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After much deliberation with myself I've decided to spend some of Santas gifted pennies on two new rims for n+1 (Cotic Soul)
Currently have a spare set of Hope Pro 2 hubs laced to Stans 355 rims and want to change them for Arch Ex given I'm now too heavy for the 355s (They have been stored for a couple of years)
I'm ok mechanically but don't have any wheel building tools bar a cheap spoke key, and if I'm honest I probably don't have the patience to get them 100% correct at the final tweak stage.
Is it feasible to simply tape the new rim next to the old wheel and swap spokes over one by one until they are all swapped yet loose, and then take it to somebody who knows what they are doing and pay for the dish, tension and true?
I've spoken to one shop already and they wouldn't do it as they can't be sure of the (used) components integrity and won't put there name to it.
I can understand this but don't really want to start down the road if this is a common expected result.
This is what I did but I chose crests as I'm only 73kg. Transformed my soul when I went tubeless, love it even more now.
The lbs has an easy job tensioning and truing I think my lbs charged something like £25 which I thought was fair.
Since you're buying new rims anyway then Just Riding Along do 'own hub' wheel builds. You would have the additional cost of new spokes and nipples which is about £30 or so from memory.
I've had them build me a few wheels and each one has been excellent but i'm sure other wheel builders will do the same.
There'll probably be someone who knows a thing or two about wheelbuilding pipe up soon but i'm not sure how re-usable old spokes are. You could have hammered the 355s for the last few years for all they know. If one snapped soon after it being tensioned by the shop you would probably want it sorted so doing what you ask is possibly not worth the hassle to the shop.
The ERD of the rims needs to be similiar (ideally the same) for the spokes to be compatible- though you can juggle that with different nipples.
It's going to depend on the shop- I've done this a few times with my favourite shops and they're fine with it but I think it'd be pretty reasonable for them to tell you to clear off. Shops that do a lot of downhill will probably be fine with it though as replacing damaged rims is commonplace. (Steve at Icycles gets my business usually as he's a) very good and b) a dude)
And as above, depends if you trust the spokes. If the wheel's been reliable they're probably OK, if you've broken a few (other than impact damage) then personally I wouldn't.
Cheers for the answers.
I can see the shops attitude towards doing the work, which is half the reasoning for this thread tbh.
The ERD is the same for the two rims I believe and I have had one 355 fold under me when I was a little heavier than I am now, so not wanting to risk it again. (Currently 105Kg and was 110Kg when it happened)
Will look into JRA for them to build using new components as it sounds perfectly feasible.
Thanks again :o)