For those who build their own wheels, question for y'all.
When you replace a broken spoke or spokes on a perfectly good wheel, what's the general consensus on how to lace that new spoke replacement and how the other adjacent spokes are treated?
I've consulted Dr. Google so I'm looking for more personal experience(s) or practical real-life practice(s). I am pretty good at building wheels but always eager to keep learning.
1. Do you just lace the new spoke, get it tensioned and then sort the lateral and vertical truing?
or
2. Do you detention the adjacent spokes, install the new spoke and then gradually bring them all to proper tension, then true?
Off topic but sharing stoke. I've been building for a good 7 years now. Lots of learning along the way. But over the weekend, I tried something new a good wheel builder buddy suggested I try. Wow, I built the wheel pictured in less than 1.5 hours- less than half the time I normally take to build. The new technique reduces the time to dish as well as I'm usually off on that on every prior build as I used to focused more on just tension. Happy wheelsmith here. 
1. I've always left other spokes where they're at in terms of tension, and re-tensioned the replacement spoke until I seem to have found the sweet spot. I try to avoid touching the other spokes unless it's absolutely necessary, because my operating assumption is that spoke tension was great in the wheel until that one spoke broke, so I should try to fix the one problem without creating new ones. I'll only touch other spokes if there is no tension I can find for the replacement spoke that brings the wheel back into true/round/dish, in which case I would assume the rim itself was bent in the broken spoke event. But if anyone has a reason why that approach is wrong, I'm all ears.
2. Are you going to share your magical 2x faster wheel build tip, or not? What a tease. Or do we have to play hide and seek and try to guess what it is?
I asked bec when I did just as you stated in your No. 1 comment, I had experienced a few (not majority) replacement spokes stretching by as much as 2mm. I often just account these instances that maybe those were not legit DT Swiss Comp Race spokes. I measure each spoke to verify it's the right length prior to each use. OCD me. In those cases, the area of the rim I had the spoke replaced, and stretched, that area developed a high spot that no matter what I did, wouldn't go away. That's when I learned that the stretched spoke just could not get pulled any tighter bec the threads bottomed out on the nipple and just spun until it snapped. So lately, I have been detensioning the adjacent spokes and slowly bring them all back up to proper tension with better success.
The new (new to me, because I'm self-taught for better or worst) technique I was asked to try involved the following:
1. Lace the spokes on to the hub and onto the rim as per usual affair (standard 3X, with DT Comp Race and brass nips for reference).
2. First, establish a baseline to get each drive side and non-drive side spokes to start on similar tension- drive side at 10 (reading on the tensionometer) and 5 on the non-drive side (this is for the rear wheel).
3. Then work on the lateral truing.
4. Then work on the vertical truing.
5. Magically (or maybe in an unintentional mathematical coincidence), in the last three wheels I'd done with this new method, by the time I'd get close to getting the vertical truing done, both my recommended spoke tension (110-130 kgf on my E13 carbon rims) is nearly reached on both the high and low tension side. More surprisingly, the dish has either been spot-on or in a couple wheels, was just 1-2mm off to the right. Then finish off with fine touches on both lateral and vertical hops to finish.
I timed my last wheel build and it took me an hour and 22 minutes including a proper stress and hammering (with a rubber mallet) the spoke elbows to get proper bracing (not netting out the times I had to skip songs on my Pandora, sipped on my drink and answered a few text messages).
Prior to this newfound trick, with my old self-taught method, I would get each side of the spokes tensioned to some arbitrary starting point (i.e. threading the nipples down to just the last spoke thread), then work on the lateral alignment only to always end up with a dish so off that I'd spent a good amount of time correcting the dish. Then work on getting the tensions up close to the target (130kgf on the high side) then finish with the lateral and vertical alignment to finish. It used to take me at least 2.5 hours to complete - with a few cuss words thrown around.
Ps. Pls don't tell me that this new-to-me method is the standard wheel building textbook SOP all along. That would crush me lol
Always de-tension and then bring it back up after replacement. The spokes that didn't break get put under more stress when a snap occurs. I found if you don't de-tension the next spoke to snap is roughly 90deg off from the one you replaced. Orb weaver spiders replace a bunch of strands when they replace a broken one. Kinda figure they've a better idea of these things than any engineer.
I figured as well. As much as old wrenches touted that wheel building is an art, it's also very mathematical - triangulation and cheet.
Oh yea, I might have gotten carried away and built two more wheels. Cake!
Now it would make it easier to swap out wheels when testing drivetrains (oh pls send me them tires, E13) back to back with same/in-kind wheel components.
That’s surely the “correct” way but I don’t worry about it and have rarely had issues if it’s just one spoke that broke - usually from rock damage. IME spokes, and even aluminum nips (sapim), last way way way longer than rear rims.
Sure, but I like to minimize the potential rare scenario. If an extra 10-15 minutes to do the job right drastically minimizes the potential of walking out of the woods or home during the commute or a road ride, I consider it time well spent.
When I first learned to build wheels, I was taught to consider the wheel tension as layers. Essentially, you tension all the spokes around the wheel, fine-tune the lateral run-out first, then vertical, then repeat the process multiple times until you reach your desired KGf. More layers you achieve, the more even your spoke tension and more true your wheel will be.
I agree with this, wholeheartedly, and also where a bit of the art comes in.
Different rims pull up better than others and some are often very laterally straight but vertically have issues or vice versa.
It’s all about paying attention to even spoke tension, trueness, dish, etc throughout the whole process. Take small steps as you build tension, check specs often and address any notable variance as soon as they start to come up.
Also, tenacious oil between nipple and rim early in the tension process. Helps with initial build and keeps the nipples from binding later on.
True. In the era of disc brakes, I've been less and less concerned with the lateral runout as it doesn't matter as much anymore. Even tension, at the expensive of lateral, and even slight vertical runout, is where I prefer to focus on. And you're right with tenacious oil suggestion; keeps them free later on when you need to make adjustments. Linseed oil is my go to.
Carbon rims make wheel building ridiculously simple.
I haven't built wheels since 1977. I'm really enjoying this thread!
I actually think lubricants or oils are negative these days with modern nipples, specifically DT Pro lock. I think the theory that it stops binding isn't nearly as important as re-tensioning after proper stresses and allow for stretch in the first couple of weeks.
In my opinion people do not stress the wheels nearly enough during the initial build. Pro wheelbuilders are now using tools that exert up to 300kg of force through the hub to stress spokes, not many home mechanics are doing anywhere near that.
It did not go as planned. Had to remove the tire to get good look at the area to tape. At times like this I miss tubes and not having to deal with sealant. Otherwise all is good.
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