SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB500/550

Wheel rebuilding

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Trigger:
Stainless less steal rims are not stainless, they stain from chain lube and are a pig to keep clean and polished  ;)

bruxby-clive:
Give it a go yourself, I rebuilt my KH 250 wheels and paid someone to true them up, on my CB500 I built and trued them up myself. I bought a wheel jig from the National Motorcycle Museum about £120 and just took my time. There are some great videos on you tube which show you how to do it.The most important bit if I remember correctly is you must fit all the spokes that go from the outside to the inside before attaching any spokes to the rim, you can add the other ones at any time.

the-chauffeur:
+1 with the give it a go crew if you're in any way mechanically inclined.

One of the great things about Honda twins and fours of the 60's and 70's (and maybe beyond) is that the wheels are a fairly basic design.  Two types of spokes in each wheel - one 'inner' and one 'outer' - and the rims centre on the hubs.  Whereas owners of other bike marques of the same era can have things like multiple spoke sizes and wheel offset (where the rim is pulled more to one side than the other) to contend with, all you'll have to worry about is getting the spoke pattern right and tightening up to run true.

As the others have said, you can learn a lot from online guides and there are plenty of folks who've put videos of the process on YouTube.   Basically, take photos and take your time.  Materials-wise, much will depend on how much effort you want to put into keeping things clean; personally I prefer stainless rims because I've had chromed rims go bad quite quickly, but bear Trigger's points in mind.  Given the popularity of your bike, you should have a fair choice of off-the-shelf stuff and not have to do any measuring spoke or nipple sizes (yeah, there are different nipple sizes . . . ).

Equally, you don't need much in the way of tools to lace a wheel - a spoke spanner is helpful, and you'll need something to hold the wheel when it comes to straightening/tensioning.  As useful as they are, wheel building stands aren't really necessary.  I started out with a couple of short lengths of wood screwed upright to an old workbench, with the axle held in place by nails and a piece of coathanger to act as a pointer when truing.  So long as the wheel can spin and axle is parallel with the floor, you'll do OK.

And there's no harm in having a go with one and seeing how far you get.  If you get it all done, great.  If not, you can just pass the bits/job on to someone who can finish it for you. 

Johnny4428:
Very satisfying to do yourself. My introduction to wheel building was a bicycle maintenance book. So I trued up an old buckled bicycle wheel using an old front forks upturned and stuck in the vice. I now have a cheapo wheel balancing jig/stand modified to true wheels in. Each to their own but I still prefer the brightness of the chrome rims compared to Stainless, but defo stainless spokes.

florence:
Thanks for this excellent advice, tempted to have a go now.

I think the chrome rims look better but my bike spends a lot of it's time outside and I'm worried they will go rusty again, although the guy I spoke to did say something about British chrome which has the holes chromed inside too but was more expensive, £140 per rim.

Also, he offered to sand blast the hubs but I'm not going to bother with that, a quick rub over with an oily rag will do.  It keeps the cost down and if the wheels are too shiny it will make the rest of the bike look weird, and besides which, I would have to take out the wheel bearings.

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