Hub motor wheel building

[budsy]

Out of curiosity, why are you on an ebike forum @budsy if you don't like ebikes?

Is no wrong in telling facts and a don't giv a toss if u don't like what iv said about e bikes
being full of problems for so many people ..I know several whom have had problems with their ebikes

and I said to 2 guys when a was out cycling just few days ago , said where is your bikes and guy said too much problems since he got his new and that this was one big mistake that he shouldn't have went down the e bike route
then said u have done the right thing in not going down the e bike route

I was thinking on it then but with reading up more on them plus this very site
and what ive heard from a couple guys who had e bike problems
and what they said to me well with that I know ive done the right thing
and saved much £s in the process

Now Gavin and Neal both have a nice evening

 

[Gavin]

Is no wrong in telling facts and a don't giv a toss if u don't like what iv said about e bikes
being full of problems for so many people ..I know several whom have had problems with their ebikes

and I said to 2 guys when a was out cycling just few days ago , said where is your bikes and guy said too much problems since he got his new and that this was one big mistake that he shouldn't have went down the e bike route
then said u have done the right thing in not going down the e bike route

I was thinking on it then but with reading up more on them plus this very site
and what ive heard from a couple guys who had e bike problems
and what they said to me well with that I know ive done the right thing
and saved much £s in the process

Now Gavin and Neal both have a nice evening

Thanks for your reply, however you haven't answered the question I posed....

 

[WheezyRider]

New hub in the rim, tra la la la la...

Got the spokes from Ryan (thanks Nealh) and the length seems right (thanks vfr). Took a couple of hours of messing about trying to get spokes in the right places (and getting it wrong a few times!) but got there in the end.

Crossing of 2 looks ok, no horrendous spoke bends at the nipples. I think the old hub/rim combo looked so bad because of eyelets in the nipple holes, this seems to prevent the nipples from angling slightly, so all the angle has to be taken up by the spoke bending. The new rim doesn't have eyelets.

Now I have to do the truing and dishing

Then hopefully this motor that has been sat on my shelf for many months can finally show me some motion...

 

[Nealh]

Well done for having a go, a skill any avid biker should learn. Once you get to learn the not so dark art of wheel building you will want to do more.
You will need patience to get the spokes tightened and trued. Don't worry about the dish too much until it is trued quite well, though if doing it in the drop outs then you can get the dish right as you go along. If you get stuck or frustrated put it down and try again the next day, eventually it will come with practice.
I found once I'd done my first one I couldn't wait to do another and that happened ( not with a hub motor wheel) but a front wheel, I hit a rabbit hole whilst off road and the wheel was so badly buckled that I had to jump up and down on it so that I could ride home again.

 

[Charliefox]

New hub in the rim, tra la la la la...

Got the spokes from Ryan (thanks Nealh) and the length seems right (thanks vfr). Took a couple of hours of messing about trying to get spokes in the right places (and getting it wrong a few times!) but got there in the end.

Crossing of 2 looks ok, no horrendous spoke bends at the nipples. I think the old hub/rim combo looked so bad because of eyelets in the nipple holes, this seems to prevent the nipples from angling slightly, so all the angle has to be taken up by the spoke bending. The new rim doesn't have eyelets.

Now I have to do the truing and dishing

Then hopefully this motor that has been sat on my shelf for many months can finally show me some motion...
[/QUOTE

New hub in the rim, tra la la la la...

Got the spokes from Ryan (thanks Nealh) and the length seems right (thanks vfr). Took a couple of hours of messing about trying to get spokes in the right places (and getting it wrong a few times!) but got there in the end.

Crossing of 2 looks ok, no horrendous spoke bends at the nipples. I think the old hub/rim combo looked so bad because of eyelets in the nipple holes, this seems to prevent the nipples from angling slightly, so all the angle has to be taken up by the spoke bending. The new rim doesn't have eyelets.

Now I have to do the truing and dishing

Then hopefully this motor that has been sat on my shelf for many months can finally show me some motion...

I used a cheap, compared to Parkes el al stuff, Tacx truing stand. Which means all those hours spent getting the wheel sorted is warm and comfortable as the stand clamps to any desk! Yes, even £50 odd is expensive for only one wheel truing but after a few, since MTB wheels have hard use, it soon pays it's way. see https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/tacx-t3175-exact-wheel-truing-stand/rp-prod33904

 

[Wrighty]

If you are lucky and find a good chap at Halfords he will order you the right spokes, if you unlucky the staff are all young and not have a clue if you ask the staff they will direct you to a store with a long term employee who knows.

 

[richtea99]

I'm no wheelbuilding expert, but this ebike-specific spoke calculator looked quite sweet when I was looking recently, since you get to see the result:

Online Spoke Calculator for Hubmotors and Ebikes

Our handy spoke length calculator allows for easy calculation of spoke length for custom builds - and is the only one of its kind to include paired spoke holes in the flange as is common with many large diameter hub motors. It also creates an automatic side view drawing of the laced wheel and...

www.ebikes.ca

 

[Nealh]

I'm no wheelbuilding expert, but this ebike-specific spoke calculator looked quite sweet when I was looking recently, since you get to see the result:

Online Spoke Calculator for Hubmotors and Ebikes

Our handy spoke length calculator allows for easy calculation of spoke length for custom builds - and is the only one of its kind to include paired spoke holes in the flange as is common with many large diameter hub motors. It also creates an automatic side view drawing of the laced wheel and...

www.ebikes.ca

It must be good if the web site builds the wheel for you .

 

[Nealh]

If you are lucky and find a good chap at Halfords he will order you the right spokes, if you unlucky the staff are all young and not have a clue if you ask the staff they will direct you to a store with a long term employee who knows.

I wouldn't even let them repair my barge pole let alone order spokes.

 

[WheezyRider]

After a lot of swearing and two steps forward, one back, I've got the hub installed and the rim true.

Today my new tyre arrived, the new Schwalbe Marathon e-plus which I've now put on the rim with a fresh inner tube. It's all black, motor, spokes, nipples and rim:



Although the rim is true, I'm not sure the spoke tension is high enough. There were a few pinking sounds when I inflated the tyre. I suppose I will need to check how true it is when I now put it on the bike. I don't have a spoke tension meter, is there a way of checking for the correct tension without one?

(Actually posting this picture on here has got me worried I've put the tyre on the wrong way round! I'll have to check tonight.)

 

[Bikes4two]

Damn good effort @WheezyRider - the spoke tension of the individual spokes can be audibly estimated by pinging the spoke with a fingernail but is best done with the tyre off and inner tube removed, remembering that for a dished wheel, the shorter spokes have a higher pitch.

In the absence of a tensiometer, ping the spokes off another wheel for comparison.

And +1 for the wheel pro ebook mentioned up thread. I built my first wheel using that book a few years back and the tools I built from MDF are still in use today. As others have said, once you've built your first wheel, you'll be hooked.

 

[Nealh]

When spokes are tensioned, one needs to de - stress to stop them pinking. Grab each pair that cross and squeeze gently with your hand, do this after each adjustment for tensioning. For £15 you can get a tensioner if you r ear isn't great, generally though spoke tension can be up to 20% out without affecting the build.

 

[WheezyRider]

Damn good effort @WheezyRider - the spoke tension of the individual spokes can be audibly estimated by pinging the spoke with a fingernail but is best done with the tyre off and inner tube removed, remembering that for a dished wheel, the shorter spokes have a higher pitch.

In the absence of a tensiometer, ping the spokes off another wheel for comparison.

And +1 for the wheel pro ebook mentioned up thread. I built my first wheel using that book a few years back and the tools I built from MDF are still in use today. As others have said, once you've built your first wheel, you'll be hooked.

I checked the tyre orientation last night and typical for me, 50:50 chance and I had to put it on the wrong way round! That's what happens when you are in a hurry and you forget to look for the arrow.

So now when I take the tyre back off, I'll do the ping test.

 

[Nealh]

With tyres one can also go by the tread for direction/orientation as most use some type of V pattern.

 

[Hison]

I don't know, I took Chinese and it's been worth two years.

 

[WheezyRider]

Today I got the tyre the right way round, tightened the spokes a bit and checked it was still true.

I had to reposition the controller as the cable on the new motor was quite a bit shorter, but I got it all set up ok.

I took it for a spin. It was somewhat quieter than the old motor. That might be because I opened it up first and used high spec grease on the gears. There was surprisingly little grease on anything when I opened it up.

I think it has a little less torque than the old motor, but de-restricted it runs a little faster.

Before I put this motor into the rim I drilled a 2 mm hole through one of the disk brake blind holes, so I have the option of adding ATF if I want.




The next job is to set up the derailleur properly...