New Single Speed Wheels

After ~8 hours of work I have a complete set of wheels for my single speed again. Starting with a dented rim and acquiring parts to do the rebuild I set to learn to understand how to lace the rims and how to finish off the wheels. Having renippled a wheel set before I had a bit of experience with tensioning and truing wheels, but these were a bit different spec and the work was done two years ago, so there was a lot to learn.

I ended up with a three-cross lacing, symmetrically laced on the front wheel and asymmetrically on the rear. This is per the recommendation of Shimano for disc brake wheels, and confirmed by info found at the Disc Wheel Lacing article at PVDwiki. A setup like this is the same as is used on motorcycles, and appears to be recommended by all manufacturers (except Chris King) as the best way to set up wheels. Best I can understand this will allow the wheel to accept lots of load on the front wheel when braking and an even amount on the rear when braking or pedaling.

Once the wheels were done I put the tires and rotors back on and took a brief spin around the parking lot, riding up and down curbs as frequently as possible. I heard one or two small spoke pops, but otherwise they seem all right. I think I’ll end up going for a ride on them then retensioning / truing them on more time, and after that hopefully they’ll be okay.