A while back, I snagged a KLX250s rear wheel off of fleabay. I only paid $50, but when it showed up, it looked like it had been in the weather since the day it left the dealership. I tried to polish it up, but the spokes and nipples were corroded and the hub was badly oxidized. Some idiot also used a screwdriver (or some other pointy object) to take the tire off and scratched up the rim pretty good.

It sat in my garage for a while, then I got a Pirelli MT-43 trials tire I wanted to try out (and swap back and forth with a knobby). Since my bike was apart for suspension work, I thought now would be a good time to redo that wheel, plus my stock wheels.

I've read a few threads here about supermoto wheels and questions about lacing them up yourself. While I was doing this, I thought I'd post my method for lacing up wheels.



This is the fleabay wheel. Even after I tried to clean it up, it didn't look much better. So, I broke down this wheel and my front and rear stockers.

The rims were sent out to Alumin-Art Plating Company to be polished and hard anodized black (I always liked the black wheels on the KX's and KTM's). I've used Alumin-Art previously for some car projects, and they've always done great work.

You can't anodize the cast aluminum hubs very well. Sometimes they look good, but most of the time they don't (i.e. black turns out purple in spots). Some companies will machine the stock hubs and then anodize them, but that work is pretty pricey. Instead, I chose Absolute Powder Coating to powder coat them black. APC is local to me, that's why I chose them.

I priced out stock spokes and nearly had a stroke when I saw the price (about $180 a wheel!). I then priced out Excel and Buchanan spokes. The Excels were cheaper, but they are plated steel, while the Buchanans are stainless. I shipped Buchanan my stock spokes for reference, and they made me 3 sets of 8 gauge stainless spokes with stainless nipples. The 8 gauge spokes effectively bring the wheels up to '09 KLX250s specs (the stockers were 9 gauge), but didn't require any drilling of the hub or rim. I could have gotten away cheaper on the spokes, but I liked that the stainless spokes will never corrode. Besides, at $96.00 a set, they were still almost half the price of the stock spokes.



Here's that same fleabay wheel. After putting in new bearings, it's ready to be laced.



The rear wheel has 2 different sized spokes. The long spokes go on the rotor side and the short spokes go on the sprocket side.

First, grease the threads of each spoke. Buchanan supplies a lube with their spokes, but you can use regular grease. If you don't do this, the nipples will seize on the threads of the spoke after a certain tightness. You'll think the spoke is really tight when it actually isn't.

Pick a side and install just the "outside" spokes (the holes in the hub that are closest to the hub's edge). You won't be able to get the outside spokes in the hub if you start with the "inside" spokes. There's no magic in putting in the first spokes. Once the spoke is placed in the hub, it will literally point to the hole in the rim it wants to go into. DON'T TIGHTEN ANYTHING YET. Just put the nipples on by a few threads.



Flip the wheel over and put the outside spoke in the other side.



Using the same procedure, install the inside spokes on each side. Again, don't tighten anything down yet. Later, when you start to tighten the nipples, you can start with a large flat-blade screwdriver. But once you start to true the wheels, you'll need a real spoke wrench. The stock spoke nipples are 6mm, the Buchanan's are 6.8mm.



To make truing the wheel much easier, start by making each spoke the same length. You could thread each nipple on the spoke until just 2 threads are showing. The only problem with this is trying to count the tiny threads 36 times. I measured each spoke from the threaded end (before installing them) and made a mark at 4". Then I cut a piece of plastic 3 3/8" long to use as a gauge. Just thread the nipple up until the gauge touches the mark, and now the spokes are all the same length to start.

Start with one side of the wheel, and give each spoke that pulls from that side of the hub 1 complete turn. Flip the wheel over and do the same on that side. Keep repeating this until the nipples start to touch the rim. Once this happens, give each nipple a 1/2 turn on each side. Keep doing this until the spokes are tight enough to take the "floppiness" out of the wheel. If the rim doesn't move around when you pick the wheel up by the hub, it's time to true it.



You don't need a truing stand to get the wheel straight. You could put the axle in a vise and use a pointer, or you could even mount the wheel on the bike and tape a pencil to the fork or swingarm as a pointer. These are essentially dirt bike wheels, and they don't need to be laser straight - eyeballing will work fine. In fact, after the first big rock you hit, they'll be knocked out of perfect true anyway.



I made a truing stand out of my T-Rex Racing bike stand for my Versys. I happened to have a dial indicator with a magnetic base, so I used that to true the wheel.

First, you want to true the wheel for axial runout (up and down), making the hub centered inside the rim. If the rim moves toward the pointer as you spin it, you want to tighten the spokes closest to the pointer and loosen spokes on the opposite side. If the rim moves away from the pointer, do the reverse. Often you'll find that if you adjust for the rim moving towards the pointer, that will also fix where the rim moves away from it.

Never tighten or loosen just one spoke. This will make your life difficult. I always turn the nipples on 4 or 6 spokes, depending on how far out it is. Use 1/4 turns when doing this so that you don't go too far. When truing for up and down, tighten and loosen spokes that pull from both sides of the hub, not just one side. Do this until the rim maintains the same gap from the pointer all the way around.



Next you need to true the wheel for lateral runout (side-to-side). If the rim moves towards or away from the pointer, tighten the spokes that pull from the opposite side of the hub. For example, if the rim moves to the left, tighten the spokes that will pull it right, and vice-versa. Again, use 1/4 turns when doing this and never tighten just one spoke. For lateral runout, I adjust 3 or 5 spokes at a time, depending on how big the wobble is. Do this until the rim maintains the same gap from the pointer all the way around.

Now you can do the final torquing. A spoke torque wrench is nice, but not absolutely necessary. In fact, the manual doesn't even give an optimum torque spec - just a minimum of 13 inch/pounds (or 1.08 ft./lbs.). Start with spokes that pull from the one side of the hub and give each nipple a 1/4 turn. Then do this for the spokes on the other side of the hub. You'll feel when the nipples are getting tight. I kept doing this until the nipples were hard to turn with 2 fingers on my 5" spoke wrench. I then used the "ping" test. Hit each spoke with metal object - they should make a "ping" sound like a tuning fork. If they sound dead or make a "thunk", they aren't tight enough. I double-checked the nipples with a spoke torque wrench, and they measured 40 inch/pounds (or 3.3 ft./lbs.) using my 2-finger method, which is what Buchanan recommended.



For these wheels, I tought I'd try out the new composite rim locks from Motion Pro. They only weigh about 1 1/2 ounces and won't throw the wheels out of balance as much. They are also supposed to be stronger than alloy rim locks too. We shall see...




Done! All I need to do is install the sprocket and rotor (when they get here) and it's ready to mount on the bike. I did the other 2 wheels as well, but I don't have tires mounted on them yet.

Total lacing and truing time for 1 wheel was about 4 hours. I know some guys can do them in an hour, but this isn't my day job and I took my time. If you've never done this before, plan on more time. It's not hard to do, but you need patience. If you get the wheel horribly out of shape, don't panic. Just loosen all of the spoke nipples, set the spokes to the same length, and start over again. Sometimes walking away for an hour helps. My first wheel took 2 days to get right. With each wheel you do though, it gets easier and quicker. Plus, you can say you did it yourself.

 

sweeet write-up, I often dreamed about doing this myself someday (and I am sure others have too)...I have access to a powder coat paint shop as well. Those stainless spokes look sharp also.

 

Great write-up, man. Lacing and truing wheels has been on my list of things to learn for a while now.

 

Wow great write up man. That is one of the best ones on re-lacing a wheel, and explaining the cost and procedure. Awesome!

 

Beautiful wheel!!!! Great write up!!!! Cant wait to see the wheels on the bike. Threads liike that are what make this site great.
Dan