk around the corner to ask them. Boo walking
boo!

Edit: would they take the wheel apart for me too. I guess they would.
Can't hurt to ask you, Great one.

Please dont put that in your sig


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The hard part is finding a local wheel builder who does a really good
job. Many bike shops will build you a wheel for $20 to $30. Few bike
shops will build you a realy good wheel.

Ask the local freeriders, downhillers, mountain bikers and tandem bikers
where to get a wheel built. Find who they recommend the most and go
there. A good place to ask is on a discussion group (mailing list) for
a local mountain bike club.

I found a local shop where the wheel builder is a downhiller and
freerider and he builds awesome wheels.


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TheObieOne3226 wrote:
*How much does it cost to have a wheel rebuilt from all of the
components. Assuming i had all the parts, how much do you think it
would cost for the actual labor? Any ballpark figures you can give are
helpful. Also, how difficult is this? Is it something I could easliy
do, and, if so, what tools would I need?
*

It depends what you mean by a rebuild. Presumably you want to rebuild a
unicycle wheel which means you don't have to tear open a hub. This is
much simpler.

So, the big question is: Why the rebuild?

Assuming that you want to change the mix of hub, spokes and rims there
are only a few possibilities. The first step is obviously to take off
the tire, tube and rim strip. You will need a spoke wrench that fits
tightly on the nipples, your unicycle frame and some sort of lube (spoke
prep, linseed oil, even motor oil). If you don't need the old spokes
then a pair of wire cutters will speed things along.

There are a few different routes you can take:

1) If you are replacing a rim with another of equal size (uses spokes of
the same length), then use a spoke wrench and gradually unscrew all the
spoke nipples. Make several passes around the wheel, backing off the
nipples about a turn at a time until the spokes are slack.

Then tape the new rim to the old rim, making sure to line up the spoke
holes so they are comparable. Now, one by one, unscrew the nipples,
transfer the spokes to the new rim, and screw the nipples back on. Keep
doing this until you have transfered all the spokes, then get rid of the
old wheel. You now have a slack wheel - go to step 5.

2) If your spokes are FUBAR - breaking for no reason, bent from crashes,
etc. - then you need new spokes.

2a) If you don't care if the rim survives then just take a pair of
diagonal cutters (the inner cutting faces of vice grips work too) and
cut the spokes in the middle. Remove the debris from the hub. Go to
step 4.

2b) If you do care about the rim, then detension the spokes first (see 1
above), and chop them out (see 2a). Go to step 4.

3) If you are changing rim size, or using a hub of a different size then
you need spokes of a different length. This may be true even if both
rims are the same diameter since the depth of the rims may be different.


3a) Assuming you want to keep the original spokes then detension (see
step 1) and unscrew the nipples completely. Unlace the old spokes from
the hub. Go to step 4.

3b) If you don't want to keep the original spokes then just chop them
out (see step 2) and go to step 4.

4) Lacing the new wheel: This is much easier than it sounds. Take a
good look at the holes in the hub. See how the left and right holes are
offset? The right ones line up in between the left ones, and vice
versa. Makes sense, eh? If it is an old hub, check the holes for wear.
You'll see a deformed spot on one side of the hole where the old spoke
was sitting. This is where you want the new spoke to go. No sense in
deforming the hole twice - it just weakens it even further. Notice also
that the odd holes have the spoke mark on the inside of the hub going
either clockwise or counterclockwise, and the even holes have the mark
on the outside going the other way.

Take your spokes and divide them into 4 piles. All symmetric wheels use
a multiple of 4 as the number of spokes - 28, 32, 36, 40, and 48 are
common. One pile is the left side that leans clockwise, the next is the
left side that leans counterclockwise, the next is the right side that
leans clockwise, and so on. Dip the threads into spoke prep, linseed
oil or some other lubricant and things will go smoothly later on. And
make sure you only screw the nipples on with one or two turns at this
stage. It keeps the wheel slack which means you won't have to force
anything.

Hold the hub so the axle is vertical. Drop a spoke in every other hole
in the upper flange. Be a bit clever about it and figure out which way
to do this so that the spokes will seat in the old marks if it a used
hub. Thread one spoke through a spoke hole in the rim right next to the
valve stem hole. Now comes the only tricky part. Get this one right
and the wheel will lace perfectly - turn the hub either clockwise or
counterclockwise so that the spoke sits in the old mark in the spoke
hole (if it's a new hub it doesn't matter). If this tilts the spoke
AWAY from the valve stem, then good. If the spoke tilts TWARDS the
valve hole, then flip the rim around 180 degrees while holding the hub
steady. Now the hole is on the other side of the spoke and so the spoke
should be tilting away. Lace up the rest of this set of spokes, using
every 4th hole in the rim from the one you started with. When you are
done the lacing should be symmetric with three empty holes in between
each spoke on the rim.

Now take the wheel and tilt it until the hub is vertical with the empty
flange on top. Twist the hub until the spoke nearest the valve hole
tilts away from the valve hole. Look straight down at the point on the
flange where this spoke inserts. Pick the spoke hole on the empty
(upper) flange that is half a hole AWAY from the valve-hole side. Lace
a spoke through this upper hole, then thread it into the rim at the 2nd
hole away from the valve stem. Now drop spokes into every other hole as
before and lace them into the corresponding holes in the rim. When you
twist the hub correctly everything should be fairly symmetric - two
empty holes in the rim, then two spokes that are sort of parallel, then
two empties, and so on.

Turn the wheel so the axle is vertical again and drop the next set of
spokes into all the remaining holes in the LOWER flange. This is your
first set of crossing spokes. This is the first intersting part about
lacing up a wheel. (Hopefully you've only screwed on the nipples with
a turn or two, otherwise this will be hard.) Take the hub and twist it
so that the spokes near the valve stem tilt away. Shake the wheel a bit
to seat the nipples and twist again. Now take one of the swinging
spokes and lace it into the wheel. If you are doing a three cross this
means going outside two spokes and under the third, then into the right
hole in the rim. Spokes going into the rim go left-right-left-right, so
it shouldn't be too hard to figure out which hole to put this spoke
into. It should be the one exactly in between the other two spokes from
that side. Continue lacing up the free spokes until you have one side
laced.

Now look at the wheel. Does it look like a unicycle wheel? Everything
sort of symmetric? Is is obvious where the other spokes should go?
Good. Drop in the last set and lace them in place. Does it look like a
wheel yet?

Wheels at this stage don't really look like wheels yet. Assuming that
it is symmetric and laced like your other wheels the problem is that the
spokes aren't lined up right. Time to "set" the spokes.

Hold the hub with a flange in each hand. Use your thumbs to bend the
outer spokes at the flange until they line up with the holes in the rim.
Do the same with your fingers on the inner spokes. Keep at it until it
looks sort of like a wheel even though the spokes are slack. Now it is
ready to tension and true.

Step 5) Go to a bike shop and ask for their help. Hopefully they will
congradulate you on lacing the wheel properly. Tensioning and truing a
wheel isn't any harder, but it takes a bit of feel that I can't describe
in a post. It's also intimidating if you've never done it before. Ask
if you can watch while they do it. If there isn't much going on then
most bike shops will say sure. If they don't then find another shop.


Most people take a long time (3-10 hours) to make their first wheel, but
it comes out ok. I'd say about half the time the first wheel has a
lacing mistake that becomes obvious about half-way through the process
and requires a re-start (the 10 hour folks), but it gets there
eventually. The next one goes a bit quicker.

After you've made 20 or 30 wheels you can knock one out in about a half
hour. The really good wheel builders that have delivered a few hundred
or more have had feedback from customers that helps them pick the right
components for a customer.

Good luck,

Tim


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Bring it to me & I will either do it for you or teach you how to do it
yourself.. (for free) I guess as I live in the UK it will be hard for
you to take up my offer.

Same applies to anyone else who want help with wheels.

I have built about 60 unicycle wheels but it still takes me several
hours to do a really good job on them.
/\/\


--
mike.hinson - Unicyclist since Nov 2000

"...they all began to chant "You ride a baby bike!!" over and over and
over. Then their chant turned into "you have no hair!!" Which made
absolutely no sense at all. It was hilarious." -- Ender
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Thanks for the help Cyberbellum. That sounds hard. So, instead of
sitting in front of the computer, following your steps word for word,
I'm gonna go blow some cash and have it professionally done. The reason
for the change is that my axle is twisting from hopping around too much.
Also, the wheel needs to be trued.

Thanks for the offer, Mike Hinson. I was in England last summer. I wish
I'd known you then. Maybe next time


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TheObieOne3226 wrote:
*
Thanks for the help Cyberbellum. That sounds hard.
*

Kids nowadays! No respect for hard work! Why in my day I had to trudge
2 miles through the snow just to FIND a spoke wrench, let alone someone
who would tell me how to us it. And we had to make our own hubs and
spokes, too! It took hours of chewing on buffalo sinuw to get even ONE
spoke! Sometimes it was years before we had a buffalo with a leg bone
strong enough to whittle a hub out of. Grumble, grumble, grumble...
kids! Harumph!!

(Wise choice, Oh-be-one )


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Like others here on the forum, I followed Sheldon Brown's wheel building
page step by step. I printed it out and read it over a few times. It
worked out very well.
The axle in one of my Profile wheels was loose in the hub shell and
rather than try to fix that myself, I decided to have Profile take care
of it. I had to tear the wheel down and send the hub to them. (they
replaced/installed a new axle for free and shipped it back at their
expense! The guys at Profile are great).
When I got the hub back I decided to rebuild the wheel myself.
I was always a bit intimidated by the wheel building process but once
you do it, it's not a big deal. It's a very rewarding experience. I've
been on a few tough muni rides since the build and it's holding up very
well. Still nice and true. I'll be building my own uni wheels from now
on.
I used my frame as a truing jig with Jagur's water bottle stand idea.
(Thanks Jag).

- Frank


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Cool. Could you (or someone) give me the link to the, guide by Sheldon
Brown.

Also, Sheldon Brown is a Defensive Back for the PHiladelphia Egales.
Well, at least someone who shares his name.


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