As most of you know, I am upgrading my lex DX32 rim/ DX hub setup by replacing the DX hub and cranks with KH hub and cranks.
I totally forgot that the DX32 rim was a 48 hole rim. I was thinking it was a 36 hole rim.:o
I know it is possible to lace a 48 hole rim to a 36 hole hub.
But a few questions about it.
How will this affect the strength of my wheel?
Ive done searches on this a few mins ago, and found threads about it, but they ended up going into a different topic or not answer what I needed, so Ill ask it here.
How exactly do you lace a 48 hole rim to a 36 hole hub?
Link and picture would be nice. =p
The 36 to 36 and 48 to 48 I had the guides and stuff ready, but I cant find one for a 48 to a 36.
I’m going to bed now, so i’m looking forward to everyone’s help and advice.
IF anything I may buy a new hub, but I really don’t want to cause I painted my Alex DX32 rim a nice blue to match with the KH hub, and don’t want to waste a perfectly painted rim.
I’m heading off to school now but I know http://www.sheldonbrown.com/ has exactly what you are looking for. The complete explanation of how to do it. It sounded really complicated but they did figure out a way to build a wheel properly with mismatched hole counts. I think they even made it equaly strong but I might be wrong on that one.
I’m not certain, but I would think that lacing a 36 hole hub to a 48 hole rim would create lots of problems. In all of the mismatched lacings on Sheldon’s site, the hub has more holes than the rim, which allows you to use every hole on the rim to keep it strong. But if the hub is the limiting factor, then you’ll have empty spaces on your rim. I’m no engineer (yet), but I think that would be a huge problem strengthwise.
EDIT
Another thought occured to me. To keep all of the spokes evenly spaced around the wheel (which I assume would make it stronger) you would need to skip every fourth hole on the rim, but every fourth hole on the Alex DX rim is offset to the same side. Good luck. My advice would be to look here.
Yes, it’s possible, but as said earlier, some holes would have to be skipped, meaning that the overall tension of the wheel would be “off” on some parts of the wheel. it would be a uniform “off”, but “off” none the less. One of the most important factors of a strong wheel is uniform spoke tension(and uni wheels are tensioned tighter than a standard bicycle wheel, which adds to the mix), and I’m afraid that lacing a 36h hub to a 48h rim would be a compromise…and lets face it, you want a bad-ass wheel, not a so-so wheel. Return the 48h rim if you can, if not put it on the trading board and put the $ towards a nice strong 36h rim. I think in the long run, you’ll be happy you did. By the way, Sheldon is a very approachable guy…and he loves giving answers to odd-ball questions. I’d bet “lacing a 36h hub to a 48h rim on a unicycle” question would make his day. Send him an email, but I’m guessing he may tell you the same thing I did.
Actually, just a few mins ago, me and him were talking about lacing the hub, and he mentioned what you said.
Because of the lengths of spokes I would have to buy, the weird pattern, the strength not being high enough, I am gonna buy the Anodized blue VIZ rim.
36 eyelets, drilled to save weight, 46mm wide, a nice blue color, then I will buy blue VIZ nipples and probably get DT spokes from my bike shop. Do a nice 3-cross pattern and end up with a beautiful blue trials wheelset.
Whenever considering a spoking job you need to realize only half of your spokes are helping to pull your unicycle forward–while the other half are actually sabotaging your effort by pulling BACKWARDS!!!
The result is, with old fashioned wheels, you actually get NO BENEFIT WHATSOEVER from your spokes, since the pull of the pulling spokes is cancelled out by the backward pull on the static spokes!
Sounds like a plan! You mentioned blue Viz nipples…which means they are anodized, which means they are aluminum, right? I’m sure they are strong, but you are dealing w/ a uni wheel at a higher tension than a trials bikes wheels. I had a set of 48’s on my street bike a while ago that a friend built up. Good wheelbuilder…he built my mtb’s front wheel and it’s unstoppable. He advised me against aluminum nipples on the 48’s, but I wouldn’t listen(ever seen green nipples on a black rim? It looks sweet…I couldn’t help myself). I paid the price…those nipples always stripped, and I’d have to pull the tire off to replace them(pain in the ass just to look good).
heh
My advice would be to look 