Wheelbuilding / Wheel Building / Wheel build help

Just ordered 32h and 24h rims. I hope it will last. Rear will be 3x and front in radial.

Douh. Actually I ordered 32, 28 and 24h rims. Will see which one I gona use in rear. Is 28 too low for commuting and every day use?

[It's a trap] Who fancies coming to my house to true a wheel for me? It's a Zipp, and I would prefer you to have done this before, for obvious reasons! I'd bring it to you, but as of Tuesday I will be "mobility challenged" for a couple of weeks [/It's a trap]

Douh. Actually I ordered 32, 28 and 24h rims. Will see which one I gona use in rear. Is 28 too low for commuting and every day use?

I've been using a 28h Open Pro on the rear for years - replaced the hub once because I managed to tear the flange off it, but it's happy at the moment. 13 stone or so, wheel built 3x, daily use commuting and generally knocking around.

*I had an accident two weeks ago, and it seems that my front wheel is slightly out of round. I took it to the LBS for truing, which they did, but it seems to have developed a bulge that rubs the underside of the front brake in at least one spot (very small clearance). I think I know the answer but does this mean I need my front hub to be rebuilt on a new rim? I put a different tyre of the same size on the rim and there is still a rub in one spot. (the wheel is 32h HF Phil Wood hub laced 3x to Velocity Deep V rim). I posted in the AQA thread but didn't really get an answer there. If there is a fix can anyone recommend a workshop central-ish that could fix it? *

Take it to a decent wheel builder, they'll tell you whether it can be fixed or whether there's rim damage which will make it hard to make it both round and strong.

Thanks. Any recommendations for a local wheelbuilder, I work in EC2 and live in SE10? (will UTFS for the wheelbuilder thread, but if any come to mind thanks in advance).

is it dangerous to lace your wheel like this?

Not if the rim and hub are designed for that build. Rolf invented paired spokes, and build wheels with as few as 10 spokes on their 85mm deep carbon rims. Those VigorFX wheels are 16f/20r, which is the same spoke count as most of Shimano's road wheels.

is it possible that a badly built front wheel would snap its spokes under a (fairly light) load?
I built my front wheel myself, and a couple of weeks ago while attempted a sprint on the track I lost control of the front wheel and went flying. My bike tripped up another rider (luckily she wasn't injured) and ended up with a few broken spokes on the front.
I weigh ~55 kg and have been riding the wheel on London streets without it going out of true for 2 years. So I am just wondering if anyone could shine some light on whether the spokes snapped and caused the accident? or if the broken spokes were due to the bike getting thrown then crashed into?
Thanks in advance !

Most spoke failures are fatigue failures due to normal stress cycles (riding over bumps etc.). One day they eventually just go 'ping'.

How long it takes depends on things like the thickness of the spokes, their quality, whether they're butted, overall spoke tension, evenness of spoke tension, etc. etc.

However a sharp sideways impact can break a spoke fairly easily so it could have been either.

However a sharp sideways impact can break a spoke fairly easily so it could have been either.

O rly? Spoke breakage from impact is very rare, usually the hub flange or rim eyelet lets go first, or nothing gets overloaded (apart from the rim in bending) as the wheel transitions between its two stable conditions, circle and taco.

To the OP, look at where the spokes broke and how. It should be easy to tell the difference between a pre-existing fatigue crack which suddenly propagated under the abnormal sprinting load and a plastic failure due to severe overload in the aftermath of a crash. If you don't know what you're looking at, ask a friendly metallurgist. You might have been riding for weeks or even months on the road with half-broken spokes which finally let go and caused the loss of control when you sprinted.

O rly? Spoke breakage from impact is very rare, usually the hub flange or rim eyelet lets go first, or nothing gets overloaded (apart from the rim in bending) as the wheel transitions between its two stable conditions, circle and taco.

I've seen a spoke get pinged by another bike's QR striking it (when they were just being wheeled around, not ridden). Although it was a pretty crappy old wheel IIRC...

There's a difference between direct attacks on the spokes and overload from impacts on the rim.

Oh, sure. I was talking about the former. I meant the spokes might have taken a direct knock in the crash.

without UTFS can someone suggest me a cheap wheel build? arup is £45 for wheelset but collection/giving the parts is in sydenham which is another planet from north london, anyone cheaper, close by? anyone on forum?

I can do for cheaps, not north but not too far south. Battersea. Pm me if I can help, but there will be others.

I'm also looking for a wheelbuilder to repair a broken spoke. Whats in east ?

while trying to tighten up my rear wheel spoke the rim suddenly went full out of shape almost like a pringle even though I went around doing just half a turn with the spoke key all the way around. Now to get it to miss the brake blocks I have some stupily tight spokes and some pretty loose- any ideas on how this can be sorted without rebuilding the whole wheel?

while trying to tighten up my rear wheel spoke the rim suddenly went full out of shape almost like a pringle even though I went around doing just half a turn with the spoke key all the way around. Now to get it to miss the brake blocks I have some stupily tight spokes and some pretty loose- any ideas on how this can be sorted without rebuilding the whole wheel?

Sounds like a dead rim to me. What make / model / size is it?

any ideas on how this can be sorted without rebuilding the whole wheel?

It can't. Take it apart, see what shape the rim is in, it might be rescued. Pinging from round to taco while building is a classic sign of over-tension. It usually happens while stress-relieving, where you deliberately overload the spokes as part of the build process, so getting it to happen while using the spoke key shows that you were way over the spoke tension limit for this build.

thanks for the replies- the rim is not new but in good cond so must be me being heavy handed with the build (thanks mdcc) it seems to be in an alright shape at the mo so not going to bugger about again, new open sport on payday me thinks.

Is there eny difference between DT Revos - Sapim Laser spokes?

Yes, one is made in Switzerland and the other is made in Belgium.

Sapim come with polyax nipples. DT butting has more gradual transitions. Cost and availability probably matter more.

My Open Pro rim 105 hub keeps unwinding (slowly) non drive side. d/s is 21 on the Parktool scale, 15 on non d/s spokes are dt swiss double butted 1.8.

Any ideas what could be cause, other than my shonky build skills? Front is true, done same miles since build on same bike.