How to Build Wheels
A good primer on basic wheel building is hard to find. I’m regularly asked to create one since the articles in our library address wheel building subtleties, concerns past the initial challenge to assemble a rideable one.
Here is part of the solution, four articles (10k words!) written in 1986 for BICYCLING magazine. Many of our present day concerns (extreme dishing, carbon fiber rims, tubeless systems, disk brakes, etc.) are missing. The fundamentals have not changed so this series is still useful.
Dour but persistent!
It is a good, basic primer on wheel building that is still relevant 30 years later. After all, the tensioned wheel remains at the heart of cycling and the laws of physics are unchanged.
The link is here. Hope you find it useful. I am working on an updated version of this instruction but it keeps getting delayed. Go figure.
THAT is what got me into wheebuilding!
Way before the internet, and all the current resources, all of them helpful, that four part series, along with “The Bicycle Wheel” helped cement my love for the craft…
The essentials are all there: proper choice of components, appropriate cross lacings,and most importantly ,building from initial “Zero” spoke tension… Ground Zero,.. Slowly adding layers of tension while monitoring dish,and lateral and radial true..If you build this way, any mistakes will be easy to correct..Tension Balancing! It’s all about going around the wheel ,spoke by spoke…Fantastic Tutorial..Timeless…
Thanks for the informative information Ric
This was important to me also. I have referred these articles to many wheel builders, experienced or not.
Thanks