BobSol said:
Hi Miguel
No worries, happy to help. Rims are manufactured by rolling a pre-formed section and welding the join. The area around the join will typically have a "memory" of the process which is corrected and brought into truth by spoke tension. The quality of the rim will ultimately determine how round the wheelbuilder can get the finished wheel. Concentricity with the wheel spindle is very important i.e. up and down run-out. Offset is the position of the rim relative to the hub i.e. side to side. You would think all wheels would be designed to have the rim centrally built but no they are all different. Some are, some ain't. Tyre clearance and chain run will often offset the rim. Spoke pattern varies a lot too, with the aim to distribute evenly axial and torsional loads i.e. cornering and braking. So as long as you get them round, running true and in the right place side to side you're good to go. The clever bit is to achieve all of the above with the correct tension on the spokes.
Kind Regards Bob
Hi Bob,
just to keep the conversation alive...
yes you are right, I know the importance of all of this values. Of course concentricity is no discussion. Then the balance with all spoke forces, minimizing the difference between them but also compensating for "flatness" in vertical axis. All of that is like "obviously important".
Regarding offset, from my cycling experience; it is of a great importance, very rarely the hub is centered with the rim, because the wheel has no spacers and in one side, there is a big sprocket cassette, they even have different lacing patterns in each side, thus different spoke lengths in one wheel.
Extrapolating to my Laverda, I believe the rear wheel hub has no offset with the rim, nor the front one. Front must be symmetrical. Rear, has a drum in one side, sprocket in the other side, there you could think that maybe there could be some offset, but I have discarded that option, because the axis is using spacers to center the wheel regardless of the hub to rim position, so logically thinking, the hub and the rim has to be aligned, so the center of the rim has to be in the middle of both bearings which are at equal distance from left and right of the hub spoke supporting flange.
Then the lacing patterns, I have made 100 photos and some videos.
Spoke tension, with a torque wrench that I have and an specific value....
WHAT COULD GO WRONG! (We will discover that in the next weeks episodes...

)
Now seriously Bob, if there is anything else I am missing, please do not hesitate to tell me! Regarding polishing... well, it has become my favourite thing to do in my workshop, I bought a professional machine, visited a polishing workshop a few days, and I simply love it, I can spend hours polishing with my mind in blank, is like spa for women.
Miguel.