I’m sitting here in a slight state of shock. I just ordered the parts for the KH 20" Flat rim to do a wheel build
Why am I in shock?
A) my first wheel build
B) I hope the IRS doesn’t find out
C) It was almost as much as the whole uni i’m putting it on.
D) it’s my first KH component.
E) I’m still not sure I shouldn’t have spent the extra $10 and went for 3 day express shipping
F) now I have to choose a tire and there are so many choices in 20x2.1
I went with Nimbus ISIS hub
Black spokes with chrome nipples
and Red rim strip.
Question: do I start praying to the wheel build gods now or wait till I get the parts?
I’ll be at my LBS squeezing the spokes on the 20" BMX bikes until it gets here.
I know about Sheldon Browns site. Any others I should be looking to for wheel building advice? (of course I’ll be searching here and on the web). But maybe some of you have some good links.
MuniAddict I have the link to the video and i’m sure that will lead to other videos.
20 inch beefy rim with short 14G spokes. Short of rounding a nipple it will be hard to truly screw it up.
I thought more about the every three spoke thing and it makes so much sense. By going around every spoke you are twisting the wheel in to a plane. No different then pulling any multiple fastener down in a star or some other alternating pattern.
I was twelve when I built my first set of wheels for my BMX bike. I didn’t have a book, or the internet, I just used another wheel that I had laying around and tried to figure it out. That was a mistake, but after a couple of frustrating days I had them laced. Once they were laced I guessed on the tensioning, and was already pretty good at truing. That set of wheels ended up being strong, and aside from the valve hole being in the wrong place I was really happy with them for a long time.
I’ve looked at the Sheldon Brown page a little, and it looks like all of the info you need is there. For your first wheel I would give yourself a couple of hours, and follow the instructions step by step. From the looks of it he recommends putting one spoke into the hub at a time. I probably started this way, but I can’t imagine doing it without having to bend spokes. Don’t worry about bending spokes as you lace the wheel as long as you don’t put kinks in them they will be alright.
Wheel building has become much easier than it used to be. When I started even high end rims weren’t straight, and round. The new rims are so straight and round, and stiff, that it’s made it much easier to build. If you were nearby I would happily help you out, but that might be difficult online. I guess there’s Skype if you have trouble.
ezas: I tend to learn from reading, so I found The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt helpful. (My local public library has a couple copies.) Before that, I think I just started with Sheldon Brown’s site and somewhere in there he linked to a couple more that are also helpful. Brown’s colored spoke pattern illustrations are helpful. He linked to someone else with alternate patterns too.
Oh, yeah… Since you already have experience truing wheels, it should be fairly easy. Just look at the pattern, double check that the spokes are where you want them, and make small changes in tension.
If my 36er wheel already has all the old spokes still on it, with hub, what about replacing them as you rgo? Remove one old spoke, put on new, one at a time? That way you repeat the exact pattern with no mistakes. Plus, the hub is already on.
You could certainly do it this way, it would just take a long time. The pattern is really not that complicated.
Here’s how I do it:
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I put my key spoke through a hole from the outside of a flange.
The first spoke in the opposite flange goes to the right or left of the key spoke depending on if it's a righ or left handed rim.
Once you have these two spokes in you can put all of the spokes into the hub on both flanges.
For learning it's easier to get your first group attached to the rim, so pick a spoke from the right flange, and count three spokes clockwise from it on the inside of the same flange, this will be the three spokes that it will cross (3 cross).
Do the same thing for the other flange starting with the spoke that corresponds to your key spoke (right or left).
When you cross the spokes remember to have the inside spoke cross to the outside of the outside spoke.
Place the spokes through the rim, and put a nipple on them.
Once you have your first group in place you can just take the next outside spoke, and cross it with the next inside spoke all the way around.
Do the same thing on the other side, and you will have your wheel laced.
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The parts for my KH 20" Flat wheel build are here!
I’ve been on pins and needles because the box disappeared from UPS radar as soon as it left UDC, not even a pickup scan, then magically it show up as out for delivery on the day scheduled.
5:30 PM Brown Truck chugs up the hill to my house. Yippee
I’m so excited nervous I can barely bring myself to open the box. My first wheel build. My first KH component.
Hi, I was wondering what I should do if all of my spokes are at a good tension, but one (I think I kicked it by accident) is much looser. Is it okay to tighten just that spoke? Will it affect how true my wheel is?
Thanks,
With only one loose spoke you could certainly tighten it to keep it from moving. This shouldn’t hurt the wheel at all, and as long as it’s not bugging you I don’t think it will matter in the long run.
If I was given a wheel like this to fix I would start by checking the tension on the spokes around the one that’s loose. A lot of the time the ones next to it on the same side of the wheel are tight enough that they are pulling the rim and making that one seem loose. In this case the wheel would be noticeably out of true.
I would also check for a flat spot that could be because of a big rim hit, or because of uneven tension. If there is a flat spot causing the loose spoke I would try to fix it by turning nipples, and if that didn’t work I would loosen all of the spokes around it and use a rim puller to pull the flat spot out.
Thanks for the reply. I tried tightening it half a turn and it didn’t seem to help. I was turning clockwise. I dont think there is a flat spot but I’m not sure. It is noticeably out of of true, but by no more than a centimeter, and it was like that before.
unihopper: Did the spoke get any tighter? It’s easy to turn the nipple the wrong way. The spoke threads clockwise into the nipple, so since you are turning the nipple, it needs to go counterclockwise when looking from the hub to the rim.
I’d start by holding the rim steady and spinning the wheel to make sure it isn’t a flat spot. Since it is so far out of true, it’ll probably take a while to fix, and you may end up adjusting all the spokes. I’d probably end up loosening the tighter spokes a bit, then re-true and re-tension the wheel.