Front Wheel Spoke Lacing

On a real cafe racer, there should ideally be 17-inch wheels for wide 120/70 sport tires, which let you lean the bike deep into corners. We built the front wheel on a Yamaha SR500 hub, because it has mounts for two brake discs. The rim is Italian, specially ordered through LSL for sport tires. LSL also supplies the spokes and nipples with the rim.

To build the wheel, you need a high-quality spoke wrench and a truing stand. This kit uses a non-classic lacing pattern, so we highly recommend watching the video carefully before you start. The nipples fit very tightly into the rim holes, which makes assembly much harder: by the second row of spokes the hub barely moves. We recommend covering the rim with masking tape to avoid scratching it.

After lacing, it is best to tension all the spokes evenly, judging by the thread. There is no point in going by feel, because resistance may come not from spoke tension but from the nipple sitting tightly in the rim hole. After tensioning, the wheel is trued for radial runout (the center of the hub does not match the center of the rim), lateral runout (a figure eight) and dish.

Radial runout

First, all the spokes are tensioned evenly around the wheel several times — this is usually enough to avoid radial runout. It is important to check spoke tension: if there is radial runout, the spokes in some sector will be overtightened or too loose.

If the nipples go into the rim holes very tightly, then once they are all seated it is best to loosen all the spokes and tension them evenly again. This is needed because the resistance may come not from spoke tension but from the friction of the nipple against the rim.

Dish

When tensioning the wheel, you also need to control the offset of the hub relative to the rim along the wheel axle, so the wheel is correctly dished. This offset is measured with a dishing gauge. We don't have one, so we measured the distance between the rim and the brake disc seat with a ruler. If you tension the spokes evenly and without rushing, there may be no offset at all. You can also correct the offset on the installed wheel if it is not centered in the fork.

Lateral runout

Lateral runout is much harder to eliminate. In the video we showed the basic principle of correcting it, but that may not be enough. According to the manual, the permissible runout is 1 mm. It is hard to give specific advice on truing, but here is what we learned:

• It is better not to overtighten the spokes. When correcting a wobble, some spokes have to be loosened and others tightened. It is better to loosen than to tighten.
• It is better not to turn a nipple more than one full turn at a time. If a nipple is overtightened or loosened too much, it will pull the neighboring ones.
• The spoke wrench must be of high quality. You will turn the nipples dozens of times, and a poor wrench can round off the nipple flats.
• Be as careful as possible and don't rush. It is better to take frequent breaks than to try to do everything in one go.
• Check the tension of all the spokes from time to time.

We spent the whole day truing the wheel while filming — doing everything on camera is much harder. We noticed that the rim is 1 mm narrower at the weld. When assessing the truing quality, this deformation must be taken into account: it causes a short wobble on every revolution.

If you decide to build and true the wheel yourself, here are some tips that will help:

• Protect the rim with tape or thin film.
• Rest more than you work.
• Don't be afraid to loosen the spokes and start tensioning again.

We still have to rebuild the rear wheel — there is a separate article and video about it!