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My first wheel lacing attempt

04/02/2016 |  Lifestyle

[su_row][su_column size=“2/3”]Last night I started lacing my carbon fibre rims. Instead of buying a complete wheel set, I managed to find some very nicely discounted Superstar Components carbon rims. I’m going to build them up with new spokes and the hubs from my existing wheels - Superstar Switch Ultra. The hubs are almost new, only having been ridden over about 3 months, so I couldn’t warrant the expense of brand new hubs - although the new Hope Pro 4 did severely tempt me… maybe when the current ones give up.

Anyway, after a lot of Internet research, forum browsing, sheldonbrown.com and YouTube videos, I gathered enough courage to disassemble my front wheel. Then I started fitting the spokes in a 3-cross pattern to the new rims and old hubs. Tip: some online guides are much clearer than others. I had to use two side by side and even paused to go through a couple of YouTube videos.

Including disassembly, it took me about 3 hours to fit all 32 spokes to the front rim. This does include going backwards twice; once to refit 8 spokes on the opposite side because I forgot to switch to the correct length, and the second time to move one set of spokes that I had lined up with the wrong holes. And I spent about 10 minutes trying to extract a nipple that fell in to the rim. I can only imagine how annoying that noise would be on a long ride.

At least it looks like a wheel now. I have still got to tighten to pokes, and then start the process of tensioning, truing and dishing. I’ll do this with the wheel in the forks as I don’t have a truing stand. An upside down bike and a cable tie will have to suffice.
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[caption id=“attachment_879” align=“alignnone” width=“1080”]lacing mountain bike spokes First set of spokes fitted[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_887” align=“alignnone” width=“3736”]All spokes laced. All spokes laced.[/caption]

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