Ask the experts

[jm2e]

Wheelbuilding:
1. Buy the Roger Musson ebook for $12.
2. Use his instructions build your own truing stand. Or improvise. Buddy of mine uses a cheap trainer to hold the wheel. Works like a charm. He also uses a bent metal shelf bracket for radial and lateral truing. A pro stand is definitely nice, once you’re sure this is something you’ll keep doing. But it’s a luxury, not a necessity.
3. Make a dishing gauge out of heavy cardboard and a broken spike, just like Musson shows.
4. Do it by sound if you can’t borrow a tension meter. Only thing a tension meter gets you is obsession. Well dished with balanced tension is the most important thing.
5. Follow the instructions. They’re super easy.
6. Four sided spoke wrench is the ticket. Doesn’t matter so much for a new build when things are nice and smooth. But a three sided wrench will strip out your threads fixing an old wheel every time.
7. Motor oil. You could get linseed oil, but motor oil works perfect and is right there in your garage. It’s never let me down.
It’s the most gratifying thing you can do as a wrench.
I’ve had spokes break on EVERY purchased wheel set I’ve owned. I’ve NEVER had a spoke break on a wheel set I built myself.


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[XXX-er]

[QUOTE=jm2e;6355222 . Do it by sound if you can’t borrow a tension meter. Only thing a tension meter gets you is obsession. Well dished with balanced tension is the most important thing.
[/QUOTE]

I've always used the tone method and IME it works pretty well

[Boissal]

I've always used the tone method and IME it works pretty well

I'm the most tone deaf motherfucker around. I can bang on a steel rod and a piece of salami and it all sounds the same to me...

[jm2e]

Borrow a tension meter from a mag then. Easy peasy. Who’s close to you?
I’ll ship you mine if I’m not using it when you’re ready.


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[bagtagley]

My ever loosening headset turns out to be a sealed bearing headset, not low end cage bearing. Bearings seem good. I tightened the cups with a press. I hope this is enough, dunno what else it could be

Could be the steerer bottoming out on the top cap preventing it from pulling tight. More slack gets pulled up when you tighten than you’d think. Put another small spacer in and see if that fixes it.

[Cocximus]

I can tighten the headset until steering gets stiff.

[J. Barron DeJong]

7. Motor oil. You could get linseed oil, but motor oil works perfect and is right there in your garage. It’s never let me down

Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the idea with linseed oil is that it is liquid and lubricates when first applied, and then will harden in a short period of time to act as a thread locker. Motor oil will lubricate but it will keep doing that forever which seems like it would increase the likelihood of a nipple unwinding.

Never tried either of those personally. Always used Wheelsmith spoke prep back in the day, and last time I built a wheel I believe I used DT nipples that had a compound pre-applied.

[toast2266]

I can tighten the headset until steering gets stiff.

It might just be a shitty headset. Some headsets are just specially engineered to come loose.

Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the idea with linseed oil is that it is liquid and lubricates when first applied, and then will harden in a short period of time to act as a thread locker. Motor oil will lubricate but it will keep doing that forever which seems like it would increase the likelihood of a nipple unwinding.

Never tried either of those personally. Always used Wheelsmith spoke prep back in the day, and last time I built a wheel I believe I used DT nipples that had a compound pre-applied.

I used to use linseed oil. I now use wheelsmith spoke prep. The prep definitely works better. It's expensive, but my little bottle is still going strong after a decade or so. Linseed oil lubricated, but didn't really do much to lock things in place once dry. I still had some nipples unwind a bit.

Never used motor oil, although agreed that it doesn't seem like it'd really accomplish the thread locking aspect.

[jm2e]

My point is twofold.
1. For a first wheel build, you 100% do not need to invest in all the “premium” accessories. In fact, they end up distracting you from just learning to lace, tighten, true, and balance tension.
2. Releasing wind up should be a main focus DURING the build. A well built wheel with balanced spoke tension and carefully released windup will stay true without glue. I find that oil actually HELPS if/when I want to go back and fine tune things.


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[XXX-er]

I can tighten the headset until steering gets stiff.

with an aheadset type its the stem clamping on the fork steerer tube that holds the headset bearing adjustment

the star nut and top cap is only there to set bearing tension, once you got the stem bolts tight you could even take off the top cap but nobody does, the stem needs 1/4 inch clearance above the top of the fork tube for the cap/star nut to work

taking the front wheel off helps me feel the right headset tension cuz I find it hard to feel with the weight of a wheel

I had the headset loosening constantly on my kids bike when he was 16, stem creep on the fork tube cuz he was rough on equipment, I stopped it with an Azonic Headlok which is a bolt that clamps the stem and fork togetehr

https://products.mtbr.com/product/co...head-lock.html

[XXX-er]

spoke prep is expensive but wheel building is a time consuming labor intensive job and I think its a good idea to use ze best

re: spoke windup if I was going to tighten all the nipples on oneside of the wheel 1/2 turn, I go 3/4 turn on each nipple but then back off 1/4 turn

[Cocximus]

Well I found one of the issues.

There was a rubber washer installed above the crown race. That did not allow the bearing to sit properly.

Rubber washer 3 was installed between 8 and 9.

[XXX-er]

somethings you have to assume giving internet advice, like its put together correctly to begin with, hopefully it works now

[Cocximus]

For the record I got it like that. Unfortunately it seems the bearing need to be replaced from all those hits they took while loose.

[J. Barron DeJong]

spoke prep is expensive but wheel building is a time consuming labor intensive job and I think its a good idea to use ze best

re: spoke windup if I was going to tighten all the nipples on oneside of the wheel 1/2 turn, I go 3/4 turn on each nipple but then back off 1/4 turn

Solution to spoke windup is bladed spokes

[XXX-er]

For the record I got it like that. Unfortunately it seems the bearing need to be replaced from all those hits they took while loose.

I would just put it back together correctly from the diagram til you can find another head set and call er good

[XXX-er]

Solution to spoke windup is bladed spokes

will the wind straighten them out for me?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Worth it/easy to rebuild Shimano XT Trail pedals? The platform/axle interface is REALLY wobbly on my pair.

[J. Barron DeJong]

will the wind straighten them out for me?

Only if you’re fast.

Everyone else can just use the tool to keep the spokes from twisting when tightening the nipples

[teledad]

Solution to spoke windup is bladed spokes

Or just avoid the 2.0-1.5-2.0 spokes like DT Revolutions and Sapim Lasers. Windup on a "normal" butted spoke (2.0-1.8-2.0) isn't hard to deal with. (Built one set of wheels with Revolutions, stuck to Competitions after that.)

[simple]

Worth it/easy to rebuild Shimano XT Trail pedals? The platform/axle interface is REALLY wobbly on my pair.

No. I have a few XTR pedals that did that. I stick to Deore level pedals now. $40 and chuck them when fucked which happens less due to the bigger spindle.

Or be like most of my Enduro friends and get color coded HT pedals.

[teledad]

Worth it/easy to rebuild Shimano XT Trail pedals? The platform/axle interface is REALLY wobbly on my pair.

Not that hard to regrease and adjust bearings if you have the right cone wrenches (7, 10, 17) and have done bearing adjustments before. Main issue may be finding parts if you need to replace the cones. And the bearings are loose and there's approximately a million of them, so if you need to replace them it can be a pain.

[XXX-er]

I'm the most tone deaf motherfucker around. I can bang on a steel rod and a piece of salami and it all sounds the same to me...

you don't hear high or low sounds ?

I can spin a wheel with a wrench in the spokes and hear the tone of every spoke in 30 seconds, a dull tone tells me if i need to look closer

[EWG]

the star nut and top cap is only there to set bearing tension, once you got the stem bolts tight you could even take off the top cap but nobody does,

You obviously didn't read the weight weenies bulletin board back in the day. That was an easy 30 grams of weight savings right there, assuming you also took out the star nut.

[XXX-er]

then what was the point of getting the top cap purple anodized or did you glue it on ?

only way to get the star nut out is drive it out with a hammer & long extension bar