Guide 07
Wheel building
Hard — the craft
A few evenings, first time
Shop fallback: fine, no shame
The real mountain of the build — and the most satisfying skill to own. Learn this
and “my wheel’s gone a bit wonky” stops being a mystery forever.
ELI5
A wheel holds its shape because every spoke pulls the rim toward its own side, all balanced.
Even pulls → round, centred, strong. Truing is just nudging those pulls back to even with
a little wrench. Build one from scratch and that skill falls right into your hands.
What a wheel actually is — four parts
| Part | What it does |
|---|
| Hub (your Alfine) | The centre. Has two flanges — discs with a ring
of little holes the spokes hook into. |
| Rim | The outer hoop. Must have a machined brake track (your rim
brakes need it) and a hole count that matches the hub. |
| Spokes | The wire rods. Bought separately in a specific calculated
length. Hooked head at the hub, threaded end at the rim. |
| Nipples | The bit people miss. Little threaded nuts that seat in the rim
holes; the spoke screws into the nipple. Turning the nipple = tensioning that
spoke. This is what the spoke wrench grabs. |
The chain of parts
hub flange → spoke (head hooks the hub) → nipple (seated in the rim) → rim.
The spoke never touches the rim directly — the nipple is always the middleman, and the middleman
is your tension adjuster.
What you buy (and the matching that matters)
- Hole count must agree across all three — hub, rim, spoke count. For a load‑carrying
build like yours, 36 holes is the robust, traditional choice (32 is fine, slightly
lighter). Alfine comes in 32h and 36h.
- Spoke length is calculated, not guessed — from the hub flange size, the rim’s ERD
(effective rim diameter), and the lacing pattern (usually 3‑cross). Feed those into an
online calculator (Spocalc / the rim maker’s tool), or hand the hub + rim to a shop and they
spec it.
- Spec for your bike: straight‑gauge stainless spokes + brass nipples — simple,
tough, touring‑correct. (Brass over alloy: a few grams heavier, but they don’t seize or round
off.)
The one true gotcha
Get spoke length wrong and the wheel physically won’t go together (too short) or bottoms
out the nipple (too long). Measure/calculate carefully, or buy the spokes from whoever specs the
length. This is the only step with no graceful recovery.
Parts shopping list
Alfine hub (36h) · 26" rim with machined brake track, 36h · 36 × straight‑gauge stainless
spokes (calculated length) · 36 × brass nipples · rim tape.
Tools
What you need
Spoke wrench (~$15, sized to your nipples) — essential ·
Truing stand (~$70–150) — fakeable with the bike upside‑down + a zip‑tie pointer, but a
real stand makes learning sane ·
Spoke tension meter (Park TM‑1, ~$80) — optional for pros, gold for a first‑timer
(turns “is this even?” into a number) ·
Optional: dishing tool, nipple driver.
How it goes — the shape of the job
- Lace all 36 spokes into the hub + rim in the 3‑cross pattern, nipples on finger‑tight
only. (This is a calm, almost meditative hour once the pattern clicks.)
- Bring up tension gradually, in rounds — a half‑turn on every nipple, lap after lap, so
the wheel tightens evenly rather than yanking one spot.
- True as you go — spin it in the stand, watch for side‑to‑side wobble (lateral) and
up‑down hop (radial). Pull the rim where it needs to go: to move the rim right,
tighten right‑side spokes a touch / loosen left.
- Check dish — the rim should sit centred between the hub locknuts (so the wheel sits
straight in the frame).
- Stress‑relieve & re‑check — squeeze spoke pairs / flex the wheel to settle
everything, then re‑true. Even tension + true + centred = done.
Honest difficulty
The lacing is easy and fun. The skill is in even tension + patient truing — it rewards
slow, small moves and punishes big impatient ones. Expect your first wheel to take a few evenings
and feel fiddly. That’s normal. The tension meter shortcuts most of the frustration.
See also: Chainline & chain tension (the rear
wheel’s position also sets chain tension) and Alfine hub
setup.