Lacing a rim, sometimes those words send people running for cover. I hear a lot of people say "I dropping my rim and spokes by the shop", or "there is no way I gonna try and do that myself. Now if you don't know the difference between a pair of pliers and a crescent wrench then you might want to drop this work by the local shop to have it done professionally. Otherwise, this job is not the "big bear" it sometimes is made out to be. You don't need an expensive lacing jig as you will see if you read Carl Askews below on a lacing jig. I tried Carls method recently on my CB-750 front rim and hub, I didn't use the radio as he does (I watched wrestling on TV) but I followed his method on the jig just as he mentioned and it really was a breeze. The most important part is being sure you don't get the outer spokes mixed with the inner spokes and on most rims they are two different sizes, keep in mind there is not much difference between the two so look carefully. I can't speak for lacing all rims as I mostly have laced Honda rims. However, with the Honda rims if you look at the rim closely you will notice where the spoke goes into the rim there will be a small hump pointing toward the hub, look closely and you will see exactly where the spoke is suppose to come from as the humps are directional. They indicate if the spoke comes from the right or left side of the hub and also if the spoke comes from the right of left side of the rim.
Once you get all your spokes laced through the rim rotate the rim and slowly tighten each spoke. Don't try to tighten
it too much at a time, work the rim around until the spoke nuts are just starting to make contact. At this point
you can start working on making your rim circular. Find the high spots and and tighten the spokes around the high
spot. You will find that you may need to loosen the spokes about a quarter turn around the low spots and turn the
rim around to the high spot to tighten it. Keep working it and you will get a feel for it. After you have got your
rim round you can then start working on getting the wobble out of it. Again, start with the high spot and then
down a low spot, it will quickly start to take proper shape. After get the rim strait double check to make sure
it is still concentric. If not, go back over it and when you get it straight check for the wobble again. Each time
it should get better and soon you are thruogh. Go around and flick the spokes with a finger, they should all be
tight and make about the same sound. Tighten any spokes that are loose and check your rim again for trueness. Check
out Carls jig below!!!
By Carl Askew
I do like the idea of the wheel jigs I must admit, and would snap one up if ever I got the chance to buy one cheap. But I have been building wheels since 1969 and have never once used anything else but a vice, an axle and a spacer to mount the wheel on. That is with the axle standing up vertical. I can't say which would be the easiest having only used the vice, but a vice is very easy to find. I do use a 3 " shifting spanner most of the time while I am truing and then a spoke spanner to tighten them at the end. Do make sure that you use a good quality spanner on the nipples because once they are rounded that is it. The first thing to get right is to get the rim concentric with the hub, then you can true it to run straight. Getting the rim concentric with the hub is always the first step. It is a very satisfying job, I always listen to the radio while doing it, but that is not important.