Lets build a wheel with no tools!

Arguably the most specialized area of bike repair is wheel building. You need to know about spoke types, spoke lengths, hubs, rims, rim sizes, lacing, truing, dishing, and a variety of measurements that would make your head spin. Not to mention the expensive specialty tools like truing stands, nipple drivers, spoke wrenches, and dishing gauges.\r
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Its no wonder that some bike shops outsource their wheel repair to specialists. Just carrying the parts is a challenge. To me, wheel builders are like heart surgeons. So, I came up with a terrible challenge: Swap a rim with no specialty tools other than a spoke wrench.\r
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Were not starting with a pile of parts though. I ually do have a bent wheel here which needs a new hoop. First well remove the brake rotor to expose the side of the hub. I said Id only use a spoke wrench, but I dont think a torx driver counts as a wheel building tool. In an attempt to make my life slightly easier Im tying all these spokes together with string. For an experienced mechanic this wouldnt make things easier at all, but for me it takes the complexity out of lacing the wheel back up.\r
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Now Im removing all of the spoke nipples, which would be way way easier with a nipple driver. I feel like my hand is going to fall off and I havent even started fastening the new rim. You can sorta use a screwdriver for this, but it doesnt have the little point in the middle that keeps it centered. Its harder than you would think.\r
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Now to lace the new hoop on. Even with the spokes tied together this is not easy. In f, I almost wish I left the string off. This part of the process wouldnt have been too bad, but I got a few of the nipples stuck inside the rim. To get them back out, some wheels are worse than other. A few times I considered just sawing the rim open and quitting mountain biking. I tried tweezers, magnets, you name it. The only thing that works is shaking the wheel for 20 minutes and hoping for a miracle.\r
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Now that I have all my hardware back, the wheel is at least put together. Now it needs to be trued so that all of the spokes have even tension. Since Im doing this with no tools, Ill use the front fork and some zip ties. If youve never trued a wheel before, its basically a matter of finding the biggest bow in the wheel, tightening the spoke on the opposite side of it lightly, and then repeating the process until the wheel is straight. Although it might look straight, we still need to align this rim with the hub laterally. This part is called dishing.\r
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Dishing is normally done with a gauge, or even a properly calibrated truing stand. Since I dont have either, Ill be using a trick I saw on a forum. Basically, Im setting a reference point on one side of the wheel, flipping it over, and making sure the hub face is the same distance from the rim on both sides. Its not. Its off tremendously. \r
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Because its off by so much, Im going to tighten every spoke on the right side, and loosen every spoke on the left side one half turn.\r
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30 minutes later and a couple more passes around the wheel, and Im as close as were gonna get with my homemade precision dishing gauge. One more tedious truing and were finally done. That took me over 3 hours and I regret it thoroughly. Theres a little jump in the rim too. It wont be noticeable while riding, but Ill know its there and itll bother me. There are scratches all over my brand new Easton Arc rim, and the nipples look like theyve been through some kind of S&M clamping ritual.\r
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I dont know what tool I missed the most. Obviously the truing stand would have helped, as a properly calibrated one can pretty much do the whole job. Not only that, but it provides a nice mount at eye level for working on the wheel. The other part that killed me was not having a nipple driver. If youve ever smashed your hand in a car door, then you know what it feels like to build a whole friggin wheel with just a spoke wrench. Lets also consider that I was building a front wheel, which is easier than a rear since its pretty much centered over the hub. A rear wheel is offset even more to account for the cassette, so my terrible experience was ually the best case scenario.\r
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I could have used really nice tools, and the help of an experienced mechanic, but I thought this video would be useful those who wanted to save a few bucks. Actually, how many bucks are we saving? $35? Ugh… Even if your local shop charges twice this, I cant recommend doing it yourself without the proper tools and knowledge. The risk of you screwing it up and costing yourself more money is just too great. I hope that at least, this was worth the entertainment. Thanks for riding with me today, an