Building small wheels

[GrahamG]

I've got a pair of 20" wheels to build for a circe helios and have never bulky anything this small,  any hints or tips that might be useful to me?

I noticed in disassembling the wheels that they were built with heavily greased eyelets and that tension adjustments are far more fine than a larger spoke (physics obviously). So is it merely a case of making sure nipple/ rim interface is well lubed and then just taking a great deal of care with very small adjustments as tension is increased?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Brucey]

yes, more or less.  There's something to be said for using threadlock on short spokes.  Also note that


- lacing the wheels is awkward to do without bending the spokes; works best if you do one side at a time (with the rim offset temporarily) and you only start the nipples a few turns so that the spoke ends clear the rim.
- bit of a toss-up with 20" wheels whether you brace the crossings or not
-stress-relief is difficult with short spokes, but arguably at least as important as in larger wheels

cheers

[Kim]

Consider 2-cross.  Agree about the lubrication.  Lacing is awkward, but IMHO 20" wheels are easier to build well than larger ones.  (Anything smaller becomes a pain, as there's less room to manoeuvre^[1] and your tension meter probably won't fit.)


_{[1] I find a Park spoke key is better than a classic Spokey, as it's slightly narrower.}

[GrahamG]

It's with a rohloff and nexus dynamo hub so large enough to justify 1x I gather.  Thanks both for the tips.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[LittleWheelsandBig]

When I built a 406 Rohloff wheel for ex-MrsLWaB's Moulton TSR, I built 1 cross with all heads out. Rohloff advised against less than 2 cross but the flanges look plenty beefy enough. No problems in over a decade of use.

https://www.rohloff-au.com/faq-spokes

Nowadays, I never build 406 wheels more than 2 cross.

[Nightmare-1]

I find 20" wheels harder to lace(spokes tend to bend rather than Bowing) but easier to tension/true than 650/700c.

With SA hub brakes I lace them 3X after I ovaled the drum with 2X lacing (hit a pothole "Hard").