Reading Material

You can’t read up enough on subjects about which you wish to learn and form your own views. The more varied and different perspectives you seek out, even if you know you’ll disagree with them from the outset, the more likely you are to come to the correct conclusion. My experience thus far with regard to wheel building books bears this out. It helps if, like me, you’re an opinionated git to start with!

I started with Sheldon Brown’s guide to wheel building, which you can find for free on his frankly extraordinary website (just go and spend some time looking around there!). I used this exclusively when building my first two wheels and found that it provides a good grounding on the basics. It enabled me to lace the wheels well enough, but I have found subsequently (through further reading rather than bitter experience, fortunately!) that it was woefully inadequate in its description of the latter stages of building, especially with regard to obtaining the correct spoke tension. It may have been updated subsequently, but I’ve not gone back to check and neither shall I. I would, however, recommend it as the first thing that a first-timer should read – just don’t make it the only thing!

Next up I came across Wheelpro, or to give him his real name, Roger Musson. He was for years the pro-wheel builder for the MBUK downhill MTB team (presumably before it became the sorry excuse of a “lifestyle” mag it is today) before giving it all up and writing all his know-how down in a book, “A Practical Guide to Wheel Building”, which we can buy on-line in handy .PDF format for $9 (or a little over £5 in real money). His use of English can be poor and consequently it doesn’t read that well at times, which very quickly begins to grate. But we’re not buying it for the delicacy of his Shakespearean prose and we’re not paying for a team of proof readers and publishers, so it’s churlish to complain about that too much! Most importantly, what it does contain is the best most practical step-by-step guide to building a wheel that I have yet read. There are also tips for making your own tools, for little hassle and practically no money. For £5 you can’t go wrong – buy it. I printed it out on double sided A4 and ring-bound it with a PVC cover so that it will last.

I’ve just finished reading “The Art of Wheel Building” by Gerd Schraner (also sold as DT Prosline guide to wheel building, but it’s the same thing). Schraner is a good deal older than Musson and his book provides an interesting counter point to Musson’s as his techniques clearly owe more to tradition rather than to what is strictly required when using components designed and made using modern manufacturing techniques and tolerances (Musson’s words!). For example, unless I’ve done something wrong (nothing is apparent!) Schraner’s sequence for the initial lacing of the spokes simply doesn’t work with MTB disc hubs, and I can’t see how it would work with any other sort of hub either. He laces all the spokes on one side before doing the inside spokes on the other, which means you can’t push this set through without bending them. However his method for tensioning a significantly dished wheel seems so obviously superior to Musson’s that this is what I’ll probably use first of all and see if it pays.

Musson emphasises that spoke quality is paramount, whereas Schraner says it’s all about the rims (but then he’s being paid to use DT spokes, so for him spoke quality is a given). I disagree with both of them. The quality of ALL the components is paramount. After all, it’s not as though you can simply swap out your hub at a later date if you find it’s not up to your requirements! The biggest issue I have with Schraner is that the book just rambles on, whereas Musson stops and emphasises the key points and describes very clearly what you should be doing. Furthermore, Musson provides a final step-by-step checklist (with page references) which is such a simple thing to insert, yet Schraner has omitted one completely. If you really want it then by all means buy Schraner’s book, but with the possible exception of his rear wheel tensioning method I think it’s crap. And make sure you shop around because prices vary enormously.

The other mainstream book I’ve come across, and perhaps the best known, is “The Bicycle Wheel” by Jobst Brandt, but I’ve not yet read it as it’s practically impossible to get hold of. If you’ve got a copy that you’d like to sell then get in touch!