Wheel Lacing - Difficult?

[Walt Hollis]

Never tried to lace up a wheel before, I have always had my local shop do it. I was thinking it can't be too hard, but rather time consuming and you have to be very consistent in your process. I just got some new rims for my 50 and I figured that would be a good place to start.

Is it difficult to do? Do I need a special stand to spin the wheel on to make sure it is centered?

Thanks,

Walt

 

[Ol'89r]

Is it difficult to do? Do I need a special stand to spin the wheel on to make sure it is centered?

Walt

Walt.

Yes, you do need a truing stand. It is not hard, but it is time consuming the first couple times that you do it. A little tip, before you unlace your old wheels, tie the spokes together where they cross with something. (nylon ties, string, whatever.). This keeps the spokes in thier proper position and makes it easier to line up the rim with the right spoke angle.

When you tighten the spoke nipples, do it by hand until they are all snug, (as snug as you can get them by hand), and the rim spins fairly true. Then, using the spoke wrench tighten them down.

I use the every third spoke method. Tighten every third spoke a couple turns and go one revolution around the rim. Then skip to the next spoke and tighten every third one all the way around the rim and then the next one etc, etc until all the spokes are tight. When they are tight, you should be able to take your spoke wrench and tap the spokes and get a ringing sound from each spoke. The tone of the ring will tell you which spoke is tight or loose. They should all ring at about the same tone.

Using a dial indicator connected to the truing stand will tell you exactly how much you are moving the rim when you tighten the individual spokes. You can also use a wire pointer against the rim.

Of course there is a little more to it that this and the more rims that you do, the easier it becomes.

Do a search on this subject. There are many good threads about lacing wheels.

Just my $ .02 :thumb:

 

[Danman]

You will need Patience, patience, and the some more patience. Then when you have found that some more patience will do. A turing stand is nice. I built one out of 2x4's, but would recomend buying one and a runnout dial guage or two. One to measure the out of round and another for lateral movemnet. To get it round a laced it up loosely with all nipples at the same number of turns. With it finger tight so it does not rattle. I used Oler's every third method for tighening just a little at a time. If you keep the same number of turns the wheel should stay round (hub centered in the wheel). Once you have it round you can work out the laterail movement and check for round again. Like it was said its not that hard, just time comsumming. Search for Motorcycle rim turing or rim lacing on google. You will find a bunch of info. A bicycle tire should follow the same procedure. Also, should use some Anti-seize or similar on the end of the spokes so you nipples don't seize to the spoke. You will thank yourself later.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Sheldon Brown wrote a great tutorial on wheel building. He wrote it in reference to bicycle wheels but it has helped me better understand building M/C wheels as well.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

 

[Bill Hibbs]

Yea, the 4 group method is definitely the easiest. I've worked at a bike shop for 10 years now. I've never built a motorcycle wheel though. I need to. My front wheel is trashed. Usually you tension one side at a time. Even tension is the key to a strong wheel.

 

[mylesc]

I built a set of Mountain bike rims and used the, as Rich mentioned, Sheldon Brown instructions as well as this site:

http://www.execulink.com/~dtierney/wmc/faq.htm#WTQ1

I haven't done a set of Dirt Bike rims but plan to in the near future. The concepts are the same, just on a bigger scale. I have a bunch of 80/20 (extruded aluminum similar to uni-strut) and plan to build a truing stand.

I recommend using anti-seize on the spoke threads to prevent future problems with seized nipples. I would also use a little grease on the nipple where it seats into the rim.

Here's some misc. links for wheel building/truing.

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

http://www.off-road.com/dirtbike/dec00rsWheelLacing.html

Enjoy and take your time!

 

[joereitman]

Swapped some new heavy duty rims onto my sons 48 spoke bmx wheels. No big deal, just a little time consuming. Its a lot easier when you're just swapping rims, not going from scratch. :)

 

[Walt Hollis]

Thanks for the info and links. I will give it a shot on my CRF 50 before I try my big bike.

- Walt

 

[jmics19067]

My 1st wheel lacing went surprisingly easy. What I did was count the threads as I was screwing the spoke nipples on with a screwdriver from the back.Get them barely snug,since I was doing the front wheel I mounted up the tire in the forks and used a grease pencil as a pointer. I set the up and down wobble first then do the side to side by using the screwdriver. snug any loose spokes with the screwdriver check.tighten every third spoke with the wrench 1/4 turn,check ,adjust. And just keep tightening and checking until all are tight and rim is true.