re-lacing rims

[fast eddie]

a local bicycle mechanic told me that that shop would not sell re-laced rims and that they usually wont even relace 'em for a customer. she said that rims are a bit like a spring and once laced and trued will never be the same if taken apart and relaced. can anyone else shed more light on this for me?
fast eddie outty

 

[user 135]

I had a shop say they would not use old spokes but didnt seem to mind about old rims.

 

[necessaryevil]

Yeah, the lady just wants to sell you a nice shiny new pair of expensive wheels. Old steel rims can be reused as long as the welded seam is'nt broke. There are tons of guys that pay a lot of money to have old rims restored/ rechromed. I would never reuse old spokes though, go with stainless, virtually no maintanence.

 

[cashman]

Eddie, she's correct in saying that once the spokes are removed and replaced the wheel will never be the same. But I've never seen two wheels that trued up the same either. A couple of problems you'll run into using used rims and spokes is if the used rim is bent or warped (stretched), it is difficult to impossible to true that out of a wheel. Also old spokes and nipples tend to stick and strip sometimes. Using new spokes and rims will allow you to true up a wheel faster and easier. But, if the old rim is not bent or warped, or the holes wallered out, or threads on the spokes or nipples are not stuck or stripped, they should true up great and work fine. Although it will probably take just a little more time than using new ones. In her defense, it's always better when someone lets you know up front when they don't think they can accomplish something satisfactory. Thanks!!!

 

[CCR]

depending on what kind of wheel your looking for (on a cruiser theyre usually lower end), its probly cheaper at most bike shops to buy a new wheel than the cost (spokes/labor) to respoke an old one.

either that or if they have a lot of repairs to do already its faster to sell you a wheel :|

 

[Pete]

Wheel building is a skilled job that requires the patience of a saint to learn - a lot of bike shops won't touch this kind of work, especially when presented with old, out of true parts to work on as it's not the easiest way to make money. I agree with what necessaryevil says; It's a far simpler solution & less time consuming for them to sell you a new set of rollers.

It is possible to resurrect old rims though - My local good bike shop once re-laced a set of ancient westwood wheels for me that where miles out of true. These were near enough egg shaped, had flats on the rim from being smashed into curbs & were heavily skewed left to right. They came back straight as an arrow. It's really just a case of finding a good old fashioned bike shop.

ANECDOTAL EDIT: I once tried to true a wheel myself, & after about five hours work was pleased to get it back to being only slightly more buckled than it was when I started out! Never, never again ...

 

[ponytailmike]

eddie i would tend to agree with them
but i've relaced several rims
such as
primer bike (aka super deluxe) both front and back with over 100 miles on them
(i used old rims, old spokes, and even older hubs)
huffy muscle back rim (old rim, old spokes, and older hub)
my chopper back rim (old rim, old spokes, and older 3 speed hub)
those are just a few of my relace jobs
although from a shop perspective i understand there ansewer
one rim after unstringing it from the hub
was tacoed badly i did manage to get it back together and stright enough to ride
i'm just saing it can be done and i'll take the risk for my own bikes

 

[Timbo]

Where I live we have a couple of Non for Profit Bike Shops and for like 10 bucks you become a member and can use the facility to work on your bike and get cheap parts. They usually have a few Techs who know about lacing wheels and will teach you how to true up an old wheel. It's a lot of work but it's a lost skill so to aquire it is very self rewarding and useful.

 

[fast eddie]

lacing rims is easy enough, i dont have all the patterns memorized but so long as i have another to look at ive relaced a few, its truing them that ive never actually tried, maybe its time to step up my skills, build a true stand, and start doin it myself!
fast eddie outty

 

[C.S.]

Wheelbuilding is not so difficult, it requires patience.
If the old spokes come of easy, reuse them, if they don't, don't.
I keep some old spokes to replace broken ones. If you use new ones you have to retighten them later, old ones are 'pre-stretched'.
So: don't mix 'm up, use new OR old spokes in one wheel.
Rims: I buy them used, because the black 28"x1-1/2" rims I prefer to use are all powdercoated these days, and start to rust under the coating. You can't powdercoat things for outdoors use without a protective zinc layer or something like that underneath.
As long as you don't use the rims for braking, a wee bit of woble is not so much of a problem, less then two millimeters is hard to notice when riding.
This is what I use:

Go ahead, try it, it's fun to do, and even more fun to ride on a home made wheel. It does not have to be perfect the first time, you have to start somewhere.

 

[user 135]

I have reused old rims and spokes with good results on cruiser rims. I plan on lacing my Nexus7 into a lightly used rim with old spokes.

If I need a new rim for a bike with rim brakes I would probably pay a pro to do it. I don't mind a little wobble or bump on my Rat's :mrgreen:

 

[CCR]

i can get mine pretty straight myself, but like cman said, if it was for a bike with rim brakes, id let someone else do it

 

[Timbo]

this is funny but guess what!!!! hahah I blew a spoke and I think it may have punctured my tire....here's a hint for you folks, make sure you have a rubber spoke guard in your rim or better yet use shipping straps, wrap the crimper in shrink tape used for electrical connections and you're never gonna have what happened to me!!! I should have disassembled the bike rims before riding it to check for that.

 

[Pete]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTb3x5VO69Y

The above is a link to a really good set of videos on youtube where a chap sits & spokes up a 36 hole wheel, showing you & talking you through how it's done. It's really comprehensive & clear - I'm tempted to give it another shot myself with the help of this man's tutorial. Unfortunately it doesn't tell you how to calculate spoke lengths on your own, but everything else is all there.

Note for the easily offended - the tutorial does contain some minor swearies!