Front wheel lacing

Take lots of photos before stripping the wheel down .

Just for kicks, because they've been recommended here and on other threads, I've went to Buchanan's web site and did some figuring. To purchase one of their rims, spoke sets, have them polish it, lace and true to my hub it would be $724.60 for a total. That does not include shipping both ways, and I assume they would also charge tax. This may well be approaching, or over $1000. I'm sure, that having been in business as long as they have, and as big as they have become, that they do quality work. Still, around a grand for one wheel is probably going to be way out of the budget for me. That's nearly as much as I paid for the whole bike. I know others don't look at things that way and will pay up to have things first class. I simply don't expect to end up with a show winner. Will continue to look for a good used replacement or may still consider buying what's needed and do it myself.

I've also used devon rims and spokes with good result.

You can do this yourself . Take your time , go slow , lots of instructions about on this . Enjoy the process .

In contrast to the Disc front wheel being one of the hardest to lace the drum is one of the easiest.

The spoke sets on Devon rim are common between the Commando 19" rear drum and front drum.

quawk said:

Just for kicks, because they've been recommended here and on other threads, I've went to Buchanan's web site and did some figuring. To purchase one of their rims, spoke sets, have them polish it, lace and true to my hub it would be $724.60 for a total. That does not include shipping both ways, and I assume they would also charge tax. This may well be approaching, or over $1000. I'm sure, that having been in business as long as they have, and as big as they have become, that they do quality work. Still, around a grand for one wheel is probably going to be way out of the budget for me. That's nearly as much as I paid for the whole bike. I know others don't look at things that way and will pay up to have things first class. I simply don't expect to end up with a show winner. Will continue to look for a good used replacement or may still consider buying what's needed and do it myself.

Click to expand...

When I did mine I ordered up the rims and spokes from Buchanan's and asked them to label everything, including rim location and direction of rotation. I watched a lot of videos and took a lot of pictures. I also made small marks on the hubs to show the spoke angles for reference. If you study the old rims you should see a pattern, to me it looked like groups of 4 spokes. Lacing went pretty quick, I think it was an hour for the first and maybe 45 minutes for the second. Truing on the other hand took a while.
I took my offset measurements from the center of the rim to a known machined surface. I have a MKIII so I used the disc mounting surface. I went with wider rims so I couldn't use the outer edge of the rim for reference. I got my final offset check with the rims on the bike, once I had that information I finished up on a truing stand with a dial indicator.

Set your up and down adjustment first, and when making adjustments on both axial and side to side, always loosen one side before tightening the other. Take your time, and when your done you will be quite pleased at your accomplishment. Wish I had more information, but I did mine about 8 years ago so I'm sure I forgot a lot of the smaller details Good luck!

Deets55 said:

When I did mine I ordered up the rims and spokes from Buchanan's and asked them to label everything, including rim location and direction of rotation.

Click to expand...

Don't quite understand about having them label rim location, and direction of rotation. As far as location do you mean front or rear, or left side, right side? If you got two original size rims, aren't they the same, front or rear? And about direction of rotation, I understand tires are intended to be installed in their proper direction of rotation, but does a wheel have a specific intended rotation direction?

quawk said:

I understand tires are intended to be installed in their proper direction of rotation, but does a wheel have a specific intended rotation direction?

Click to expand...

If it were a rim for a disc wheel then it would.

Deets55 said:

When I did mine I ordered up the rims and spokes from Buchanan's and asked them to label everything, including rim location and direction of rotation. I watched a lot of videos and took a lot of pictures. I also made small marks on the hubs to show the spoke angles for reference. If you study the old rims you should see a pattern, to me it looked like groups of 4 spokes. Lacing went pretty quick, I think it was an hour for the first and maybe 45 minutes for the second. Truing on the other hand took a while.
I took my offset measurements from the center of the rim to a known machined surface. I have a MKIII so I used the disc mounting surface. I went with wider rims so I couldn't use the outer edge of the rim for reference. I got my final offset check with the rims on the bike, once I had that information I finished up on a truing stand with a dial indicator.

Set your up and down adjustment first, and when making adjustments on both axial and side to side, always loosen one side before tightening the other. Take your time, and when your done you will be quite pleased at your accomplishment. Wish I had more information, but I did mine about 8 years ago so I'm sure I forgot a lot of the smaller details Good luck!

Click to expand...

They sent me the wrong spokes and then lectured me over the phone about how awesome and knowledgeable they were. I told them the rim and hub, it was not that difficult, N15CS rear hub, NOS, drum brake, yada yada. It was tiring and in the end I had to grind the ends down a couple of mm. There was no convincing them. The wheel is fine.

quawk said:

Don't quite understand about having them label rim location, and direction of rotation. As far as location do you mean front or rear, or left side, right side? If you got two original size rims, aren't they the same, front or rear? And about direction of rotation, I understand tires are intended to be installed in their proper direction of rotation, but does a wheel have a specific intended rotation direction?

Click to expand...

Yes, both. To avoid any problems I asked them to label which one was the front, and which one was the rear. I also asked them to indicate the direction of rotation, because in my case it changes the angle of the spoke to rim connection. Which happened to work out well, because the P.O. had the rear laced wrong and caused some spokes to break at the spoke/nipple connection. As far as spokes were concerned, one rim used 3 different types of spokes and the other used 4 different types of spokes. So I had to label them accordingly.
I had to idiot proof the project, because at times I tend to be an idiot.

gpzkat said:

They sent me the wrong spokes and then lectured me over the phone about how awesome and knowledgeable they were. I told them the rim and hub, it was not that difficult, N15CS rear hub, NOS, drum brake, yada yada. It was tiring and in the end I had to grind the ends down a couple of mm. There was no convincing them. The wheel is fine.

Click to expand...

I also had to grind down some spokes. For some reason, at the time, that did not seem unusual. But being a novice I didn't bother to investigate it.

I had to do that on a couple of mine, with a dremel tool. I thought there was a bit too much thread showing through the nipple inside the wheel to rely on the rim tape.

The first guy who ever built a wheel, did not have a video to guide him. 'Nothing is ever good nor bad, except thinking makes it so'. An achievement is always worth having.
I have fitted an 18 inch rim in place of a 19 inch rim - front and back on large conical hubs. It is actually fun. But it stuffed the handling of my Triton 500. I liked doing it, but I was really stupid. I got better rubber, but the handling was much heavier. So my bike was no quicker. I think when I did that, I drilled the rims with a hand drill. I must have taped and old rim to the new undrilled one, and copied the angles by eye. My mate had the gadget which rolled the threads on the spokes.
It must have been easy, because I did it when I was out of my brain with anxiety.
I was really stupid when I was young. I have been told I should write a book, but it might give young guys nightmares. I loved what I did, but I could have done it much better if I didn't have a dick.
My Ex does not sleep in a car. One of my 3 kids actually visited me a few days ago. He is building a big new police training college in our town.

Deets55 said:

Yes, both. To avoid any problems I asked them to label which one was the front, and which one was the rear. I also asked them to indicate the direction of rotation, because in my case it changes the angle of the spoke to rim connection. Which happened to work out well, because the P.O. had the rear laced wrong and caused some spokes to break at the spoke/nipple connection. As far as spokes were concerned, one rim used 3 different types of spokes and the other used 4 different types of spokes. So I had to label them accordingly.
I had to idiot proof the project, because at times I tend to be an idiot.

Click to expand...

Well, I purchased my bike from the original owner with fairly low miles. It has its' original wheels so I have no reason to believe it's been relaced and possibly done wrong.

quawk said:

Well, I purchased my bike from the original owner with fairly low miles. It has its' original wheels so I have no reason to believe it's been relaced and possibly done wrong.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you got all the bases covered. Good luck with your project. Pictures when your done would be great!

My 15 year old built both wheels for his Commando. We used one of those $50 wheel balancing jigs off Amazon. He took his time and measured everything and took pictures. You can do it.

The only time you are likely to have a problem is when the spokes attach to different diameters on the hub. But then you would be supplied with two lengths of spokes. I cannot see how you can get it wrong.
It is actually easy to build the wheels. If the rim is undrilled, tape it securely to the rim you are replacing and drill it by eye. It is only when you have the hub on their own that it can get tricky. If the flanges on the hub are of different diameters, the rim can only be attached one way, and you can see the difference. Most bikes these days don't have hubs like that.
The direction of rotation is not relevant. There are as many spokes pointing forwards as backwards. When you brake or accelerate, you only stretch half of them, at a time.
When you have done this once, it will never be a problem again. I can now remember what I did, and it was easy. Where I did go wrong was when I fitted a new cast iron liner to a magnesium 7R AJS hub, it had to be drilled from the inside to contain the spoke heads, The drill caught and went through the hub - I had to make a sleeve for that spoke head - NOT NICE !

PM sent