alcazar

iTrader: (2)

.....Reminds me of when he was little and used to want to help me to work on my bikes.

It didn't take long for him to pick it up: at age nine, a handful in the classroom due to ADHD, he was set the task of writing down every part he would need to build a bike from scratch, in order to engage him when he had completed his class work.

The only part he missed out was the rim-tapes...his teacher, also a keen cyclist, was amazed.

He's at present rebuilding a wheel on his 26" trials bike, having flattened one of the rims, he's rebuilding it with the ultimate DH rim.

CrisPDuk

I find building wheels to be very relaxing, but I have to be in the right frame of mind for it.

Also you can't beat doing it sat in front of the telly, so obviously that right frame of mind has to coincide with MrsD being out

DYK

I remember as a kid I decided to try and true my wheel,lets just say after tightening a spoke here and there,I ended up having to buy a new wheel,it was that bad when I finished..

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Crossover spokes with radial on non-drive side for rear wheels were tricky

Shaun

Matteeboy

I can strip and re-build a hub and true a slightly wonky wheel but not build a whole one - would love to be able to - probably ought to try really!

There's proper black magic involved in doing it really well...

cster

Every wheel I ever set out to true up, ended more f*cked than when I started.

Graz

I've managed the odd tweak to my mountain bike wheels before now but it isn't easy. You can identify the spokes you need to adjust by squeezing them and seeing what it does to the wheel but you must also take some tension out of the opposing spoke when tightening one. Keep the adjustments small (i.e. 1/4 - 1/2 turn). But inevitably you get it true in the spot it was out of true before and then it's messed up somewhere else

Aside from that can pretty much strip down and rebuild a bike with relative ease. I'll even have a go at suspension though generally it's easier to get that done professionally.

You'd see the old boy who ran our local bike shop sat out the front of the shop on a warm summers day fettling a wheel in a jig whilst passing the time of day with passers by. Would be great to have a job like that.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

He'd finished it and was out on it after about an hour. It runs true and is very strong, Hope trials hub, Mavic EX721 rim and stainless plain gauge spokes.

He builds all his own bikes now, or buys one that is cheap and replaces bits as he wants them.
At the last count he had seven bikes!!!!!!!!
One MTB with Titanium frame, one road bike in need of TLC, and FIVE different trials or BMX bikes.

trails

iTrader: (41)

the bigger the wheel the easier it is in my experience 700s and 26s are pretty straight forward but 20 with decent gauge spokes can be a right pita. Jig isn't essential; I just use gaffa tape and an old pair of forks

CrisPDuk

I was taught how to do it many years ago by my granddad, I've never been able to do it as quickly as he could, but I can get them true

I use a couple of old pairs of forks (one pair forced apart to take rear wheels), with holes drilled in the side to take pieces of threaded bar, which I then set the rim to.

Mavic rims are a doddle to get true, Alcazar

Tell your lad to try it with the crappy elastic rims most Halfords type bikes come with

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

He'd laugh...then spit on one of those

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I've straigtened the odd wheel rim with a sledgehammer. We have an old dear with a battered old Micra who regulaly bends the rims on curbs, part of its annual service is to straighten the wheel rims

Its not theraputic, but its a break from the usual routine.

Leslie

I was always very relieved to never have to rebuild a spoked wheel. I would never know where to start anyway.

Les

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Changing the rim is relatively easy: you just tape the two together, run some tape round the spokes, undo all the nipples, then swap the spokes out of the holes in the old rim into the corresponding holes in the new.
Then replace all nipples, tighten and begin truing it. The last takes most of the time.

Turbohot

ADHD/ADD kids may be pain in the @rse in many respects, but they can be quite clever with pulling things apart and putting them together. I have noticed that a lot of them love riding their bikes. They're always going frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................... on their bike from here to there, and fall of it a lot as well. Often they have their plastered hands hanging with a sling. They get so fed up with that that soon they take it off, and start rebuilding their bikes again with half-mended hands.

As I say, they are blessed with some serious talents. That's why they were once called the indigo children, and they carry their special powers to their adulthood as well; slightly calmer stage in compare to their younger, hyper hoohaa stage.