Rebuilding a wheel

If you are rebuilding a wheel (putting new rim on) would you bother to replace the spokes as well or re use them?

as long as you are not trying to re use snowflake pattern spokes the twisted up ones ;-]....

it's nice to have everything as neat and tidy and straight and unrusted and true as possible just so you get a nice easy to true in the future wheel
however if needs must ! old spokes work once tensioned they pull themselves straight ...

I think it's a question of common sense - if the wheel's not too old, the spokes were a decent quality and the threads are fine, re-use with new nipples. I've done it a few times, with no probs. Caveat: so far

ben, i am fuckered if it involves me exercising common sense

Fuckered - we like, added to lexicon

is this for the road bike james? what rims are you using?

I replaced my front rim using same spokes and nipples; just tape them together loosen them all off and swap them over one by one so you don't have to work out lacing etc. Then I got Jimbilly to true it up properly.

need to build wheels for road and fixed bikes, got 2 open pro ceramics

Exactly what adoubletap said. By taping the old and new rim together, the spokes remain in the same position relative to the hub i.e. sitting in any little grooves they've notched up.

As far as the hubs and spokes are concerned, you're just detensioning/retensioning the existing rim. They'll only know it's a new rim if the nipples grass you up.

I wouldn't risk it as no rim will be the same, so you may end up having to have some spokes of different tensions which leads to odd spoke tensions and a wheel that doesn't last as long. I would definitely use new nipples even if you have to use old spokes especially if they are alu ones...

Once you've built one wheel from scratch you'll wonder why you took them to the shops!

Sounds like if you are using ceramic rims, you're using rim brakes so even more important to get the wheel completely straight.

If you are worried about how to do it, there are some great online articles about how to build a wheel, and also you can use another wheel as a "template" to copy.

Hope that helps

Stu

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Thought you're already out of the nursery, Rob?

only a few more years to go.

best way to learn how to put them together is to take one apart
you get used to everything you need when building direction to tighten / loosen with the spoke key, the crossing of the spokes
just make sure you have another wheel of a similar pattern near so yuo can refer back in case of doubt

picture tutorial!
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RimSwap

Will you be using the exact same rims for re-build? If not then the difference in ERD will warrant the use of new spokes. Unless the ERD of the new rims is exactly the same, which does happen on occassion. If your existing spokes are in fairly good condition then I see nothing wrong with using them for a rebuild. Never had any problems or complanits when I've done it.

Orson Welles was the voice of Unicron in the animated Transformers: The Movie