I know it seems impossible, but this afternoon I built two wheels from scratch and had them on my bike in 3 hours, that's 90 minutes per wheel. This isn't the first time I've done it this fast either. Here are some helpful tips to make things go faster.

First, make sure you grease all of your spokes. Next, lay the hub down with the rim around it and put the "inside" spokes in (the spokes that are cleser to the middle of the hub) the side that is up. Find the holes in the rim that are pointing up and towards the spoke. They should match up with the spokes you have in the rim so far. Put nipples on the spokes, but only spin them on a little bit, just enough to keep them from falling off.



Now flip the wheel over and put in the inside spokes on the other side. Again the holes in the rim should point directly to the spoke. Put nipples loosely on these spokes as well.



Now put the outside spokes in the side facing up and put the nipples on loosely.



Now flip it over and put in the last set of outside spokes and put the nipples on.



Now for a very helpful hint that will save you tons of time when truing. Tighten all of the nipples until you can see 2 threads sticking out above the top of the nipple. Spokes are pretty close to the same length, and with them all tightened the same amount (but still pretty loose), you will have a very good place to start from when you go to true.

Now it is time to true your wheel. You don't need a fancy truing stand for doing one wheel, a pencil and your bike will work fine. Put the wheel on your bike and tape a pencil the the fork or swingarm so that it acts as a pointer.



Spin the wheel and watch how much it moves up and down. Tighten the spokes at the high spot and loosen the spokes on the other side until it doesn't move up and down anymore. It should be very close if you tightened all the spokes evenly as mentioned before. Next, look at how much the wheel wobbles. This may be pretty far off, but is easy to fix. tighen the spokes on the side that you want to pull the rim to. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy and won't take long. It normally takes me 10-20 minutes to get it straight. Once it doesn't wobble, double check that the wheel still doesn't move up and down. Next, start from some point (like the valve stem hole) and tighten every third spoke a little at time. Go around the wheel three times (when you get back to the starting point you will have to go to the fourth spoke so you don't keep doing the same spokes over and over). If a spoke feels really tight already then skip over it, if it feels really loose, tighten it a little more than the rest (a spoke torque wrench works well here). You may have to do this part more than once to get them all tight. By doing every third spoke you keep the wheel true. Once it is tight, double check again that the hweel is still true.

Now you are set to pull the wheel off the bike and put the brake disc, sprocket, rimlock, rim strip, etc back on. Mount up the tire (careful not to scratch your new rim of course).



Now all you have to do is throw it on the bike and you are set to go.



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wow! that's awesome!

Very nice!

You know,  you could go into business for yourself doing this.  Not many riders I know of would want to take the time (me included:smirk: ) to get wheel lacing and truing done right. Of course, I'd be scared as hell of the consequences of doing it wrong, too.

A job well done!!!

i've done it myself a couple of times and it is not so hard. the first time you do it just take your time and remember the patter and which spokes go in what holes and than its a pretty easy task. im never again paying a shop to lace my wheels.

Great info KJ. U should put this in the Technical Articles and Tips section.

Quote

Agree! Even if it took you 2 hours per wheel, and charged $100 labor per wheel, that's damn good money. I'd sure like to make $50 an hour. You may not have enough to do it full time for awhile, but the word would get out, and you just might be able to start your own business.

Great write up KJ790!

Thanks guys, I have sunday and monday off from work and am trying to get as much done as possible. My goal is to build two more wheels, put a new piston in my 250F, grease the links on two bikes, and check the valves on my 450 (I already greased the steering heads on both bikes).

KJ790 said:

What's the hurry? Aren't you getting dumped on up there?

torch

Heres gas in your tank:applause:   Thats one one of the best "How to's" I've ever seen.

cutting torch said:

Yeah, but I don't got much free time this time of year, so I want to get as much done as possible when I do. I have a bunch of parts coming so that stuff will have to wait until another time. Last year I did some indoor riding, but the place closest to me closed so I probably won't get to this year. However, if I do get a chance to go, my bikes will be pretty much set.

good info...thanks

GREAT story. I've done this once or twice on my own, but not as well. Think I'll give it a try again using your information. NICE JOB!

good wright up.  Another tip that works well on rims (other than black ones)- use a dry erase marker other than the pen and just hold it near the wheel and spin it.  Lightly move the pen towards the wheel untill it touches and it will leave a nice mark where its out of true and you can use the length of the line to get an idea how many spokes need to be tightened on the opposite side.  It can be a real time saver.

Nice.

Nice write up!   I have to order some rear spokes for my bike and this is really going to help when it's time to lace them.  Inside-inside, outside-outside.  Even I can remember that.

Thank you!

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Here's some additional info from our Tech Articles.

When I get some time, I'll combine the info from this thread into our tech section.

Very nice write up.  

bump.