bike wrench

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A place to ask bicycle repair questions, and for bike shop monkeys to share advanced non commercial wrenching resources (no YouTube self promotion). This is only for repair related topics.

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How Hard Is Lacing A Wheel, Really? (midwest.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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At the beginning of the season I bought a beautiful teal 1988 Trek 1000 and have been riding the hell out of it. Unfortunately all that riding has come at a price, Ive ruined two rear wheels(rims) over the span of a few months.

I know I can tuck my tail and head back into the shop to have them lace me up a new wheel (they got me back on the road for a good price the first time) but I'd like to take a stab at building a wheel myself.

So my question, how hard is it to build a wheel?

I've watched the park tools wheel building and truing videos and I'm sure they make it look easier than it really is.
There's a few shops around me that do "open shop" hours a few times a week that i plan on taking advantage of if i actually do this.
I also looked at just getting a new wheelset but then discovered the freewheel vs cassette change and the old hub width is the old 126mm standard and decided it might be easier if i just learned to lace a wheel and put a new rim on.

(I guess I'm actually just looking for some encouragement, tips)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It really isn't hard, and for me it's quite meditative. Truing old wheels can be frustrating if the rim is in bad shape, but with new components it normally goes very smoothly.

Something I figured out way too late: get a good spoke key in the right size, not one of the universal ones. It makes truing so much more enjoyable if don't have to grab onto the extra slots in the spoke key all the time.