Ah the bicycle wheel. Such a cool and simple machine. You take a rim that isn’t laced up to a hub, and its pretty easy to bend it in half. But you put some spokes in there, bring it up to tension, and that thing can take a hell of a lot abuse. Of all the things there are to do when it comes to wrenching on bikes, building wheels is by far my favorite thing to do.
The wheel is one of the most important parts on a bicycle. You could say #1. The advances that wheel manufacturers have made the past 10 years is quite astounding. From road wheels that are as light as a feather, yet are stiff as hell and climb like a banshee, to mountain bike wheels that take insane amounts of abuse yet manage to stay relatively true. Thats all good, but there is nothing like a traditionally laced, handbuilt wheel. My years of experience building wheels is at about 2 1/2. I’ve built maybe a dozen wheels in my time, but my latest project will really show how I’ve been doing. A customer of ours is doing a coast to coast bike trip next summer. He came in a few times, and and spent a lot of time perusing through the QBP book seeing if there is anything that would work. They didn’t really have any wheels from their wheelhouse to suite his needs. He did some brainstorming and wanted to have me build a wheelset. He decided to get the Phil Wood Touring hubset. A good choice for riding thousands of miles with a lot of luggage. I told him the Velocity Dyad would be a great rim. Those Australians can make a good product. AC/DC, Wolfmother, Velocity bicycle components. DT Swiss Double Butted 2.0/1.8 spokes would accommodate those rims and hubs quite nicely. A 36 hole, 3X wheelset.
I know 3 ways to lace up a wheel. I know there are more, but I’ve only known 3. There’s my way, which I was taught by my old service manager. I can’t explain it to someone else, its all upstairs in my head, and seems to work out each time. Although I have had a couple times where I’ve had to lace the wheel a couple of times to get it right. The Barnett’s way, which I’ve never done, but from what I’ve heard works great. I think it takes a little longer, because it uses a way of marking each hole in the rim with a number and letter. The latest way I’ve been lacing wheels is the “Schraner” way. I purchased the book “The Art of Wheelbuilding” written by Gerd Schraner about a year ago. His method is quite unique. You lace one side of the wheel first. Then do the other side. I have now done 3 wheels using this method, and so far it is my favorite. Its easy, and it makes sense. He goes into detail as to why he has his “braking” spokes going one way, and his “pulling” spokes go another way. I now consider the Schraner Way my way. I got these bad boys laced up and tensioned yesterday and they look great. This will really be a test to see how well a wheel built by myself will hold up. I’m confident it will. A good mechanic should have wheel building in his repertoire. Not just because of the fact that you can build wheels, but wheel building helps you understand how wheels work. Why are you blowing through spokes down at the hub? Why do your spokes keep coming loose? Whats the purpose of radially laced wheels?
There are a lot of crappy wheels out there and I’m amazed more don’t just fail while someone is riding them. I blame machines, and no name spokes. If you are not using either DT Swiss or Wheelsmith spokes, you should consider those spokes inferior and nowhere near the quality of these two. Its sad some well known manufacturers opt out of using quality spokes. I’ve seen first hand when a wheel is machine built, with no name spokes, and is not hand tensioned. Its not good. The last year or so I’ve built more wheels then I have my entire life. I’m still a youngling when it comes to wheel building experience, but I will say I believe I build a good quality wheel, and will stand up to many miles. I only hope to get more chances here at the shop building wheels, and continue to learn more about them.
