Wheel Lacing

Yes, put the spokes in with the wheel horizontal and the hub spaced correctly slightly tight, then mount on a stand or the bike to tighten and finish. Once you've done one or two, it shouldn't take an hour to do one if there's no problems. But of course the next time you will have forgotten.

Notice you can lace them backwards too and they will work, so watch and compare as you go along. Don't ask me how I know. I think Royal Enfield laces theirs backwards from the Norton. It looks strange when you look at one next to the other.

Ok , front wheel is apart. I scribed marks on the out side of the hubs so I know which direction the outer spokes go, inner will be opposite direction. Scribe mark will be covered by spoke.
I trued up the rims when I replaced the tires 2 yrs ago. On the front I used the fender mount lugs as a measuring point. Before dis-assembly I compared the offset with the numbers I got from Buchanans. They were exactly the same. That was a good sign. Tomorrow I will try to lace them up and if I have time start to true them. On these rims there is enough area on the inside the get a indicator, so I don't have to worry about scratching the finished side.
Hobot I have a MKIII, disc brakes on both ends. Ouch?
I need to repaint my fender stays. They were rusty and peeling. They have been painted before but I found the original color under the rear stay where it mounts to the fender. Anyone know what that color is. It doesn't match any grey I could find, seems to have some blue in it? Might go down to the local auto paint supplier and get a little made up. Appreciate all the input.
Thanks,
Pete

Mk111 means you COULD just do it all on the bike itself. Each brake caliper slot as ultimately centralized for brake disc(s). Rig up wire pointers axial and radial to achieve spinning and adjusting as you go. Takes awhile.

Torontonian,

Kinda got luck a couple of years ago. Ordered a cheapo balancing stand. Company was out of stock, so they upgraded me to a full size balancing/truing stand for the same price.I think it was around $32.00. Works great and I can doing it sitting at a table. You made an interesting point about the disc brake in the rear, I wonder if I can set the wheel adjusters by just clamping on the brake with the axle loose and zero the adjusters out against the swing arm to center the rear axle.

Ohhh Mr. Pete a MKIII - in that case ignore my advice and accept my condolences. The brake calipers and rotors are fixed factory fit no brainers so only thing offset measures numbers makes any sense for, is to lace rim centers to be off centered at rear as much as factory issued OR- useful to those altering hub mounts and adaptors for non Norton brakes. Anywho my main lesion on front disc with two rows of spokes almost in a flat plane vertical with the rotor is get them pretty dang tight in a flat plane with rotor before starting to tighten the extra sloped rows. Every now and then in my living room after a round of nipple nips I'd sping wheel with a big end wrench pressed against them for a rather loud clatter that scares my big macaw to scream and wife to complain - to shock the torque snag slack out of the works.

Hobot,
Does that mean I have to buy a macaw now?
Pete

Naw just a tolerate wife that's thankful you aren't pestering her at all hours till screaming. Are you leaving holes for bead clamps? Start new a thread or add to old ones on that choice.

Hobot,
Still haven't decided on the rim locks. Had them on my Trident, one of my Honda's ( four rear flat's on a 15,000+ mile x-country trip), and this bike. Don't have them on my Goldwing or the other bikes I use to have. Flat tires on Honda were from a bad rim band, never had issues with the others. I hate to stick a extra hole in these new rims, they look to pretty.
Saw a previous thread on locks, as usual good arguments on both sides.....................
Short answer "don't know yet"

Pete

Yeah not much danger as long as don't have to ride on it long - like down from the ton, which may not allow even feeling a blow out or enterintg a sharpie, mostly they stay on rim. Ms Peel pulled her 1st Phase Four manuver at 55 mph from de rimed rear passing my hip but there was a fault in that tire I was using up so and was cresting a back road rise so may never happen again. I'll have to video Peel spoke tones and so should some others to compare notes.

I not only grease between the nipple and the rim, but I also use anti-sieze on the spoke threads. That will save trouble later, if you need to do spoke adjustment. You won't find them rusted and unadjustable in a few years' time. There's no fun breaking a spoke, when you try to adjust it.

To centralize the rim, I leave most of the spokes loose. Then tighten a few and some 180 degrees opposite. Do the same at the 90 degree positions.
See how balanced the wheel is. Adjust only the spokes that you tightened, to pull the rim more central so there's no heavy spot. You don't need to take measurements, and you'll quickly have the rim within about 0.015" radial runout. Then tighten the remaining spokes down, and do the fine tuning.

40 inch pounds is a safe maximum torque.

I did my Mk 111 wheels in a stand I made
After setting the wheels in the stand a piece of timber was cut to the width of the rim (assuming yours are straight to start with) as a guide when rebuilding with the new stainless spokes this made it easy to gauge as there was only a mm or so either side
Tightening up the spokes bit by bit got the job done in the end. SO far so good but as part of normal maintenance it does not hurt to check spoke tension now and again or if your not tone deaf you can tell by the ping of the spoke when tapped with a screwdriver if they are consistently tight or not
I was also advised to make sure the hub & rim were in the same position relative to one another. I don't know wheter or not this matters but I did it anyway

The factory method!! Applies to RH disc but reverse for LH.
Disc brake wheel spokes.
1972 Commando with disc brake. Worldwide (Trade only)
The spoking arrangement of the disc brake type of front wheel requires periodic attention to correct possible loss of spoke tension. To
eliminate the need for regular attention, the following technique which is now applied to all disc brake wheels at the factory should be
undertaken at the earliest opportunity (prior to delivery where possible):
1) With all spokes lightly tensioned, tighten left hand side inboard spokes.
2) Tighten left hand side outboard spokes.
3) As shown in the illustration below, set the left hand side inboard spokes straight (shaded heavily) by tapping the bowed
portion of the spokes with a 1/2 lb. (.225Kg)hammer and drift 3" (76.2mm) from the centre of the spoke head.
4) Retighten the left hand side inboard spokes.
5) Tighten the right hand side inboard spokes.
6) Tighten the right hand side outboard spokes.
7) Recheck wheel for truth and align as necessary.
Realignment of the left side inboard spokes as directed will tension the wheels and minimise spoke deflection, making further periodic
checking of tension unnecessary.

Everyone has given you great info and it seems you've been doing your homework as well. The only thing that I can add is: do the final "truing " with the wheels on the bike. Sometimes you have to "pull" the rim in one direction or another to get it to center up where you want it to be in relation to the rear frame and front forks. PhillySkip

DO Note: Only Norton issued rim can accept Norton issued disc spokes w/o spokes put into a bending angle as no after market rim driller apparently has the range of angles the Norton one did. Bucannan's and other builders told me to bend bang them to better alignment or better just don't worry about it but for show points.

Got the front laced this morning. Just needs to be trued. Took an hour to lace it and then another 45 mins to fix my error. I started the second set of inner spokes in the wrong section. (Off by 3 holes). Looks good. I hope the trueing goes as well. Tomorrow mornings project if I have the time.
Pete

Trued up the wheel yesterday morning. Fought with it for over an hour. Disc side outer spokes were a pain. Took a break, had a cup of coffee, bought a macaw (thanks Hobot). Then proceeded to loosen up every thing and started all over. Half an hour later I was ready to fine tune it. Crazy how that happens. I used a little bit of everyone's advice. Second time around I started with the inner disc spoke as suggested by previous poster. Getting tire mounted right now.
Pete