[Closed] More wheels - custom build questions

Shop is unlikely to want to reuse the spokes but it's perfectly feasible

If the hub flanges are exactly the same size and spacing, theoretically the spokes could be reused. There is of course a higher chance of breakage while building or riding after than new ones.

Cool, cheers. Found this after posting -  https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/reusing-spokes.html

Interesting.

There's way more tolerable of both issues than three thinks there is.

Do wot?

Are the existing spokes any good? If so, I'd probably reuse them. If not, it's only about £40 for two wheels' worth of spokes from Rose.

(Please don’t suggest I do this build myself. It would end in misery )

Have you considered building them yourself? 😉

OK, semi-seriously, wheel building has now become my favourite piece of bike maintenance and I find that I jump at the chance to build wheels for people if they even hint at wanting them done. The posher the bits, the better - in fact, I think I've now build more wheels with plastic rims than with alloy ones. My first set took me a whole evening just to true one wheel, but now I'm down to about 30 mins per wheel and I've been very happy with the results. In fact, I don't think I've had to revisit one of my wheels post-build, which is, I think, a decent measure of success.

It's not for everybody, but damn it's cool to be riding wheels that you built up yourself or listening to your son proudly showing his bike to his racing friends telling them that "my dad built these wheels just for me" 🙂

It depends on the pcd of the new hubs mostly, but also the flange (oooer) spacing. There are a few spoke calculators ot there youcould use to check the lengths required and you would need to work out how long your current spokes are and compare.

Unless they’re fancy spokes I’d just get new ones - even double butted spokes can be had from around 45p each with nipples.

Compare the hub dimensions in an online spoke calculator and see how the spoke lengths compare - if you're within a 1-2mm you'll be OK. I've reused spokes that were 40 years old before, no problems with breakages, but best to fit new nipples.

You probably want new spokes and nipples, I normally use Sapim Laser, £57 for 64 with brass nipples (ryanbuildswheels in Bristol, via ebay). At the bare minimum you'd want new nipples but it's much nicer building with new spokes so most people insist on it.

If your near Bristol, I'd build them for you in exchange for a few bottles of ale, as long as it's with new spokes.

Hey hey... took the plunge and built a wheel myself. Wasn't too bad, only one teeny mistake caused some frustration...

Now, here's the thing. I'm at the tensioning stage... do I go ahead and buy a tension gauge? Not sure how much use it'll ever get! What do other people do? thanks

Depends, I can build a wheel that is "fine" without a spoke tension meter, but I can build a better wheel with one. Some people are good at plucking spokes to get even tension, I am tone deaf so like my tension meters. Tension meter allows me to set the spokes to the tension I want and not exceed the rims max tension, more critical with some rims than others. On the cheap I would just try and get all the spokes on each side to the same tension and have a good wheel on hand to compare against.

You can get ebay tension meters for £25 now.

Thanks, yeah, pretty much as I thought. I’ll grab an ebay one, do it properly 😊

I've never felt the need, if it's round and straight and tight that's usually enough.

How tight is tight?

I'll do some more research!

My first set I built without one and 6 months later they’re still running true. I tried to compare the approximate tension with another wheel I had, but I’m not sure how even it is.

Just built another set of wheels with similar components which was originally for a mate but now which I’m going to see if I can sell them. I got a spoke tension meter (Park Tools one for £60 - although there is a similar x Tools one for £30 on CRC) and used it on this one.

I’d say it’s sped up the process of building the wheel and I know the tensions are as even as they can be whilst having s straight wheel.

I think some rims - Stans in particular - have quite a low threshold for maximum tension.

Stans in particular eh? It's like you knew 😉

Anything that speeds up the process a little has to be good. It's always nice to have new tools anyway. 🙂

It is indeed. The park one is really nice too(if overpriced for what it is).

The wheel guide from Roger Musson I think specifically refers to Stan’s rims and having to tension them less than other brands. I believe it’s to stop cracking around the spoke holes.

Sheldon Brown actually has a table of musical pitches corresponding to optimum spoke tension. 🙂

How tight is tight?

If you've already got good wheels in the garage (ie ones which have done plenty of miles with no need for truing) then grab some spoke pairs and squeeze. That'll give you a feel for it: drive side rears are the tightest and should be pretty hard to squeeze, non-drive rears the slackest, and fronts somewhere in between. (NB most wheels that come on bikes are under-tensioned IME and they work loose, but I'm 14 stone which may be a factor.) Obviously number of spokes, rim diameter, etc make a difference to that feel, but you don't have to be exact. I'm with cycnic-al: I've never used a tensiometer, and I never judge tension by pinging; it's all just making sure it's straight and ensuring the spokes are "tight enough" by feel (both by squeezing spokes and by getting a feel for nipple resistance… matron). Haven't gone wrong with it yet: despite ignoring half the expert advice about building wheels, I get better reliability from my wheels than I've had from either machine-built or shop-built ones (accepting that I was probably just unlucky with the shops I bought from…) Which isn't to say that the expert advice is worthless; just that if you're not building for extreme requirements you can build a perfectly reliable wheel without much fuss at all.