Tools for Building a Bicycle Wheel

Series Summary

The bicycle remains both a fun vehicle for recreation and exercise and a viable means of transportation over relatively short distances. Sometimes parts break down, tires fail, chains come off of gears, and wheels break. Repairing or building bicycle wheels is more difficult than replacing the chain but with advice from a bicycle mechanic you can learn how just like the pros.

In this free video guide to bicycle repair and maintenance, learn how to build a bicycle wheel from bicycle mechanic Pancho Herrera. Pancho will demonstrate how to calculate spoke length for a bicycle wheel, how to prepare spokes for a bicycle wheel, how to place drive side pulling spokes and left side pulling spokes, how to place static spokes, how to prepare a bicycle wheel for tensioning, how to tension a bicycle wheel, how to fine tune a bicycle wheel, how to relieve stress in a bicycle wheel, how to dish a bicycle wheel, and how to true a bicycle wheel.

Video Transcript

"In this clip I'd like to talk about the tools necessary for a good wheel build. First and foremost, is your wheel truing jig or wheel truing stand. It's a great tool, there's a lot of manufacturers making them, this happens to be a Park TS-2, it's a standard in the industry. It allows you to have adjustable feeler gauges that when running against the rim side allow you to visualize the true and the roundness of the wheel. We can install the wheel like so into our truing stand and away we go. I also use a nipple driver for the initial lacing of the wheel. When you insert it into the backside you can thread the nipples quickly, much easier on the hands than trying to do them by hand and much quicker as you initially start that wheel. Obviously a proper spoke wrench, sized for the size of spoke nipple that you have is a necessary tool. That's how we get the final tension on the wheel and how we get the subtle adjustments. I also use a dishing tool and this one also comes from Park. This measures the centerline of the wheel, we want to make sure that the rim line is centered between these two hub faces. So we use the adjustable pointer here and then compare it against the other side like so. And that proves that the wheel is a properly dished wheel."