Wheel building advice-paired spoke hubs to standard rims

[dsillito]

Hey all,

I have a set of Bontrager hubs from a set of Race Lite wheels. Hoping to rebuild them on a set of Archetype rims (20h front, 24h rear). The spoke hole drillings on the front hub flanges are evenly spaced, but the drillings on the rear hub flange are in pairs, as the original rims were a paired spoke design. The spoke holes from one flange to the other are not alternating (i.e. a spoke dropped down through one flange hits the other flange at a point not equidistant between two holes, but much closer to one than the other, if you see what I mean), and i'm not sure how this will affect the build either.

Would it just be a matter of getting the spokes in lengths I calculate to be right for a standard hub, building up the wheels, and seeing by how much some seem longer or shorter than needed, and re-order if needed, as a last resort? There is zero chance my mathematical "skills" would be of any use here. I have rim washers on hand to take up a bit of slack if the spokes ended up slightly too long. What problems am I likely to run into? Ive built a few sets of wheels in the past, but nothing with this added complication.

Any thoughts? I was thinking of going with 2.0/1.8/2.0 double butted round spokes, front and rear. Front would be radially laced, rear 2x both sides, for a rider of 140 lbs max.

Thanks!

[peanutgallery]

At that point, buy a new hub....or find the proper rim. What's the born-on date for that hub? Unless its one of the DT240 vintage it isn't worth the trouble. Even then, I would just harvest the innards and put them in a 350 for increased engagement

I'm fairly aggressive with wheelbuilds and naturally kinda cheap, but that isn't worth my spare time

[dsillito]

They front hub has part number 240603, and the rear is 220271, and labelled as "by DT swiss". Not sure of the manufacture date, but they are both in great condition, and the bearings are as smooth as any I've felt, so it would be a real shame to have them sit around unused.

I must be even cheaper, with more spare time, because they will be worth it for me to spend time on. I like a challenge :)

[m_sasso]

Search eBay for some Rolf or Bontrager rims, there are quite a few currently posted, same paired spoke pattern not going to find much else with the correct rim hole drilling, just need to match the number of spoke holes. If I trash one of my rims that's the easiest solution to rebuilding them.

I currently have a set of Bontrager Race Lites that were anodized blue, I dis-assembled them and de-anodized and polished the rims, then reassembled, they look great, same nice DT 240 hubs, and reasonable light weight.

[dddd]

I built a pair of carbon rims onto hubs from a Giant wheelset that had the closely-paired spoke holes, and as I recall I just drew a diagram to see how much longer that the spokes needed to be. It was just a couple of extra millimeters on each spoke.

Since the left and right flanges are clocked to set the spokes to a rim with evenly-spaced holes, this aspect of the spoke length takes care of itself.

I could have as easily based my spoke lengths on the original spokes, and corrected for the different ERD, but I wanted to do the math on it as a repeatable exercise and the wheels came out perfect.

Keep in mind that carbon rims, while stiffer in bending, will tilt as the spokes allow, and that with a low spoke count the tilting of the rim between the road and the hub will be mirrored up to the brake pads, possibly causing rub if the rider is heavy and the spoke count only 24.

Also, be sure to lubricate the nipple-to-rim interface with some good Teflon grease as the nipples may see too much friction in some cases to allow full tensioning. I had trouble getting much past 100kgf!

[oldpotatoe]

It IS just a matter of the correct spoke lengths and then building, tensioning like any wheel..Way easier to use that hub to conventional wheel than a paired spoke rim to conventional hub..Having said that, got no idea how to calc spoke length..

[ergott]

If the pairs aren't equidistant for the rear hub you should use a paired spoke rim. If you contact Velocity they have options since some of their stock wheels are paired (or were at some point).

If not you are building a "twist" in the structure that I wouldn't recommend.

[dsillito]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

I already have the rims and hubs, so the wheels are going to happen as is.

Ergott: I think I understand about the "twist" issue. As in, with the front wheel as an example, since the spokes won't be running exactly on a radial line from axle centre, to rim spoke hole (if "radially" laced), one side of the wheel will be twisting the hub in one direction, and the other side of the wheel will be twisting it the opposite direction.... does that sound right? I'll see how it all works out. Thankfully the wheels are for a lightweight rider, who is a pretty constant 135 lb or so, and is much more a spinner than a grinder of hard gears, so there seems to be an extra "safety factor" there.

I'm the master of "ill-advised" bike projects, ha. Wish me luck!

[dsillito]

I currently have a set of Bontrager Race Lites that were anodized blue, I dis-assembled them and de-anodized and polished the rims, then reassembled, they look great, same nice DT 240 hubs, and reasonable light weight.

That sounds exactly like the wheels these hubs were from. I bet they look great in silver, although I'm a big fan of blue rims. I have a set of blue open-pro rims built into wheels, and a couple of spare rims for when they need replacing. The blues are all slightly different when put side-by-side, interestingly, but I can't tell the difference when they are on a bike.