Spoke calculater ?

[kingofpainftw]

So I've been wanting to do a trike for the longest time now, (you may remember all my old posts about the town and country) Yesterday I found a old 26" trike at the local flea market, the badge on the rear end says "Burris Three Wheeler ser no 6177".

So unlike the the last time bought a trike from the flea market, this time i actually checked it out and knew a little more of what to look for before spending my hard earned cash. Everything worked great except the rear rims were pretty bent up. I figured that i could just lace some new rims to the hubs so i bought the trike.

now the trike is stripped, took the bent rims off the hubs, and have some new 26" rims ready to be laced in.

Here come the questions :?: :?: :?: :?:

I have never laced a rim before, and had my first attempt yesterday using the Sticky on this forum. Found out after i got all the spokes on that the spokes were waaaay to long. Did some more research and found that there are different length spokes depending on rim and hub size. I just tried using that DTSwiss Spoke Calculator but I'm not really sure how to use it.

How would I use this for the trike hubs/rims? Would I Select User defined for both and then plug in the measurements?

Secondly

How do i get the Pitch circle diameter
Flange distance
(/) of spoke holes

where do i measure to find this and what does the G stand for?

The No. of spokes has to be 36, I don't know what No. of intersections means? The read marks on the photo.

Im a total noob when it comes to this type of stuff :shock: . I really hope with the help of you guys ill get this done with out having to spend $120 and my LBS since I really do not like the owner. Let me know if im on the right track of if im completely retarded and this whole thread makes no sense







'

 

[user 135]

try this link. you can manually enter the data but it has good pics on how to measure.

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc/
http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc/calc-measure.pdf more detail.

 

[Crassly]

I have very limitied experience in lacing wheels, but one of the first ones I did, I thought the spokes were too long also, but then I realized they were just off one hole. By moving each one to the next hole in the rim they were all the right length. This may not be your problem, but I thought I would bring it up - just in case.

 

[Fireproof]

That's a neat calculater Cman. I'm gussing that the measurements need to be metric. ( mm = inches x 25.4 ) or ( inches = mm/25.4 ) Also, you can see a wheel being built on "youtube".

 

[BankerRAt]

I would contact "Unchained" on this site. He developed his own formula and is incredibly insightful! Tell him Glenn sent you

 

[Unchained]

Thanks Glenn, Id be happy to help anyone interested, it seems to work best with metric measurements... The old standard spokes seem to come in 1/16 increments which doesn't always fit too nicely with the length I calculate... I should be able to do either though.

 

[JLarkin]

http://sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

This works pretty darn good.

Also, using the pictures at the bottom of this page is a great way to do wheelbuilding. http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html#length

However you have to watch your lacing and make sure you get the crosses right. I've had spokes I thought were too long and I started in the wrong spoke hole. When you run the nipples on, run the ends of the nipples to the bottom of the spoke threads and stop. This gets the lengths all the same and gives you plenty of slack to twist the hub forward before lacing the leading spokes. Use the absolute farthest hole you can at this point. Your first leading spoke should actually go across the hub face a bit. If it angles off the hub face without going over it, you are destined to have all the spokes be too long.

You may get lucky and be able to use your current spokes afterall. Good luck. Redos are common; I re-did one yesterday myself and it came out correct after I noticed my mistake.

 

[kingofpainftw]

thanks guys for all the info and help. after a few tries i got them laced good enough to roll it around while im working on the rest of the trike. but i did get a few spokes that seemed to loose/long and couldn't tighten. I think I'm having such a difficult time because i can not remove the hubs from the trike rear end and its probably going to end up being a two person job when i re do it the final time. pretty difficult to twist tight enough when its in such a awkward position.

 

[Crassly]

I hate to sound dumb, but why can't you remove the hubs? I've never seen that type before, but it looks like you would use a pin wrench to turn out the center. There has to be some way to get them off, someone put them on there.

 

[kingofpainftw]

they are welded to the axles.