I tried building my own wheels

This week I tried to build my own mountain bike wheels for my new Deviate Claymore. Wasn't too bad in the end!

Thumbnail by: @Kim_Norrie

[shanggosteen]

I love how mikes content has transitioned from learning time consuming skills to doing things that hes actually passionate about

[virtualfroggy]

I rewatched the video where you taught Tom Scott how to ride a bike, and as an adult who cant ride a bike myself it motivated me. I started teaching myself how to ride a bike a few days ago, and im covered in cuts and bruises, but i am semi-capable at riding a bike! And in pain. Thanks Mike!

[Liam_ridesbikes]

Love that you glossed over the true nightmare of wheel building that is spoke length calculations 😂

[pascalwiery]

I think it would have been cool if you went to a bike shop with all the tools to see how close to perfect you got with the tape method. Anyway, great video!

[seanm]

beautiful bike and nice job building the wheels up. I used to watch some of your videos on learning skills, but as a big time mountain biker I'm glad to see you enjoy the sport too! The more the merrier!

[iRunningHunter]

I have NEVER heard such a successful 1st time wheel building story. Nice work!!

[RyandeMilliano]

I've worked in a few bike shops in my time, few wheel builds though, it is truly an art and takes time. A wheel truing tip I use at home, instead of tape, is a zip tie on the seat stay cut clean, you can move it closer as you need as well, the tape could be used on the seat stay if your concerned about scratching paint. Well done man, stoked to see your stoke for mountain biking growing after your early Ben Collab's haha.

[adampatterson]

I appreciate that you talked about spoke tension. A true wheel isn't always a strong wheel if the tensions out of whack.

[VosperCDN]

I still recall the first mountain biking videos, learning downhill .. now, building his own bike in every detail. What a great journey.

[bluej]

Great video Mike. As someone's whose built wheels, bicycles and motorcycles this is amazing. You can true your own wheels now. Btw you should make a video on making a truing stand. I bought a motorcycle one and used that. Works great.

[jacobwise]

I learnt to build my first (and only) set of MTB wheels in 2020 for something to do during covid lockdown. I used cable ties on the frame instead of tape and the coin stack trick to get the dish right but essentially the same cheapo method you did. Oddly enough it took me just under 6 hours too! They're still straight and round now, never had to adjust either of them once!

[Kleyguy]

I have once rebuild a wheel while changing a hub. The biggest problem for me was to get a correct tension of the spokes, because I didn't have a spoke tension meter. At first I have built the wheel too loose. Then the spokes would go out, it was a mess. Later I was grabbing all bicycle wheels I could find to get a feel how a proper tension should feel like. After tensioning all the spokes somewhat correctly I was really happy with the result.

[FinduroVR]

This video is super cool to me because I used to work for we are one composites, who makes carbon fiber mtb wheels and frames. I did the rim layup from scratch- raw carbon to mould, mould to oven, and out comes a fresh hoop. It was one of the coolest jobs I've ever had, I can safely say I'm one of very very few people who has built their own wheels from scratch. That being said, the drilling, spoke lacing, and hubs were never something I dealt with- so seeing the process in a video form like this is super neat! I wish I would have been able to stick around longer to learn all that, but things happen I suppose. Now I can sit back at home with my new job in Whistler and enjoy the process without the suffering that appears to be quite common in this challenge! Thank you for that, and thanks for making great and informative and entertaining mtb videos!

[TheRealKermy]

I'M GONNA PUT IT OUT THERE I do this for a living and you did a quality job! reccomendations for next time would be for dishing use coins instead cause you can fine tune without it moving and use a spare spoke on either side of the frame for the overall truing as they're easier to push in and out and fine tune the true (Works more like a truing stand)

[Farlig]

Good job!!! One tip though is when you think you're done, put the wheel on an old car tyre and jump up and down like f.... on the spokes with soft shoes - both sides (be brutal), then true again. The spoke tension over time will deform the holes & flanges in the hubs at the spoke roots leading to loss of trueness, this jumping up and down will preset this leading to truer wheels for much much longer!!!

[AHoboWithAStick]

I love this ❤
I build and work with e-bikes and bikes all day, and building wheels was my least favourite thing when I first learned it
And shout out to Park tool for the great video on lacing 3 cross patterns (a nightmare with Ebikes), and ya boi kelvin 😂 their videos saved my ass so many times.

[apaljaava]

Great video! About 15 years ago I started lacing my own BMX wheels similar to this. Back then instead of using youtube, a BMX brand had a guide on their website with pictures. I used that and well, the first wheel turned out awful. As time went on I got better but I still don't aim for perfection and I don't own a truing stand too. I can still bang out pretty good wheels and most of my local town riders rode with wheels laced by me because they could not be arsed to learn it and I was cheaper than a bike shop. Great skill to have.

[makihahoo]

So excited to watch this I bet it is going to be a great video love your content

[undefined]

When someone with a strong Scottish accent tells me that someone just send him his brandnew Claymore, the last thing I am expecting is a bicycle.

[BrainiacManiac]

I was literally just looking into doing this today!