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Re-lace, Re-Use or Re-Place?

  • Thread starter Thread starter UncleMike
  • Start date Start date
U

UncleMike

Guest
The wire wheels I've got have some missing/loose spokes. Can I just put new spokes in the holes and get the wheel trued (or do it myself) or should I re-lace the entire thing?

Of course, depending on price it may be more economical to just buy a whole new wheelset.

Whadda you guys usually do?
 
You can just pop new spokes in there - no need to replace everything or start from scratch.

Truing a wheel isn't too difficult - the second time you do it :).

If it is out of shape you can work out which spokes need tightening / loosening and the only important thing to note is that if the spokes are pretty tight and the wheel isn't very close to true then you need to loosen spokes off before tightening again - just keeping tightening more and more doesn't pull things in to line.
 
hampshirehog said:
You can just pop new spokes in there - no need to replace everything or start from scratch.

Truing a wheel isn't too difficult - the second time you do it :).

If it is out of shape you can work out which spokes need tightening / loosening and the only important thing to note is that if the spokes are pretty tight and the wheel isn't very close to true then you need to loosen spokes off before tightening again - just keeping tightening more and more doesn't pull things in to line.
Click to expand...

The good news is that I've actually got a second wheelset for the bike, so I do have something to practice on.

Of course, it's in even worse shape than this one, but that should mean some good practice!
 
I tried my hand at trueing last year on my 78 1000. $50 or so for the measuring thing and then made a wheel balancer out of my car engine stands. I think you guys can get a pretty cheap balancer stand from your auto stores. Took a fair amount of time that's for sure but what else do you have to do in the winter. Crappy thing is that sometimes the forks will not loosen, I'm guessing they are rusted/seized in the rim. I was lucky and only one or two did that but I'm guessing if you had too many you might be buggered. There's some pretty good video's on YouTube about it.
 
Why not bolt a triple and some forks to a piece of wood for a make**** truing stand?
 
Mike, there are generally 2 types of spokes on older wheels: ones that come from inside the hub and then outside to the wheel, and the others (you guessed it) come from outside the hub and then to the inside of the wheel.

Depending which spokes of yours need replaced, you might have to re-lace the entire wheel. Just visualize how the spoke will go thru the hub and spun around to the wheel - you'll see what I mean.
 
I've laced and trued lots of wheels (took a motorcycle class that covered it). It's not hard, but there are lots of tricks to help. Few shops do this themselves (except bicycle shops).

You're OK with as much as 40/1000ths of an inch lateral or radial run-out. Get a wheel stand and a dial indicator to check. Adjusting lateral (side-to-side) play is easy. Radial (up/down) is tricker and requires adjusting more spokes to achieve what you want (it's also counter intuitive when you start - again, a dial indicator can help you figure out if you're making things better or worse). The toughest part is that adjusting the lateral can throw off the radial adjustment (and vice versa) so it's a gradual process to get both OK.

Mark the existing spoke pattern with paint markers to make it easier to follow. Brake cleaner will take it off when you're done. I also use paint markers to mark spokes that need adjustment when I'm truing a wheel.

Once new spokes are on, take your time before you put the wheel on a truing stand. Turn each spoke nut (nipple) one turn at a time all the way around until things get a little snug (usually a few turns at least on each nipple). Then put the wheel on a stand and start adjusting run-out.

Patience is key. If you can't get it trued, you can always loosen everything and start again.
 
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