Lacing tutorial
Hugo's 18 step plan to lacing excellence
Before you start, make sure you have the correct lenght spokes. The correct length is when the spoke ends up fully inserted on the nipple, without protruding. You can get away with spokes that are a couple of milimeters off. You will only know if the lenght is correct well into the lacing. If you´re guessing, be prepared to have to undo a wheel a couple of times. It's frustrating, but we've all been there. To find out the correct length, use a spoke lenght calculator (ggogle it). I use the one at
http://www.dtswiss.com , it already has pre-inserted measurements for a lot of rims and hubs. [EDIT: this one is easier to use:
http://www.sapim.be/spoke-calculator] If you're stuck on spoke lenght, maybe your LBS can help you.
Also make sure your hub is clean and the bearings are good. If there is play on the axle, you will have difficulties later on trueing the wheel. A nice round rim is good to have. Old beat up rims sometimes will fight you hard when you're trueing them. Work in a clean, organized space so you don't have to spend 40 minutes finding that lost nipple. Get a nice spoke wrench that fits the nipples snugly and a screwdriver.
0- Remove the cog or cassete form the rear hub. Coaster-brake type hubs usually have the cog attached by a ring that can be pried out with a screwdriver. If the cog is a threaded one or you have a casste, you'll need tools. Consult LBS or friend with tools.
1- Look closely at the holes on the rim. Half of them are slightly off to one side, and the other half is slightly off to the other, alternately. This is important. On every hole, the spoke that goes through it should go to the side that the rim hole is pointing to. Hole is off to the right, spoke goes to the right. Hole is off to the left, spoke goes to the left.
2- Lay the rim flat with the valve hole on top (in front) and hold the hub cog-side up. Thread a spoke from top to bottom through the top flange of the hub. That spoke will then go through one of the holes immediately to the side of the valve hole. But wich one? The one that is slightly off to the top, of course, since the spoke is coming from the top. On my rim it was the hole to the left, but it can be the hole to the right on other rims I guess. Screw in a nipple by hand, just a couple of turns so it won't fall off.
3- We're on our way! Thread another spoke through the top flange of the hub, leaving one hole free on the flange between the two spokes. This second spoke goes through the rim on the fourth hole, leaving three holes free between the first spoke. Do the rest of the wheel like this (8 spokes for 32 hole rim, 9 spokes for 36 hole rim). At the end, you should have a pattern of free hole/ used hole/ free hole/ used hole/ etc on the top flange of the hub, and used hole/ 3 free holes/ used hole/ 3 free holes/ etc on the rim.
4- Turn the wheel around, also with the valve hole on top (in front). We´re going to repeat steps 2 and 3 but wich hole should we start with? If you look straight down at the hub flanges, you'll see that the top flange holes don't match with the bottom flange holes. They're "off-fase". We should thread the first spoke of this step (from top to bottom of what is now the top flange) through the hole that is immediately to the right of the first hole we used on step 2.
5- Repeat all around the wheel with the same intervals. At the end, the top flange of the hub should have a free hole/ used hole/ free hole/ used hole/ etc pattern and the rim should have a spoke that comes from the bottom/ spoke that comes from the top/ 2 free holes/ etc pattern. (going clockwise)
6- Fill all the holes on the bottom flange with spokes, threading them from top to bottom. Leave them dangling.
7- Twist the hub in an anti-clockwise manner (you can also turn it clockwise, it doesn't really matter, just twist it). [EDIT: twist the hub so that the spoke adjacent to the valve hole angles away from the hole, not towards it; in this way you'll have more space for the pump head. The direction in wich you twist the hub also allows you to select wich spokes face forwards and backwards, the ones on the inside of the flange or on the outside; this is something that only top-level wheel builders are interested in.]
8- Take any one of the dangling spokes we inserted on step 6 and make it horizontal, going against the spokes that already are laced on the bottom flange (sort of crossing them). Look at the head of this spoke you're holding horizontally and then follow along it. It will cross under one spoke (already laced), under a second one (already laced), and when you get to the third one you have to go over it! Bend the spoke slightly to achieve this, don´t kink it. Also, if you have nice polished or painted rims, look out for the other end of the spoke (the threaded end), it will scratch the rim if you're not carefull. I use my thumb to protect the threaded end.
This is a so-called 3-cross lacing pattern, the most popular one, because each spoke crosses three others (the first two on one side, the third on the other). If your spokes are too short, you can try to fix the situation with a 2-cross pattern (across one on one side, across the other on the other side). If you have long spokes, maybe you can use them for a 4-cross pattern (across 3 on one side, across the fourth on the other). If they don't fit, you've still gained 1 hour of lacing practice. (extra-credit homework: play with the spoke length calculator and find out what's the length difference between these different crossing patterns for the same wheel)
8.1- That first dangling spoke that we crossed three times, on wich rim hole will it go? Well, if it crosses only 3 times then there are only two empty holes on the rim on wich it can go. It must be the hole wich points down (slightly off-centered down).
9- Repeat step 8 for all other spokes. Bring them up to horizontal, cross them under two spokes and over the third, thread them through the rim on the correct hole (wich is off-centered in a way that matches the spoke direction). You may find that threading the nipples is easier from now on using the screwdriver. If the rim is a double-wall rim, it's easier to feed the nipple to the rim hole if you thread it the wrong way up on a spoke and use that spoke as a tool to insert the nipple on its rim hole. If you're having difficulty making the spokes reach the inserted nipple, make sure the nipples on the opposite side of the rim aren't stuck inside their rim hole, that they clear their rim hole.
10- Check your lacing. All the spokes must cross two other spokes on one side and the third on the other side. The rim pattern should be free hole/ spoke from the bottom/ spoke from the top/ spoke from the bottom/ etc.
11- Turn the wheel around and repeat steps 6, 8 and 9. That means filling the bottom flange with spokes, bringing them up to horizontal, making them cross two other spokes on one side and a third on the other, and threading them through the only available holes on the rim.
12- Check lacing again! (I'm trying to make this fool-proof eheh). Each spoke must cross two others on one side, and the third on the other side. The spokes on the rim should go alternately up and down! If you have two spokes side by side that go in the same direction, you've screwed up. :-(
13- That's it, the lacing is done. Now for the hard part... Tighten all nipples until there's about 1mm of spoke thread showing. Try to get them all equal, it will make trueing the wheel easier. The spokes should start to get a little tension now. If they're already tight, then they're too short. You can get away with a couple of spoke thread milimeters showing. If they're very loose, then they're too long. If they end up protruding too much out of the nipple, they're no good. Or try a 4-cross pattern to rat your way out of it.
14- Add tension to the nipples. Start at the valve hole and tighten each nipple one turn, all around the wheel, finishing at the valve hole. Repeat until they're reasonably tight.
15- Check to see if any spokes are too tight or too loose. Hit them with the screwdriver, they should all have the same ping. If the ping is too high, loosen it up a bit. If they don't ping and go "pock", tighten the spoke.
(you will be using a spoke wrench from now on. You WILL be confused about wich way to turn it to give or take tension to a spoke. You will have to figure it out on your own. My best advice is to imagine the nipple as a bolt that goes in from the outside of the rim. If you tighten that bolt from the OUTSIDE OF THE RIM, you're adding tension.)
16- Let's talk about dish. Many times the hub flanges aren't simetrical. On rear mountain bike wheels, the right flange is further inboard to make room for the cassete. On front disk brake wheels, the left flange is further inboard. That means that the rim is not centered between the flanges, it's off to one side, it's dished. After the wheel is trued initially, stick it on the frame to see were you need to dish it. Loosen and /or tighten each side to make it centered in the frame. If you need the rim to go to one side, tighten all nipples on that side and/or loosen nipples on the other side. Always the same amount of turns all around, always starting at the valve hole and finishing there (so you don't get lost). Front wheels are simetrical, tighten spokes on both sides the same amount of turns. On a rear mountain bike wheel, usually the right side is 3 to 4 turns tighter than the left. On a single gear wheel, not so much.
17- Trueing the wheel... Whole books have been written about this. You have to practice a bit until you feel confortable. Your first atempts may go terribly wrong, take confort in the fact that it has happened to many others. Try on some old wheels first to get the hang of it. Although old wheels sometimes don't "respond" well to trueing and you won't know what the heck is going on. Try on a nice new wheel that responds well, and you'll learn faster. But you may have to take it to the LBS so they can fix your mistakes. My advice is: make small adjustments, no bigger than half a turn, and then recheck that adjusted spot to see what happened (mark it with chalck or something). You will learn quickly if you see the effects of your adjustments. Soon you'll be making 1/8 of a turn adjustments like a pro.
If you don't have a trueing stand, put the wheel on the frame/ fork and use it as a stand. Use a wrench or piece of wire stuck to the frame as a wobble indicator. There are two types of wobbles, radial and lateral.
A radial wobble is when the wheel isn't round, and has a hump (goes out) or depression (goes in). Tighten all the spokes on the hump area to make that bit of rim go in, or loosen all the spokes around the depression area to make that bit of rim go out. If the wobbles are too intense, your rim is toast and adjustments won't make it round again. I'm not very good with radial adjustments, so good luck!
The lateral adjustments are different. Again, use your make shift wobble indicator to find the point of most wobble. Tighten the spoke or pair of spokes on the other side of the wobble to make it smaller. Also, you can loosen the spoke or pair of spokes on the side of the wobble for that. When should you tighten or loosen? That depends on the tension of the spokes. You should get a feel for the correct spoke tension by grabbing a pair of spokes with your hand and squeazing them (do it on a good wheel with correct tension, like on a new bike at the LBS). If your spokes are getting too tight, make adjustments by loosening them. If they're too slack, tighten them. You can also combine the two. Keep finding the point of most wobble on each side of the rim and reducing them gradually, until all wobbles are gone.
As you start the trueing process, you have to juggle all of these things. Start tensioning the spokes gradually, adding dish as necessary. The wheel needs to be trued a bit already so you can see how much dish you need. Then you have to alternate lateral trueing with radial trueing, because one affects the other. In the end, if you do everything right, you will end up with a perfect round wheel, centered on the frame and with correct spoke tension. Don't rest yet, 'cause we're going to mess it all up on the next step!
18- Stress relieving! If you ride your new wheel now, it will go clink-clink-clink for the first few yards as the spokes settle and will loose its trueness. We have to get the clinks out of the way now. Sit down and lay the wheel flat on your legs. Grab the top of the wheel with both hands, push it against your stomach, and push down with your elbows on the middle part of the rim. It should go clink clink clink as the spokes settle. Turn the wheel about 1/8 of a turn and repeat. Do it all the way around and on the other side. Don't push too hard, weak wheels will colapse!!! True the wheel again and stress relieve it again. Repeat until the wheel no longer looses its trueness or until you run out of patience. Assemble, ride. Check after a few miles. Ride more. Congratulations.
(just a quick word on spoke twisting. Sometimes, on used wheels, the nipples stick to the spokes and when you tighten a nipple, the whole spoke bends on itself following the nipple. You can watch this happen if you look for it. Say you make a quarter turn adjustment. The spoke bends with the nipple and, although you've turned it, no adjustment was made. You have to turn the nipple until it unsticks, add a quarter turn to make the adjustment, and then back off the amount it took the spoke to unstick to return the spoke to the un-bend position. You will apreciate a quality spoke wrench that doesn't destroy the nipples right about now...)
Hugo
