bamabikeguy
Active Member
Lessons learned thus far-
1. 16 gauge spokes bend VERY easy on installation.
2. 12 gauge spokes are EXCELLENT, but you get what you pay for, and steel spokes eventually rust, higher priced aluminum don't rust.
3. Zip ties on installation prevent spokes loosening along thousands of miles of travels.
4. Proper installation is probably THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, affecting performance and satisfaction. Get this part right and everything else falls into place, get it wrong (and I got it very wrong on one bike wheel, the third one I built), and NOTHING will work right.
GEBE instructions say use liquid soap and a Q-tip. IF YOU DO, make sure you rinse it off after the ring is installed, ELSE rust forms at every junction where soap touched metal. I tried vegetable oil, which works nearly as good as soap.
12 gauge is UNFORGIVING, take your time and get it right. Spin the spoke ring around, sighting spokes versus notches. There is a spot on a wheel where the measument is BEST, and if you spin the ring, you will find the perfect spot to snap on FIRST.
This is hard to convey in words, but when you make that first snap, you have to have "counter pressure" on that spoke, to prevent any bending. I bent one slightly, and got it unbent satisfactorily because of zip ties at the onset.
That first snap is 12 o'clock.
The second snap on is 6 o'clock.
Measure the gap, use the end of the screw driver as a hammer and get the ring centered. Then snap in 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock.
This is THE critical moment. That gap has to be as close to centered as you can possibly make it. Measuring tape is NOT good enough, BUT A CHILD'S PROTRACTOR WILL DO FOR A SINGLE INSTALLATION.
If the 4 points of the clock are right, EVERYTHING else falls into place. Snap, snap, snap, using a torque type method, eyeball all the notches when you think you have completed it, and wash off the soap.
AND if you try and build an indestructible tire, which I've empasized umpteen times, ad nauseum, every chance I get, you should NOT have any worries about the rear wheel, nor the belt wearing too fast.
Properly centered, the tension arm will barely move, OFF centered by an eighth of an inch, one way or the other, and the tension arm jumps way too much.
1. 16 gauge spokes bend VERY easy on installation.
2. 12 gauge spokes are EXCELLENT, but you get what you pay for, and steel spokes eventually rust, higher priced aluminum don't rust.
3. Zip ties on installation prevent spokes loosening along thousands of miles of travels.
4. Proper installation is probably THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, affecting performance and satisfaction. Get this part right and everything else falls into place, get it wrong (and I got it very wrong on one bike wheel, the third one I built), and NOTHING will work right.
GEBE instructions say use liquid soap and a Q-tip. IF YOU DO, make sure you rinse it off after the ring is installed, ELSE rust forms at every junction where soap touched metal. I tried vegetable oil, which works nearly as good as soap.
12 gauge is UNFORGIVING, take your time and get it right. Spin the spoke ring around, sighting spokes versus notches. There is a spot on a wheel where the measument is BEST, and if you spin the ring, you will find the perfect spot to snap on FIRST.
This is hard to convey in words, but when you make that first snap, you have to have "counter pressure" on that spoke, to prevent any bending. I bent one slightly, and got it unbent satisfactorily because of zip ties at the onset.
That first snap is 12 o'clock.
The second snap on is 6 o'clock.
Measure the gap, use the end of the screw driver as a hammer and get the ring centered. Then snap in 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock.
This is THE critical moment. That gap has to be as close to centered as you can possibly make it. Measuring tape is NOT good enough, BUT A CHILD'S PROTRACTOR WILL DO FOR A SINGLE INSTALLATION.
If the 4 points of the clock are right, EVERYTHING else falls into place. Snap, snap, snap, using a torque type method, eyeball all the notches when you think you have completed it, and wash off the soap.
AND if you try and build an indestructible tire, which I've empasized umpteen times, ad nauseum, every chance I get, you should NOT have any worries about the rear wheel, nor the belt wearing too fast.
Properly centered, the tension arm will barely move, OFF centered by an eighth of an inch, one way or the other, and the tension arm jumps way too much.