One more thing Ed when doing rim swaps the most important thing I do if Not replacing with the same exact rim is to measure the depth of the rim, with my calipers most rim companies call it profile. If you are within a mm. you are probably close enough as it is only half a mm. on either side. If you are just buying the hoop and no spokes, what a huge savings.
A viewer who rebuilds wheels turned me on to a book by Roger Musson, its in its seventh addition, called "Professional Guide To Wheel Building." It has 130 pages and he devotes 13 pages just to spokes. Until I read his book, I didn't think anyone could write 13 pages just about spokes. If you don't have it already, I recommend taking a look at it. I learned allot of useful information. Thanks for watching my video.
Many older so called wheels that have been damaged are fixable, I have fixed dozens. As a retired general contractor I have several clamps. If you have a wheel that is way out of lateral true, basically 2 things will happen when truing, you will either round off the nipples or you can pull a flat spot on the rim. Solution is to find the greatest deviation, then mark it. Next go on either side of the mark and pull the calipers in where the rim is in between the calipers. You will mark those on the rim as well. Next I go to my pic nick table as it is clamp time. Put a 2x4 or 6 whatever you have for scrap on both of your marks on either side of the deviation. So now your rim is supported on either side of the greatest deviation, then the deviation being in the center with a bar clamp is pulled down to the table. How far to pull down comes with experience, you do not want to go to far but you really need to crank on it. This gets it very close to where it needs to be to put the finishing touches on it. Most wheels I can fix in 1 hr. or less. I also employ the same methodology to fix flat spots, but here you need to remove a nipple or two and get the spokes out of the way. I remember getting one wheel from a bike shop and had what they thought was garbage fixed in 1 hr. And not all wheels are fixable but many are. My least favorite wheel for fixing is the paired spokes, they almost always get hit in between the spokes. I run a garage based bike shop and fix many older road bikes. If you have an expensive bike you want matched wheels, I can help to achieve this by repairing them. I also do many rim swaps per yr. But sometimes they no longer make a rim to put on your existing spokes and hub. Even if you have all the tools building wheels is still very expensive. I have done these type of repairs on both older single wall 27 in. wheels as well as newer 700c double wall rims. And mt. bike rims.
I have lots of clamps, too and never thought of using them. I managed to fix the lateral deviation on my bent rim--more or less-- like you did, but was stumped on how to get rid of the bad egg shape and got a new rim to spoke. Thanks for all the useful information. I'll know better next time, but the first time for anything always has a steep learning curve. I made the video to warn people that rebuilding a wheel is not as easy as lot's of people show. I hope people who are serious about rebuilding wheels will read your comments.
I love building wheels but the real reason for me to not build a wheel is the cost. By the time you buy everything you need, especially now days, you will have one super expensive wheelset that you could probably buy already built much cheaper. I do like how you can customize and build the exact wheel you want but its expensive, especially if you don't have the proper tools but if your at the building stage, you probably already do. Still, buying all the parts adds up super quick. Understanding how to build a wheel and doing a few will give you the knowledge to keep your wheels in top shape for years though. I have never used a tension meter and have built many bomb proof wheels. I just compare them to a similar wheel but for some reason, I just seem to know when they are where they need to be, not too tight and not too loose, wheels are really forgiving for the most part, at least the type of wheels I ride on which are typically three cross 32 or 36 spoke wheels.
Yes, it is expensive. But the way I look at it, some people play golf, or go on fancy vacations or eat out at expensive restaurants. It all depends what makes you happy. When I get in the zone building a wheel I get happily lost in what I'm doing. You're right. Once you build a few wheels, you see them differently. I saw a 144 spoke wheel the other other day. It had no crosses, I can only imagine what it takes to tune one of those. Thanks for watching.
What you said. Learning something new and sense of accomplishment. That’s why I’m learning it now.
Great!
One more thing Ed when doing rim swaps the most important thing I do if Not replacing with the same exact rim is to measure the depth of the rim, with my calipers most rim companies call it profile. If you are within a mm. you are probably close enough as it is only half a mm. on either side. If you are just buying the hoop and no spokes, what a huge savings.
A viewer who rebuilds wheels turned me on to a book by Roger Musson, its in its seventh addition, called "Professional Guide To Wheel Building." It has 130 pages and he devotes 13 pages just to spokes. Until I read his book, I didn't think anyone could write 13 pages just about spokes. If you don't have it already, I recommend taking a look at it. I learned allot of useful information. Thanks for watching my video.
Many older so called wheels that have been damaged are fixable, I have fixed dozens.
As a retired general contractor I have several clamps.
If you have a wheel that is way out of lateral true, basically 2 things will happen when truing, you will either round off the nipples or you can pull a flat spot on the rim. Solution is to find the greatest deviation, then mark it. Next go on either side of the mark and pull the calipers in where the rim is in between the calipers. You will mark those on the rim as well. Next I go to my pic nick table as it is clamp time. Put a 2x4 or 6 whatever you have for scrap on both of your marks on either side of the deviation. So now your rim is supported on either side of the greatest deviation, then the deviation being in the center with a bar clamp is pulled down to the table. How far to pull down comes with experience, you do not want to go to far but you really need to crank on it. This gets it very close to where it needs to be to put the finishing touches on it. Most wheels I can fix in 1 hr. or less.
I also employ the same methodology to fix flat spots, but here you need to remove a nipple or two and get the spokes out of the way. I remember getting one wheel from a bike shop and had what they thought was garbage fixed in 1 hr. And not all wheels are fixable but many are. My least favorite wheel for fixing is the paired spokes, they almost always get hit in between the spokes. I run a garage based bike shop and fix many older road bikes.
If you have an expensive bike you want matched wheels, I can help to achieve this by repairing them. I also do many rim swaps per yr. But sometimes they no longer make a rim to put on your existing spokes and hub.
Even if you have all the tools building wheels is still very expensive. I have done these type of repairs on both older single wall 27 in. wheels as well as newer 700c double wall rims. And mt. bike rims.
I have lots of clamps, too and never thought of using them. I managed to fix the lateral deviation on my bent rim--more or less-- like you did, but was stumped on how to get rid of the bad egg shape and got a new rim to spoke. Thanks for all the useful information. I'll know better next time, but the first time for anything always has a steep learning curve. I made the video to warn people that rebuilding a wheel is not as easy as lot's of people show. I hope people who are serious about rebuilding wheels will read your comments.
I love building wheels but the real reason for me to not build a wheel is the cost. By the time you buy everything you need, especially now days, you will have one super expensive wheelset that you could probably buy already built much cheaper. I do like how you can customize and build the exact wheel you want but its expensive, especially if you don't have the proper tools but if your at the building stage, you probably already do. Still, buying all the parts adds up super quick. Understanding how to build a wheel and doing a few will give you the knowledge to keep your wheels in top shape for years though. I have never used a tension meter and have built many bomb proof wheels. I just compare them to a similar wheel but for some reason, I just seem to know when they are where they need to be, not too tight and not too loose, wheels are really forgiving for the most part, at least the type of wheels I ride on which are typically three cross 32 or 36 spoke wheels.
Yes, it is expensive. But the way I look at it, some people play golf, or go on fancy vacations or eat out at expensive restaurants. It all depends what makes you happy. When I get in the zone building a wheel I get happily lost in what I'm doing. You're right. Once you build a few wheels, you see them differently. I saw a 144 spoke wheel the other other day. It had no crosses, I can only imagine what it takes to tune one of those. Thanks for watching.