Lacing a Wheel???

[owenlo]

Anybody know where to get some info about lacing up new rims? Heard it can be tricky and want to make sure before I get started.

Obie #8 ;)

 

[Kawadougie]

Obie,
Before you get started, take photos of your wheel. This will help you get back on track if you get confused. I only lace wheels once in a great while so I try to be very careful. Check out the lacing pattern on the wheel. It can be anything from a cross 2 to a cross 4 pattern. That means the first spoke will cross two spokes to four spokes. It will repeat the same pattern around the wheel. When you undo the spokes, use masking tape to hold them in the proper pattern. When you lay the new wheel down, the spokes should match up with the holes in the wheel. If it doesn't, just try turning the wheel to the next hole. Once you get started it will all make sense.

Kawadougie

 

[Lew]

The easiest way is to have an extra wheel you can copy the pattern from. and a makeshift set of forks in a bench vise to rotate the wheel in. Lace them all in loosely and then very gingerly begin to tighten them alternating around the rim (similar to lug nuts on a car wheel). Use a tape measure when you first begin to keep the hub centered. Hope this will help to get you started.
Lew

 

[owenlo]

Sound like good ideas but I dont have an extra wheel, and I am replacing the spokes, so I cant tape the old spokes. ???? If there is really no procedure I think I can handle it one spoke at a time, but if there is a procedure I sure would like to know it. Thanks

Obie #8 ;)

 

[WoWman]

Obie I did the same thing you are going to do, replacing the spokes. Here are a few things I did to make it easier:

Bolt the hub to a piece of plywood about the size of the rim, although you can use bigger if you want. This will keep the hub from moving around.

Another thing I did was clamp the rim down to the plywood. There are some hidden steps here:
-----A) First bolt down the complete wheel and if the rim is trued measure the distance from the board to the rim. While you have the complete wheel bolted down trace with a marker where the rim is, helps when applying the new spokes (this is only true if the rim is known to be centered over the hub)
-----B) When it's time to clamp the rim down, clamp it with some wooden blocks that prop up the rim whatever amount measured in (A).
-----C) And of course measure to make sure the rim is centered over the hub.

I just applied the spokes one at a time. The first one I lined up with the hole in the rim that seemed to fit best, then went on from there.

I thought it was pretty hard to mess up the pattern of the spokes, I don't know if you can screw up the pattern at all! It all just lined up naturally.

As you get going, you'll develop a pattern or system of how to put the spokes in. ANd do as stated above, slowly tighten all the spokes in an "opposite" like pattern.

My rim came out to be as straight as it ever could be, alittle bit of wobble shows due to the warped rim. But hey beggars can't be choosey right? :)

Good luck Obie, and don't sweat it, you can do it! :cool:

 

[Lew]

owenlo;
I just looked at the front and rear wheel of my kdx. They are both laced in the same pattern. This will give you the extra wheel for a visual check. I think that once you get going you will quickly get the pattern and have no troubles.
Lew

 

[Kamofly]

Here is a cool website if you need more help www.fasstco.com/html/spoke_tips.html

 

[owenlo]

Thanks All, I sure do appreciate y'alls help, And Lew, You are right. The front and rear are laced alike. HMMMM. That will make it a whole lot easier. Thanks again everyone.

Obie #8 ;)

 

[BRush]

The process can be broken down into two steps:

1) Installing the new spokes

2) Truing the wheel.

I found it made my life a whole lot easier to build a truing stand out of cheap lumber. It was fairly easy and worked great..

Installing the spokes.

There are 36 spokes in the rear wheel, arranged in pairs. 18 pairs per side.

Look at the hub. You will see two sides. Each side has 9 pairs of spoke holes drilled. Each pair consists of an "inner" and an "outer" hole.

Each spoke pair is in a criss-cross arrangement with on one top of the other. The spoke that crosses on top is the "outer" spoke of the pair, while the other one is the "inner". An "inner" spoke will *always* attach to an "inner" hole on the hub. An "outer" spoke will *always* attach to an "outer" hole on the hub.

Strategy: working your way around the wheel, and alternating left and right side, install all the "outer" spokes first. Then do the same for the "inner" ones. When installing spokes, grease the nipples, and don't tighten anything! Just get the threads started. Tightening will be taken care of when you start the truing phase.


Truing the spokes.

Start at the valve stem, tighten every third spoke so that all the thread slack is taken up and it's just starting to tighten. Back at the valve stem, jump to the next spoke and tighten every third one as above continue until each spoke has been done. Don't turn each spoke more that about 1/4 turn each time. The trick is to take it slow and do things evenly and gradually. It make take several passes to get all the spokes to the right tension. Don't try to tighten down all at once. As things begin to get tight, keep an eye on the run-out to be sure you don't pull the rim out of shape. You want to keep an eye on side-to-side run-out and the radial run-out . The pros use dial indicators to do this, but you can set up a wire or a rod to use as a fixed reference to eye-ball it.

Some good references:

http://www.fasstco.com/html/spoke_tips.html

http://www.off-road.com/dirtbike/nov00rsWheelTruing.html