leer12•16d ago

Hot take: I blew off wheel building classes for 8 years and I was dead wrong

I always figured wheel building was some old guy mystic stuff you either had the hands for or you didn't, so I just bought pre built and trued as needed. Last spring a regular brought in a rear wheel from his touring bike, 36 hole, and the rim was cracked at three eyelets after only 4,000 miles, and he asked me straight up if I could rebuild it right instead of selling him another machine built wheel. I said sure, watched two videos that night, and laced my first 3 cross on a used rim in my kitchen at 11pm with a spoke key I got for $12. My first tension pass was garbage, the dish was off by like 4mm, but when I got it even and threw it in the stand it was rounder than anything off the rack. Now I do 2 or 3 a week for customers and the comeback rate on those is basically zero versus the factory wheels I used to push. The part that bugs me is all the time I spent telling people a machine does it better, when it just does it faster. Anyone here still sending customers to pre builts, or did you cave and learn to lace too?