The Tools

 

During the Lacing process I use a bespoke locally engineered nipple placing tool, along with ‘off the shelf’ nipple drivers to wind the nipples up the end of the threads.

 

During truing I use a Park Tools professional wheel truing jig and Park spoke keys.

 

A DT Swiss spoke head punch is used to seat the nipple heads correctly.

 

A Minora wheel dishing tool is used to check the rim is correctly centered over the axle.

 

A Sapim spoke tension meter is used to check that the spokes have been brought up to the right tension. This can vary from wheel to wheel due to the type of spokes used, and also one side of the wheel may be tensioned to a different value than the other.

 

Wheels  and spokes are stressed by hand during the build process to relieve any excess wind-up that would otherwise occur the first time you rode it and might cause it to go slightly out of true.