I laced a wheel!

[Ramzious]

Won a set of MTX-33 29er 36h hoops on ebay kinda by accident. Since my bike only has front disc brakes right now, can not use both rims, but I had it sitting here and I was bored. Took the old front wheel apart- made sure the rims were same size or very close (ERD that is..) and went to town. Laced it 3cross and used an old fork as a truing stand. It went together quite nicely and may need a small tune up, but it's rideable. Now...can't wait for the qr freehub I ordered to show up so I can fit the A2Z brake adapter on the back and have disc all around. Will have to build that wheel from scratch with new spokes as hub diameter is going to be different from current freewheel.

Kinda just wanted to brag a little, but also telling the story to let people know it can be done by mere mortals without spending a fortune on just the tools to do it. A spoke wrench, an old fork, a screwdriver and some allen wrenches (for the disc) were all that I needed.

[RobAR]

Cool Beans, Ramzious! It's a great feeling isn't it!?
3x and 36 spokes can make for a very strong wheel and is how I was tough.
Now... be forewarned. It can become an obsession. You can also make some spare change if you're good and the word spreads. Be Careful! Fame makes some people crazy.
Wheel Building is more Science than Art, but more like the Art of Math. You know what I mean, I guess.

Got a pic?

[nameused]

Sweet man! I have one sitting waiting to be laced...I just kind of lost the qr skewer somewhere, and have no motivation to do it until I can find the skewer. Got any pics of your wheel?

[FredS]

Good job Ramzious,

[JonB]

Well done! (I didn't know they made MTX rims in 36h!)

Word of warning though:

Take your first few rides easy! I know a 3-cross MTX wheel is pretty tough, but you'll have to readjust the spoke tension a few times. My mate had a 32-h 3-cross MTX wheel that he built himself and just went bananas on it's first ride.

He ended up launching off an 8ft drop and landing to flat/slight upslope and his rim split clean into 4 pieces. Doh!

[Bill]

Love all this bicycle mech talk but wow that does state to take it easy and break in your handy work "NOT LITERALLY" lol but rather take it easy first few times.

[Ramzious]

Here is a quick shot of it on the bike on the car carrier.

[JonB]

I love the Camo and black spokes! Blingy

When I upgrade the wheels on my downhill bike I'm gonna have those rims in 26" 32h

I did my own rear one recently, still going strong!

Oh yeah while we're on the subject, what spoke calculators do people tend to use? I had real problems with spoke length on mine, tried several ones (DT-Swiss, Edd and one or two I've forgotten) and they all had wildly different figures. The final figure came from the spoke supplier and was nowhere near what the calculators suggested, and they worked perfectly.

[Ramzious]

Believe it or not, I reused the spokes that were on the old rim...(I know...not best practice...) I am on a bit of a budget, and this was a "why not give it a try?" effort anyway. The only reaso I even attempted this was because when I held up the new hoop to the old wheel they were just about the same size. I know now from lacing the MTX that the old hoop was probably a couple mm bigger ERD (MTX was 598mm the no name hoop on the bike was probably 600 to 602 mm) May re-lace this hoop in the future to a sealed bearing front hub, and for that job will use DT double butted spoke (new).

[X-RAY]

congratulations! you never forget your first!

[JonB]

I don't think you'll need double butted spokes on that. The only real advantage is a slight weight saving.

I've only used the standard cheap-o DT swiss (Champion I think) spokes and I've never had a wheel fail on me, and I ride stuff like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rxKPCCxn24

(I use Sun Singletracks, the cheaper version of the MTX).