Wheel Building 101

Wheel building is actually quite easy and if youre a serious rider,
at one point or another, youll need to rebuild a wheel.

One way is to just transfer an already built wheel with a destroyed rim to a new rim. But this doesnt work if you dont have a wheel
to copy from or you need new spokes or a new hub. You can also take your wheel to your local bike shop and pay them to do it for you,
but in most cases you can expect to pay up to $50.00 per wheel and have to wait a few days. Building a wheel is easy and if you take
your time doing it, you dont need all of the special tools (though it does make it easier to have them) and with a little ingenuity
you can do it yourself.
There are quite a few different ways to build a wheel, but Ive found this way to be the easiest. With these steps you can build
any type of wheel with any number of spokes. Its the same pattern for any normal lace type, the only exception are
radial-laced wheels. If you cant figure out how to build a radial-laced wheel, you should probably not bother
trying to build a cross-lace wheel. Here are ten steps to lace a wheel like a professional.
text and photos by Al Mohr
stepone
stepthree
Drop every second spoke into one of the flanges.

See figure A.
FIGURE A
Take the spoke that is to the left of your starting point

on the hub flange and thread it into the rim four holes
over to the left of the Starting Spoke. Again, just
thread the nipple on enough so that it doesnt fall off.
Continue this pattern for all twelve spokes (if its a 48H
rim) or nine spokes (if its a 36H rim). Make sure that
you use every fourth hole of the rim. Remember to have
three open holes between every spoke that you put
into the rim. See figure C.
FIGURE C
1
Valve Hole
Starting Spoke
stepfour
Take one spoke (it doesnt matter which one) and put it
into the hole to the left of the valve hole and thread a
nipple on. This will ensure that when the wheel is complete, there will be space for your air valve. Do not
thread the nipple on the whole wayjust a few turns so
that it doesnt fall off. This spoke will be called your
Starting Spoke. See figure B.
Once you have all of the spokes that were dropped in

Step One threaded into the rim, you now have to start
on the opposite hub flange. Now go back to your
Starting Spoke. If you look at the holes in your hub,
youll notice that the holes on each flange are not
directly across from each otherthey are offset. Look
at the hole that the Starting Spoke is in, for the next
step you need to start with the hole that is offset to the
left, on the opposite flange. Put a spoke into this hole in
a way so that the head of the spoke is on the outside of
the hub flange. This spoke will be called your
Opposite Spoke. See figure D.
FIGURE B
FIGURE D
steptwo
tools
You dont need many tools to build a wheel.

Here are the essentials:
Trueing stand. If you dont have one, you can
put the wheel into your frame or forks and
use your brake pads for this.
Nipple driver or just a flathead screwdriver.
Opposite Spoke
The proper size spoke wrench.
Starting Spoke
Valve Hole
Valve Hole
Starting Spoke
46
CHASE BMX MAGAZINE
stepfive
Flip your wheel over and drop every second spoke

starting with your Opposite Spoke into this hub flange.
Doing this will allow you to drop the spokes into the
hub flange, thus making it easier to work with.
See figure E.
stepeight
With all of the spokes in on the one side, flip the wheel
over back to the original starting side. Youre now looking down at the wheel with the side that has all of the
spokes in the flange. Take the hub and twist it counterclockwise so that the Starting Spoke is angled away
from the valve hole. See figure H.
FIGURE E
FIGURE H
Valve Hole
stepten
Now you only have one flange left to lace. Start by

dropping the last spokes into the hub and then flipping
the wheel over. If you put the spokes from Step Nine
into the correct spots on the rim, this will be easy. Do
the same thing as in Step Nine and make a four-cross
by going over three spokes and then under one spoke.
It should be obvious which way you go and into which
hole you thread the spoke and nipple into. Do this to
the remainder of the spokes and your wheel is laced.
See figure J.
FIGURE J
Twist
CounterClockwise
stepsix
You now do the same as you did in Step Three, starting

to the right of your original Starting Spoke (take into
account that your wheel is flipped the other way). Now
follow the original pattern of putting in spokes every
fourth hole. Basically you just have to put your spokes
into the rim next to the spokes that you threaded in
on Step Three. See figure F.
Valve Hole
FIGURE F
Starting Spoke
Opposite Spoke
stepseven
Once you have these spokes all threaded in, you need
to drop spokes into the open holes of the original
flange that you started with. Make sure that the spoke
heads are facing the inside, or opposite of the spokes
that are already in. See figure G.
FIGURE G
stepnine
With the hub twisted and all of the spokes in the flange,
you can now start lacing in the actual cross-pattern.
Depending on what size spokes you use will also
determine how many crosses you have. Most 48 hole
wheels are a four-cross (you can use a three-cross with
a 48 but it will change the length of the spoke that you
use), this means that a spoke will cross over four other
spokes before it reaches the rim. If you are building a
36 hole wheel, you normally use a three-cross. Take
any one of the spokes that are not yet threaded in and
start your pattern by angling it to the left and going
over three spokes and then going under one spoke,
making a total of four spoke crosses. Now you have to
thread the spoke into the rim. The best way to determine where the spoke goes into the rim at this point
would be to go two spots over from where the last
spoke that you crossed is in the rim. Youll know if
youre in the correct spot if the angle of the hole in the
rim is drilled out to the same side as the spoke thats
going into it. Continue this pattern with the rest of the
spokes on the flange. See figure I.
straightening
tightening
removinghops
Once you have your wheel laced up, the next thing you
need to do is to tighten your spokes while at the same
time keeping your wheel straight.
The first step that I do is to thread the nipples that
are barely threaded onto the spokes onto the spoke
until the threads of the spoke are completely covered by
the nipple. Go through all of the spokes and make sure
that all of the nipples are in the same spot on the spoke.
Once this is done, take a screwdriver and place it in
between a cross of the spokes and push it down. Do
this to every cross of spokes on the wheel on both
sides. What this does is seats the spokes into the hub
and it makes sure that the heads of the spokes are
properly seated into the hub. If you were not to do this,
the spokes would set into the hub on their own and your
wheel will go out of true after riding it. See figure K.
FIGURE I
FIGURE K
2
Under Cross
4
1
Push Down
Last Spoke
Crossed
Over Cross 3
Over Cross 2
Over Cross 1
The best way to true a wheel is in a wheel-truing

stand but if you dont have one, you can put the wheel
into your frame or forks (depending on which wheel
you are building) and just use your brake pads
to align the rim.
The way you make a wheel straight is to tighten or
loosen spoke nipples to allow the rim to be pulled in
the proper direction. The key to doing this properly is to
make small adjustments and to also spread out the
pressure. This means instead of tightening one spoke
two turns, its better to turn three or four spokes a half
turn each to spread out the load.
To straighten the rim side to side is easy:
If the rim is out of true to the right, you tighten the
spokes on the left side of the rim (Figure L) and if
SPRING 2002
47
the rim is out the other way, viseversa. (Figure M) Remember to use
small steps and to spread out the
pressure. Do not try to do it all
with one spoke!
FIGURE L
ply loosen the spokes instead of

tightening them.
The other thing that you have to do
is seat the spokes every time you
make a move on the spokes.
Simply by going through the wheel
and squeezing two spokes
together throughout the wheel will
accomplish this. This does the
same thing as seating the spokes
into the hub. See figure O.
FIGURE O
Tightening the spokes

on the left will move the
rim to the left.
Squeeze Together
FIGURE M
By spending a little time and experimenting a bit, you can see exactly how much
you have to turn a spoke to make the rim
move into the position that you want it.
The one thing to remember is to make
sure all the spokes are tightened evenly!
Tightening the spokes

on the right will move
the rim to the right.
The trick to tightening your spokes

while keeping the wheel straight
is by using baby steps:
To get a hop out of the wheel
is also quite easy:
First you have to find the beginning
and the end of your hop.
Then count the number of spokes
in the hop.
Once you have counted the
spokes, take the middle spoke
(two spokes if its an even number
of spokes) and tighten the spoke(s)
one complete turn.
Take the next two spokes out from
the middle spoke and turn them half
as much as the middle spoke(s),
which would be a half turn.
True the wheel.

Remove any hops or low spots.
Seat the spokes.
Tighten all of your spokes another
half turn.
True the wheel.
Remove any hops or low spots.
Seat the spokes.
If you do this until your spokes are
tight, it will make your wheel tight,
strong and longer lasting.
The spokes in your wheel need to
be tight but they cant be too tight.
FIGURE N
Hop
1/4
Turn
Start at the valve hole and tighten

every spoke a half turn.
1/2
Turn
1
Turn
1/2
Turn
1/4
Turn
To remove a hop, tighten

each spoke the number
of turns shown above.
Go to the next two spokes out

from the middle and turn them half
as much as the last step, which
would be a quarter turn.
See figure N.
Keep following this pattern until
you reach the outside of the
spokes in the hop. This also works
if your rim has a low spot; you sim-
If you tighten your spokes too much,

your wheel could blow up if you land
hard on it since a wheel needs to be able
to flex a little bit. If youre not sure how
tight to make them, just check a new
wheel that is already built.

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What are the steps to build a wheel?

What are the steps to build a wheel?

How do you true a wheel?

How do you true a wheel?

Wheel building is actually quite easy and if youre a serious rider,

at one point or another, youll need to rebuild a wheel.

text and photos by Al Mohr

Drop every second spoke into one of the flanges.

Take the spoke that is to the left of your starting point

Once you have all of the spokes that were dropped in

You dont need many tools to build a wheel.

The proper size spoke wrench.

CHASE BMX MAGAZINE

Flip your wheel over and drop every second spoke

Now you only have one flange left to lace. Start by

You now do the same as you did in Step Three, starting

The best way to true a wheel is in a wheel-truing

ply loosen the spokes instead of

Tightening the spokes

Tightening the spokes

The trick to tightening your spokes

True the wheel.

Start at the valve hole and tighten

To remove a hop, tighten

Go to the next two spokes out

If you tighten your spokes too much,

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