I built wheels for years with the sidepull brakes on the bike as the truing stand. Reversed the brake pads and let the acorn nut heads be the side to side, rubber banded a small combination wrench across the brake pads to do the up and down. It can be done - did it that way for decades. A few years ago, I got a truing stand, then a dish gage, then a tension gage, then a stand centering tool, then dial indicators. I also started using spoke prep and never-seize. I am somewhat faster now, but my rims are much, much truer longer. I have built 3 pairs of wheels in the last few months - for my Rivendell Custom, Rivendell Cargo Bike, and just this past weekend - the Gus Boots Wilsen. Now I am getting really picky - making sure that the "Phil" lettering on the hub faces the spoke hole, from the side of the bike the rim decal on the left says "Velocity" on the rim decal on the right says "Cliffhanger" or "Quill" as the case may be. Its a slippery slope. I really enjoy building my own wheels - go for it. One side effect - I have even more wheels than bikes and I own way too many bikes.
Spoke prep, never-seize and tensioning gage were big improvements to quality. Dial indicators added speed, which adds to quality - I get the wheels truer now, before getting impatient and declaring "good enough." Laing Delray Beach FL On Monday, October 19, 2020 at 11:25:58 AM UTC-4, Steven Seelig wrote: > > So with COVID and all, I've decided that now is the time to do stuff that > I haven't ever done before. Learning to speak French is perhaps a bridge > too far - not so good at language. But it seems reasonable to think that I > can at least build a front wheel with a Dyno hub to put on the Sam I ride > in the means streets of DC and on some gravel. > > I have a truing stand but not a dishing tool. I would say I am a > competent wrencher. Of course anyone who has built up a wheel did it once > for the first time. Is this something I should take on? What are the odds > for success? Will I quit in frustration? > > Points of view encouraged. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2742ac2a-fd7a-42ec-b0c7-ecc544461625o%40googlegroups.com.
