Best Wheel Building Book

[CSI Man]

As far as working on bikes, I have done everything except for building my own wheels. Now I've decided to try my hand at that too. What is the best instructional book out there for wheel building?

CSI Man

[Bud]

WHen I built my first set of wheels, I got a copy of Brandt (The Bicycle Wheel) and a copy of Schraner (The Art of Wheelbuilding). I found Brandt to be much more useful and could've been fine with it alone. It is a great book.

Have fun building your wheels. I very much enjoyed the experience and I love my new wheels!

[m_moses]

this ebook (http://www.roadbikerider.com/bookstore.htm#A_Practical_Guide_to_Wheel_Building) on the roadbikerider web site might be a good place to start.

[Orin]

WHen I built my first set of wheels, I got a copy of Brandt (The Bicycle Wheel) and a copy of Schraner (The Art of Wheelbuilding). I found Brandt to be much more useful and could've been fine with it alone. It is a great book.

Have fun building your wheels. I very much enjoyed the experience and I love my new wheels!

Brandt is getting out of date and his advice of 'the maximum tension the rim can stand' can result in cracked rims these days... according to some at least.

I prefer Schraner for his lacing method. Brandt for stress relieving and a tensiometer to get the tension right.

Orin.

[shaq-d]

WHen I built my first set of wheels, I got a copy of Brandt (The Bicycle Wheel)


i second the brandt. very ez to follow the instructions and build a super solid wheel...

sd

[onekgguy]

Brandt is getting out of date and his advice of 'the maximum tension the rim can stand' can result in cracked rims these days... according to some at least.

I prefer Schraner for his lacing method. Brandt for stress relieving and a tensiometer to get the tension right.

Orin.

I too used Brandt's book and found it very helpful but you raise an interesting point. I think if you're looking for a 'how to' book it is still very beneficial.

Kevin g

[Marburg]

I've never really warmed to Brandt. I recently got Roger Musson's e-book:

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

and thought it was quite well done.

[weaponsgrade]

I read Brandt's book and Sheldon Brown's web page on building wheels to build my wheels. My take on Brandt is that he seemed fairly conservative and kinda pushed the 32h, brass nipple, 3-cross standard - which I ended up building. Except when it came to finding the proper tension which was something like tension it until the wheel tacos.

[dgauthier]

Brandt is getting out of date and his advice of 'the maximum tension the rim can stand' can result in cracked rims these days... according to some at least.


Absolutely correct. Mavic recommends 100 kgf for the left and right front, and driveside rear spoke tension. You can crank the spokes *way* beyond that without collapsing the wheel, and get a cracked rim as a reward for your efforts.

[-dustin]

Absolutely correct. Mavic recommends 100 kgf for the left and right front, and driveside rear spoke tension.
source?

i like Schraner.

[Bill D]

I read Brandt's book and Sheldon Brown's web page on building wheels to build my wheels. My take on Brandt is that he seemed fairly conservative and kinda pushed the 32h, brass nipple, 3-cross standard - which I ended up building. Except when it came to finding the proper tension which was something like tension it until the wheel tacos.

This mirrors my experience. I thought Brandt's book was a helpful read, but others are correct that his book is not THE single authority on the subject, in part because he has a very old-school, conservative bias. That's not necessarily bad, but reading some other stuff you get a better sense of what's common to different wheelbuilders and what's individual to each. For me, that was a useful exercise, and I found that I ended up referring to Sheldon's pages more often to help me with those first couple of wheels.

Good luck with your wheels. I think it's an immensely satisfying experience to build wheels yourself, and everyone should give it a shot at least once. :beer:

-bd

[chrisroph]

if you are going to try building your first set of wheels you should do a conservative build like 32 3 cross brass. building wheels is not hard after you have built a dozen or so but it can be kind of foreign the first few times. also, contrary to brandt, i think it is a good idea to use spoke prep especially on the non drive side rear.

[dgauthier]

source?

i like Schraner.

That is a-few-years-old info from Mavic's "secret" tech web site: www.tech-mavic.com. (The site itself and its login has been posted on this board for some time. The user name is "mavic-com" and the password is "dealer".)

The figure of 100 kgf came from this document:

http://www.tech-mavic.com/tech-mavic/technical_manual/data/tech-mavic/uk/sources/Produits/Trekking/GalJtesTrekking/SpokeTension.pdf

A few years ago, that was the only hint one could find about spoke tension on the tech-mavic.com site. In responding to your question, I re-checked the site, and now see that Mavic has greatly expanded and improved their documentation. They now publsh a spec of 70-90 kgf for the Open Pro, in this document:

http://www.tech-mavic.com/tech-mavic/technical_manual/data/docs/products/2_119.pdf

That value strikes me as too low, but it's interesting that Mavic is publishing this graphic as part of their new carbon spoked wheel promotion:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/photos/2007/tech/news/06-20/Mavic_R-SYS_wheel_test_schematic

Note that a wheel built with lower tension (90 kgf) is actually *stiffer* than a wheel built with higher tension (120 kgf), though the spokes in a lower tension wheel also unload (go slack) under lghter loads. Perhaps Mavic decided to revise their spoke tension recommendations downward, in an attempt to simultaneously extend the life of their customer's rims while giving them stiffer (but less robust) wheels.

I'd love to hear what professional wheelbuilders have to say about the lower spoke tension recommendations.

It's a veritable candy store of Mavic tech info on the tech-mavic site now. Log on and have fun, and thanks for making me re-check. ;)

Oh, and I like Brandt *and* Schraner.