hahaha! finally!

well as some of you know i picked up a 05 retro sport a few months back and the bike came with some craptastic alex doublewall alloy rims. those got shoved into storage and replaced by some chrome alex triple wall Supra "E" wheels and poverty hubs.

needless to say the wheels didnt wuite seem right, especially since the sidewall was an inch tall.

so i went back to my retro rims. de-laced the lot in hopes of getting the OEm rims chromed cheaply. that didnt happen. the chrome shop wanted $100/rim. right.....

so after much searching locally the best price i could find on some chromed hoops was from 3Ride $69/ea CAD for araya super 7x. still too much for me.

after many months of searching ebay and getting "we don't ship to Canada or no answer at all, i found some Sun "King Pin" double wall hoops on ebay for $29 US + shipping. so about $40 total

on to the lacing!

do i already had my haro wheels disassembled. looking at the mess of sharp pokey spokes and hubs its pretty daunting, but i was determined to get it done. having once tried as a kid to relace some rims and failing miserable and ruining a wheel, i was a little apprehensive.

thank god for google.

found this write up here

pulled all the spokes off the hub and went through it methodicly. front hub, SUCESS!

rear, not so good. i didnt pay attention to where the valve hole was on the rim and laced it wrong so now the valve would hit a spoke instead of an empty space.

after another hour of unlacing and relacing i finally got it down. now to true the rim.

as i don't have a wheel truing jig/machine. i had to eyeball it. so i flipped the bike over and used the front forks as my jig. the brake pads would be my guides.

i slowly spun the wheel around to find the wheel was like a potato chip and bobbing up and down.

note to self: when assembling a wheel keep the spokes semi loose and buy a spoke wrench BEFORE hand.

so i had to loosen all the nipples (hehe i said nipple) and slowly tightened them 1/4 turn at a time. when the wheel was too far to the right i tightened only the left ones and vice versa. if the rim was bobbing up and down, i loosened the low HALF and tightened the HIGH half. yup half the spokes.

eventually I got a fairly true rim. not perfect, but i don't have that kind of time or patience.

slapped on the new Haro gumwall tires i scooped from AMDmonster and now the bike looks proper! thin rim and gumwalls. w00t!

finally i picked up a nipple wrench and will do some additional truing. a flat screwdriver doesnt cut is, especially since someone @ Haro stripped out 50% of the nipples. Upon hindsite, I shoulda bought some new alloy ones.

I will post pics of the new rollers tonight.

[ January 31, 2006, 11:42 AM: Message edited by: 604 Rider ]

Cool, you're a braver man than me. Lacing a wheel is still on my "I try that someday..." list.

I'd rather pay to have them done properly. i've done them in the past. but to time consuming and you may not get them right.
i get a shop here to do them for a good price. been buying there for years so always get stuff for less.

Congrats! It's a great feeling of accomplishment, isn't it? I had many wheels lined up to build when I learned. You end up saving plenty of $ too.

I'm still having a problem with shoes. Way to go

I've laced a whole mess of wheels in my time. Started out on my coasterbrake Stingray, then went up to Z-rims. Now that's fun. As my biking changed to MTBs I started doing those too. It usually takes less than an hour to build them up including truing.

yeah, bigtime feeling of accomplishment. the local stores want $30-$40/rim. so thats potentially a whopping $80 in my pocket. I had considered paying, but then i woulda just bought some new Alex black chrome wheels for $200 (they were on sale. the joy is in the doing, not the end product, i guess.

I still remember that poor red Araya 7X i butchered BITD bending and trying to force the spokes into the wrong holes, and the deep gouges in the red anodizing where the spoke threads bit into the rim.

do all the inside spokes, flip the wheel over. to the other inside, then outside, flip one more time then the outside again. done.

I've done a few in the last couple of years (2 BMX) the rest roadie and it's alot of fun- if you're drinking at the time. I usually grab a beer and go to work. I take forever but I'm in no rush and like to do them once.

Anyone can get them basically laterally true. Radial true is a pain but it matters. However, spoke tension is the biggest factor. Make them too loose and whammo, detonation!

Congrats, it's easier than it seems isn't it?

Cool stuff. I've been thinking about lacing my own wheels. I might try a set now............

The chrome hoops look sweet! Big improvement.

Bike as I bought it


previous Alex triple walls and Kenda Kontact fat tires

where can I find one of those...anybody know.. I'd like one..

I have an '06 retro Sport and was thinking it would look a lot nicer with chrome rims. You just made my decision. Sweet looking bike. I used to have an '88 Master in that exact scheme with Peregrine HP-48s. Just something about black and chrome.

wow! that haro sport looks great!!!
good job on those wheels! im still scared to lace wheels,maybe someday ill get the curouge!

imho,the finishing touch for me to make your bike perfect would be an oldschool haro sprocket, that one on there now just dont look right...

That is the one thing I have never done. I would love to get some painted spokes and straight lace a wheel. I am just too scared to try...

I am glad to hear it worked out for you. The wheels look great.

thanks guys. I do have a Haro "CD" at home but thats going on my 87b Master whenever i get around to finishing it.

sory to bring up this old thread, but more rims are available from eBay again

HERE

Congratulations, once you learn to build your own wheels, you'll never let anyone else do them again.

My lbs charges a $1 a spoke plus $30 labor. So over $100 bills just to get rims laced. That seemed kind of high to me.

looks *****in with the skinwalls. how do u like those bars btw?

kneesavers would be preferable, but these are not bad. quite tiny actually, but a little on the wide side. don't wanna chop em down just yet. this bike nees chrome bars.....