Hoop Dreams!

Another step closer to my full out single speed project!

I have started to build my new wheels for the single speed! In the previous enteries, I've described some of the parts I had for the build. Well, I grew impatient and started to build the front wheel. The first photo here is a shot mid-stream as I was lacing the rim. Radially laced... really, really simple. Except of course when I would lose a nipple in the rim. These Aeroheats are pretty deep and a nipple can fit easily in the cavity. It took me a bit to figure out how to get it out without too much trouble.

The second shot is the next set of spokes laced up and ready to go. Pretty neat, huh? From here, I began to apply equal turns of all the nipples all the way around. It took a bit before I got adequete tension for the spokes to hold the hub taught. But once it did I started to "feel" for equal tension throughout.

I noticed I was getting weird tensions, so I began to stress-relief the wheel earlier than I normally would. Solved that problem right away. If you're not familiar with stress-relieving a wheel, check out the third photo. What you're looking at is the wheel on my stool with a hole drilled into it. The end of the hub drops into the hole and you grip the wheel on opposite sides starting at the valve and quickly push down on the wheel. Go all the way around, flip it over and do it again. This does several things. It removes the twist out of the spokes, stretches the spokes, seats the nipples, and basically destresses everything. You'll notice some of the spokes will now have a lot different tension than previously.

The fourth and final for this installment is when the wheel is in the truing stand. Amazingly, after the destressing, the wheel was already really, really straight. Even without a hop. Sweet! I brought it up to enough and pretty equal tension to hold everything together really well. I am now awaiting a tension meter to check each spoke for even tension. I can feel the differences in the spokes well enough to get it straight. But As I get up in tension, it starts to get a little tougher to feel the finite tensions.

The next step is to get a hold of the rear hub and a box of 265mm DT Swiss Revolutions. I need to do a refresher on the 3-cross pattern as it isn't quite so straight forward as the radial lacing. I'll also need to clean up the Panaracer Fire XC Pro tires since the previous owner spewed Stan's goop all over. I still prefer tubes, but that is another story.

The wheel weighs in at 722g. 770G with the Salsa SS skewer in place. Not bad for a wheel built with budget/leftover parts. And quite handsome with the black spokes!