Sooner or later, all cyclists will experience the need to repair or replace a wheel. Mountain bike riding is especially hard on wheels, so it pays to at least understand how a wheel is built.

Building bicycle wheels is a somewhat arcane science, but it is within the abilities of most dedicated cyclists. Although there are hundreds of choices for super-technical and super-light wheels on the market, the classic wheel made of spokes, nipples, rim and hub is simple, functional and easily repairable.

Here are links to some good online resources for bicycle wheel building:

Building Bicycle Wheels by Sheldon Brown

The wide availability of inexpensive, well-built replacement wheels has reduced the need for wheelbuilding in retail bike shops. Nevertheless, there are still times when custom built (or re-built) wheels are needed, especially in the case of higher-end bikes that have expensive hubs that are too good to throw away.

Learning to build wheels is an important milestone in the education of an apprentice mechanic. A "mechanic" who has not mastered this basic skill cannot be considered to be a fully-qualified, professional, and will always feel inferior to those who can list wheelbuilding among their skills.

Although this article was originally directed to shop mechanics, a knowledge of wheelbuilding can be invaluable to any cyclist who wishes to do his or her own maintenance and repair.

Building wheels from scratch is the best way to learn the craft of wheel truing, to get the feel for how a wheel responds to spoke adjustments. It is much easier to learn this with new, un-damaged parts than to start right in trying to repair damaged wheels.

Bike Website - Building Bicycle Wheels

The reasons you might want to replace all the spokes in a bicycle wheel, called building a wheel, or lacing, include replacing a rim, hub, or the spokes. Some enthusiasts even disassemble their wheels so they can clean the parts, and then rebuild the wheels. If you are building a bicycle wheel to replace the rim, good news: Here's a shortcut.

Wheel Building the Easy Way

I call this easy wheelbuilding because it eliminates the tricky part of the process, which is figuring out what length spokes to use and lacing the wheel with the new spokes. Unless your wheel is really old (three to five years) and has seen lots of use and abuse, you can likely reuse the spokes in the wheel, which is what I recommend for this type of wheelbuilding because it simplifies things immensely. To do this, you place the new rim next to the damaged rim and move the spokes from the old rim to the new. True the wheel and tension the spokes and you’re done. Step-by-step instructions follow.

Books on Bicycle Wheel Building

• The Art of Wheelbuilding: A Bench Reference for Neophytes, Pros & Wheelaholics (Spiral-bound)
  by Gerd Schraner

• The Bicycle Wheel 3rd Edition (Hardcover)
  by Jobst Brandt