Wheelbuilding
It’s a more than a little adventurous to do your first wheel build on a $1700 hub that takes months to get.
I just built out a triton muni with 26 and 29 inch wheels. I opted to go with straight SS Sapin spokes with brass nipples. The weight difference between using brass and AL on a 36 spoke hub was something like 20g. Probably even less of a difference between double butted and straight spokes. I opted for strength and durability over weight (even though I spent a silly amount on the Ti frame).
I looked at Ti spokes but again didn’t feel like the weight difference was worth the expense (4-5 times the cost for a SS spoke).
Like NurseBen, I opted to go with simple silver spokes and nipples. I didn’t want this uni to be too stylish… something that appears super cool at first but then starts to grate on you after a while, like a canary yellow car.
Somewhere in these forums Sascatawanian suggested using 32 hole hub to save weight; might not be an option for the schlumpf… besides, at this point whatever you have is what you have.
The fewere the spoke count though the better the wheel build needs to be…
Prior to building up my 2 KH hubs/rims I practiced on a 20" torker wheel and 2-26" mountain bike wheels. In all cases I completely disassembled the wheels, cleaned everything up, and started over as if doing a new wheel build.
The rear MTN wheel was by far the most difficult. For starters, the rear wheel on a bike has a cassette/freewheel so the dish needs to be shorter on the right side than the left. Also, this particular wheel had been in a serious crash and was permanently deformed. Just to get it close I had to bend the rim back into shape (I used a foam roller and all of my body weight to do it) before doing any lacing. Manually bending a rim still results in a deformed rim to start with, just not AS bad. It took several tensioning start overs but I eventually did get it, good enough.
It was a ton of work and time but well worth it… by the time I did the KH wheels my personsonal confidence with wheel building was fairly high. The wheels have not been used enought to determine how they will stand up but I can say that when I first loaded them they did not “ping”, a sign of destressing.
I tend to over due the destressing… I destess every time I add tension to the spokes (probabaly about 10 cycles of all the spokes before I have it fully tensioned and true). I used several methods, some from Sheldon Brown and also Jobst Brandt’s book The Bicycle Wheel.
- Leather gloves… grab parallel spokes (on both sides of the wheel)
- Press the wheel into the floor; turn the wheel 6-8 times per revolution to get all angles (I think this is what you were already doing).
- Drive a screwdriver handle (or some other plastic object) into the spokes where they overlap. ( I think someone already described this where a crank was used… I prefer plastic).
- While the spokes are lose bend them over the hub to create a better curve at the 90 degree bend.
By destressing early and often you’ll get the wheel to align early on and you’ll end up with a true wheel that is naturally evenly tensioned without effort. It’s the best way to slowly but surely meet all four criteria for the wheel build:
- Lateral
- Radial
- Spoke tension
- Dish
Take comfort in knowing that wide rimmed unicyclye wheels are more tolerant than narrow rimmed 700c bicycle wheels. Also, unicycle wheels are under less torque than a rear wheel on a bike (and front wheel when braking)… rotates at a slower speed, and has jucier tires so roundness need not be as perfect as a road bike build.
That being said, I still built my wheels to within 0.005" lateral tolerance and 0.010 roundness. My Park dishing tool is no where near that accurate but for a unicycle, dishing is less of an issue than a road bike since our tracking is single wheeled anyway.
Hopefully you didn’t short change yourself on your wheel building equipment… I know it’s possible to build a wheel with the uni as a trueing stand but it has to be more difficult to build it with precision that is achievable with a good truing stand.
Everyone says to lubricate the spoke nipples. The problem with that is the spokes stay lubricated “after the build” and the grease makes it easier for the spoke to go out of alignment. On a wheel this expensive you should use Wheelsmith’s spoke prep (dope) (There’s at least one other brand… but I don’t remember where I saw it). It will lubricate the spoke during the build but keep the spoke in place after the build, but also prevents rust/oxidation. Sort of a lock-tite for spokes.
It’s also important to lubricate the nipple-rim contact surface(s) so the nipple can spin on the rim during tensioning (reducing spoke axial twisting).
Ultimately, wheel building needs to be fun and un-hurried. If its not both of those, take it to a LBS and let them do it. (They may not take it when they find out the hub $$$) I find comfort in knowing that the precision of my wheels are in my control AND if something does go wrong, I can fix it.
If I could only say that about my riding skills…
