Rear Wheel Building Advice Wanted

[BobCochran]

Hi!

I’m interested in building a rear wheel for my 2019 Kona Libre. The original rim cracked yesterday. I’d like suggestions for a quality rim brand, quality spokes and a quality hub.

I need a 650b rear disc brake rim. I think the stock WTB rim is 32 hole, but I’d feel a lot happier with a 36 hole rim because I tend to put a lot of weight the bike — I’m 190-ish pounds and I load a lot of stuff in my panniers. Maryland roads are tough on tires.

What is a good spoke preparation lubricant to use?

My idea is to buy the parts needed, build the wheel as best as I can, then bring it to my bike shop and let them finish the wheel build. But what to buy, and where?

I’ve never built a wheel before.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Bob

Topic

[ImaCynic]

I have built/rebuilt plenty of wheels while working as a bike mechanic many moons ago. Factory wheel are quite good nowadays and not sure how many descent wheelbuilders are still out there. Correct spoke lacing pattern, wheel dish, and spoke tension has to be spot on for a wheel to go the distance.

The minimal tools you will need for wheel building is good bench truing stand, a wheel dish tool, and spoke wrenches. Unless you plan to build wheels on a regular basis, it’s a bit hard to justify the tool costs. But wheelbuilding can be quite rewarding and satisfying. I certainly recommend it if you have the interest and definitely let the shop check it out with your first attempt.

Good luck!

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[trailrunner]

IMHO, you may not need 36 spokes just because of your weight. I weigh about the same and have plenty of bikes with 32 spoke wheels.

For spoke lubricant, I used motor oil. In theory, a properly tensioned wheel does not need thread lock. I found that to be true for all the wheels I built, but I realize that most people use thread lock. YMMV.

As much as I enjoyed building wheels, I concluded that I could buy wheels, even custom wheels, cheaper than I could build them. That was only for parts, and didn’t include my time. Because of that, I haven’t built a wheel in a decade.

[Smitty2k1]

I recently built my first pair of wheels. 650b 32 hole front and rear. Pacenti forza disc rims were $75 off per pair with code “RIM75”. Got some shimano 105 r700 hubs for $100/pair and the usual butted spokes and brass nipples. Bought a $12 ebook from Rodger Musson and a spoke wrench and that was it. Fun experience, have put about 2000 miles on the wheels since then. At about 750 miles I had to re-do the tension because I severely undertensioned them the first time around. So far so good since then.

[drevil]

I’ve built a bunch of wheels also, and I use boiled linseed oil as spoke prep.

Other preferences of mine are:

• Brass nipples
• Sapim or DT double butted spokes (14/15)
• DT Swiss Spokey wrench, or Park if you don’t want to get fancy
• Freespoke spoke calculator: https://kstoerz.com/freespoke/
• Sheldon Brown’s wheelbuilding tutorial: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Good luck, it’s tricky but has a very high level of satisfaction when done. Also, take your time when building them up

[peterw_diy]

@ImaCynic 201848 wrote:

The minimal tools you will need for wheel building is good bench truing stand, a wheel dish tool, and spoke wrenches.

Minimal tool is some kind of spoke wrench. A bike frame, especially one with rim brakes, is adequate for truing and dishing. Heck, for truing I have often found a frame to be more reliable than variable width truing stands.

[Dachs6]

I weigh 78kg (roughly 180lbs), and I ride 24 spoke wheels on gravel and road, 32 on my XC rig. And for those that know me, I am not gentle.

I recommend a 2-cross pattern. With the choice to build a wheel, your rim and hub options are wide open. Many quality hubs to choose from, if you prefer the Shimano Centerlock interface your options will be decreased from a 6-bolt interface. But, whichever disc interface you prefer, there are plenty of good options. Rims are also plentiful, aluminum is the most straightforward to integrate to the build, but carbon will significantly lighten the build, and offer a stronger wheel of built right. For the sporks and nipples, no question IMHO you should use DT Swiss brass nipples and DT Swiss Aero Comp (they’re bladed, the aero advantage is minimal but they are strong).

I’ll second that the specialized tools can be pricey. A dish tool is nice to have, but can be homemade (internet can tell you how). A stand is great and very useful, a bike frame can suffice. A proper nipple spanner is critical- spend the money on the DT Swiss tool. There is no better option. A tensiometer is for next level spoke tensioning, but can be pricey, the Park Tool version works well, you just have to do some conversions, the DT Swiss tool with dials is north of $1k, and not necessary.

Good luck, you’ve gotten a lot of good advice here. One last piece, I think Bill Mould is still at Spokes, Etc., on Quaker Lane in Alexandria. If he is, go see him, he is one of the top 5 wheel builders in the United States. Or better yet, take his class, it’s worth every penny.

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