Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

I'm not a high achiever. The fact that I'm excited about changing a spoke for the first time, and the wheel still being true and in one piece after the morning's commute just goes to show.

Has anyone built their own wheels? I have a mavic open road pro wheel set, laced to cheapie Miche hubs. The front wheel is rock solid and is still true after 4 years of curb, pothole, 'endo' and brake abuse - it's true but never needed truing. The rear one has popped over 10 spokes (lots of visits to the LBS to fix it). Now that it has 4 missing spokes I've decided it's time to strip it back and rebuild it.

Am I right to guess the hub and rim are fine, but something is up with the spokes / nipples. FYI - all 10 spokes have snapped at the nipple.

Or should I just take it into the professionals so they can fleece me as per usual?

Or should I just take it into the professionals so they can fleece me as per usual?

Check out building wheels on Youtube.

Sheldon Brown's website is always good for tips.

I vote you should have a go.

Yeah I might give it a go. It's just occured to me that I'm starting with a dead wheel. So if I finish up with a dead wheel I haven't gone backwards.

I tried changing a spoke, and threaded the nipple..

another good book to read is one by Roger Musson http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php which is an Ebook.
Well worth the $9
If spokes are breaking at the nipple you must have copped a dud batch of spokes as fatique always takes it's toll at the elbow.
Rear wheels should be built with the outside spokes pulling which is opposite to what is in jobst Brandt's book
To start this pattern off first spoke goes into the second on the right of the spoke hole.

Rear wheels should be built with the outside spokes pulling which is opposite to what is in jobst Brandt's book
To start this pattern off first spoke goes into the second on the right of the spoke hole.

I have no idea what that means. All spokes pull, regardless of the way they are facing, or the side they are on.

On a radially laced wheel, it should not matter whether the spokes face inward or outward. The wheel will have marginally greater lateral stiffness if the spoke heads are inwards, but will be marginally less aero. The tension required will be (almost) identical.

Spokes these days are stong, and don't fatigue and break (if properly tensioned, and don't get damaged by scrapes or crashes). I have broken only 1 spoke in the last 15 years, and that spoke was a bladed one that had been bent in a crash. Some of my wheels are over 30 years old, and the spokes don't break. The secret is tension. The more you tension the spoke, the less it fatigues. These days you can really do them up much tighter than you used to be able to.

Many wheelsets these days are factory built, and built to a budget. No surprises that they are under-tensioned, when time and money is a consideration. Even brand new wheels can often benefit from giving very nipple a quarter turn, to increase the overall stiffness, and spoke tension.

If the unbuilt rim is out of round, or out of true, this can result in uneven tension in the spokes to get the finished wheel properly set. This is the situation when spoke breakages occur, but if they do, then the spoke most likely to break won't be the tightest one. It will be the loosest one (that is still tight enough to bear load).

Thanks for that feedback all. Once I've rebuilt (or destroyed) the wheel I'll let you know.
FYI, the spoke I replaced was on a factory velocity deep-v, the rear.

when we sell velocity pre built wheels, I normally spend a good 30mins per wheel getting the spoke tension and wheel "roundness" to Steve's standard

if it's a cheepy hub, it might be worth changing. i have a wheel where the rim and spokes are fine, but the hub is rubbish, and the spokes break all the time. i have it sitting in the bike parts pile waiting for a new hub, and me wanting to learn to build a wheel.

it's a mavic wheel with mostly dt spokes and a ....??? hub (it's old and i can't find a marking

The odds of the spokes being the right length are slim unless you do some homework and purchase a hub that has identical flange diameter.
I re-use spokes when a rim is being replace so that the spokes stay in the same place. if the hub is to be replaced I always use new spokes.
If you just want to practice though ........