- This is a very special wheel,
special to me at least
because it's the first one I've ever laced and built.
But I must say with considerable help from this man here,
Marcel Waldmann,
who is a master wheel builder at DT Swiss,
with over 35 years of experience
of building wheels.
Who better than to show us,
how to build a bicycle wheel.
(energetic music)
- [Narrator] Building a wheel is a time-consuming job
but with patience,
and carefully following the steps,
anyone can do it.
But it's probably worth making a cup of tea
and settling yourself down.
This is a strangely therapeutic process.
We are lacing a traditional wheel
with the common three-cross method.
So called because each spoke
crosses three others.
We'll lace it,
pretension it,
dish it,
de-stress it,
true it,
and then tension it fully.
First though,
what do we actually need to build a wheel?
(energetic music)
- So first step,
we've got our raw materials.
We've got spokes,
we've got the nipples,
we got the hub and the rim.
And Marcel,
how do we actually calculate first of all,
the spoke length?
- [Marcel] First we need the
the rim diameter.
- Okay.
- [Marcel] From the one eyelet to the other eyelet.
How big is the hub,
and how big is the distance between the middle of the hub
to the flange on the right side
and also on the left side.
- [Narrator] That sounds remarkably complicated.
So there is a cheat online,
you could go to the DT Swiss website?
- [Marcel] Yeah. - [Narrator] And it will tell
you.
Okay,
well that's a relief.
(energetic music)
- Now it's for DT Swiss,
we have a rule.
Every time it's the DT Swiss,
it's on the valve hole.
- Okay.
So your tire logo is lined up with your hub logo.
- Yeah.
- Nice.
We're going to use Schraner's method.
Now we'll start on the right side of the wheel.
So that means on the rear wheel,
it's the drive side.
With this method,
each spoke is threaded into the wheel
at an alternate direction,
with either the spoke head facing in
towards the centre of the hub,
or out.
The first step is really important
so we'll take a moment to cover it.
We start lacing each side of the wheel
at the valve hole.
We thread spoke one,
four holes in the hub,
to the left of the centre,
with the head out.
And then thread one,
four holes to the right of centre,
head in.
Now that is very important.
The first spoke is laced to the rim
immediately to the left of the valve hole.
Then the second spoke,
which is threaded into the hub,
from the inside out,
is laced to the rim
in the second hole
to the right of the valve.
Wow,
it feels like we're getting somewhere.
(laughing)
Excellent.
Okay.
We then thread all the drive side spokes which will have
their heads facing out.
They will of course
be in every other hole,
in the hub.
Taking the spoke next to the one that's already
threaded on to the rim,
lace it into the rim,
four holes to the right.
And you then repeat that for the remaining spokes.
- Every time we say one, two, three holes,
the next one it's for us.
- [Narrator] Four holes.
- [Marcel] Yeah in the fourth.
And then you work from the top
and the nipple falls every time.
(laughing)
And now when you work from the side
it's no problem.
- [Narrator] That does make sense.
Okay.
- Okay, around, turn,
the wheel.
And then you can feel the hole from this side.
- [Narrator] Then we thread the remaining drive side spokes
into the hub from the opposite direction.
Starting with that spoke that was already laced,
thread the next one into the rim,
four holes to the left.
(energetic music)
- [Marcel] And next.
- So we went from the one that was next to
the valve hole right?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
So four across,
from that.
- Not four across four holes.
The outside.
- Four holes outside.
- Now it's best is to go in here.
Have your fingers on the drive.
The drive is very sharp for the (mimics scratch).
- Oh okay.
- And then it goes here,
nipple.
- [Narrator] And it goes ...
- [Marcel] Over.
- [Narrator] So under, over.
- [Marcel] Right here,
under, over.
- [Narrator] Under, over, okay.
So drive side,
that looks okay doesn't it?
- Yeah,
looks okay.
- [Narrator] We're repeating the process
on the non-drive side of the wheel now
but we use exactly the same method.
So we lace those first two spokes,
separated by eight holes of the hub.
And we do one to the left of the valve hole
and then the other two holes to the right.
It's starting to get complicated,
the more spokes we've got.
- Yeah.
- The more complicated it's getting.
- It's better to cross this way.
- Okay.
- So you can go up.
So one, two, three, four.
So that one there.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
(energetic music)
- Okay,
turn.
And fill up the last spokes.
- Do we start from,
from here again?
- Yeah.
(energetic music)
- I can't tell you how cool this is.
I've been riding bikes for 27 years
and I've never built a wheel before.
This is fantastic.
Okay.
- Okay.
- Wha,
look at that.
- Yeah.
- Check it out.
I'm tough with that.
So what's the next bit?
- The next bit we go to the drawing stand.
(energetic music)
- The wheel is now correctly laced
but we need to tension the spokes.
We need to make sure the wheel is dished correctly,
meaning that it will sit centrally
in your frame or fork.
Remember that by over time,
one side or the other
you can actually move the rim itself
by several millimetres.
Then we need to true it,
so make sure it's perfectly round
and perfectly straight.
By over-tightening some spokes you can actually
create flat spots
or bend the wheel from one side to another.
The first job is to pre-tension the wheel.
Make sure that each spoke is threaded into the nipple
the same amount.
So wheel is in the truing stand.
But we're going to do some cheating now.
Is that fair to say Marcel?
You've got a drill in your hand.
- Yeah we have to work with the drill
before we worked by hand.
And we looked how goes the nipple over the tread.
- So you literally count the number of threads?
- Yeah.
Normally we go before.
We crank this the whole day.
Maybe in the evening you can feel also in your arms.
- Okay, can I have a go with the drill?
- Yeah.
- Even with a drill it's slow going for me.
(energetic music)
- Now we have a base.
And from this one we go.
- Take it to the next level.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Alright.
- Every spoke comes from the inside the turn,
a half.
- Just a half.
- But if say,
you were lacing up,
I don't know,
Shimano Dura-Ace hub.
- Also.
- So also you would use a half a turn.
- Yeah.
- So this little gizmo here tells exactly
how straight the wheel is.
- Yeah.
- Is that right?
- It's still 0.15 maybe.
- Okay.
- But sometimes it works to hold like this.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- Okay now we look for the dish.
- What's this supposed to be on,
zero?
- It's zero and five.
- So 0.4 millimetres.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
That doesn't sound too bad.
- Now it's 0.6 so.
- 0.6 millimetres.
- Yup.
- That's starting to sound worse.
- Some brands it's okay.
For us,
it's a little bit too high.
Now it's where 0.6 out.
And then we remove the rim
on the left side.
And not 0.6, 0.3.
- Okay.
- This side of the rim comes all to the same.
- Okay.
So we're going to increase the spoke tension on the
drive side?
- [Marcel] Nope.
- [Simon] Not drive side?
- [Marcel] Non drive side.
Now we can work here.
Can turn here.
It goes up to the ceiling.
Not correct here.
But next time when you come,
you see,
it maybe goes a little bit over.
- Okay.
And how much are we turning?
- Little, little step.
Like so.
- Oh you're not doing much though.
- I look only on the watch.
- So the wheel is pretty much straight,
in both directions.
But now we need to check the spoke tension.
Just to make sure that,
so that says, what's that 1?
- One, in the middle is one.
And then you can loosen it with the nine four.
- So 0.94?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
And then do we check the next drive side one?
- [Marcel] Every time on the same side.
- Okay.
So that's one point,
what's that,
1.1?
- [Marcel] Yeah.
- And is that okay?
- [Marcel] No.
Later we go up and make it more similar.
- Okay.
And we need to hold the spoke tension-ometer
in the right place on the spoke
so it gives the same reading each time.
- [Marcel] Not too much down and not too much up.
- So we're going to add a little bit more tension
to the spokes,
a quarter turn.
- Yeah.
- On each nipple,
start with the valve hole.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Right ready.
Quarter turn.
- [Marcel] Every time on the right side.
- Ah, okay so we're doing one side,
right.
- Only right there.
Pick up the wheel
and we go to the distressor.
Here we have three points.
If a lot of pressure,
then we put it in, like so.
Push.
You can hear the sound from the spokes.
(energetic music)
And now we go back to the truing stand.
So before I maybe have zero point,
it's the same, 0.5.
Zero and five.
So all the same.
- Okay Marcel,
so you still think we need to get a bit more spoke tension
in this?
- Yeah.
- If a viewer doesn't have a spoke tension meter,
how can you describe how tight the spokes need to be
on a wheel,
before you know that it's (mimics popping),
done?
- For me it's when you go there with the hand
you can feel it.
Maybe this one here it's a little bit too soft,
maybe we turn a half turn up with the tension.
And then everybody has some,
if you want a softer wheel or a stronger wheel,
then it goes a little bit more up or.
- So the spoke tension will actually affect
the ride quality of the wheel?
- Yeah.
- So softer spokes means a softer wheel
and a high tension spokes means a stiffer wheel?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Unless you have a spoke tension meter on there
it's an art form.
- Yeah.
- That's what you're saying.
It's just, not enough.
- It's the feeling in your hand.
Now we work,
every wheel we work with the same tension,
the front in this range,
and the back rear wheel in this range,
and so we have all wheels made similar.
Some it's a little bit higher
like the combination between the half spokes and the rim
and the other ones,
it's always the same range.
- There we go.
Wha.
A finished wheel.
I can't claim to have done this completely
by myself.
- It's a downhill wheel.
Do you have a downhill bike?
- No, no I don't have a downhill.
- Then it's my wheel.
- You take it.
Well there we go then,
a finished wheel.
And that is built very much in the classic style,
so a traditional wheel.
But Marcel here is currently lacing up a very new wheel,
it's an aARC1100 DICUT.
This wheel design is evolved.
You can see the way the wheels are built
is also changing,
so it's quite a fluid technology at the moment.
Thank you very much though Marcel
for showing us how to build a traditional wheel.
- No problem.
- That is something I've ticked off my bucket list.
Now do make sure you subscribe to GCN before
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Also,
make sure you give us a big thumbs up.
Thank you again Marcel for showing us how.
And if you want some more content right now,
well how about how to true a wheel?
That one is just down there.
Or to see a little feature,
retro versus modern wheels,
click just down there.