What's in a Dave Stockton Wheel Build?

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What's in a Dave Stockton Wheel Build?

The professional wheel builder's world is one of the senses: tactile, aural, olfactory, visual interaction teach one a wheel's mood, state of health, readiness for action. A far cry from loading a wheel machine with parts and pushing a button! When you understand how much care goes into each wheel, you will know why LiveWire insists on quality packaging for transport. You will know why a report from a customer from the field is water to a thirsty wheel builder's soul. You will appreciate the hours that it takes to serve up your beautiful wheel. And you will know one of the sources of the satisfaction and confidence you experience climbing that mountain pass, crunching into that drop and rolling out, or feathering your brakes around that hairpin turn, a raptor's drop to the green valley below.

Here are some of the features of your Dave Stockton wheel. These marks of quality, together with intense care, make these wheels the best unicycle wheels available.

All components are selected with an ear to riders' progress, comments, complaints, and compliments.
Every component that goes into your wheel has been carefully examined before it is approved for the build to ensure that your wheel contains only the best parts.
Some parts require cleaning beforehand; for those I use a biodegradable degreaser.
All 36" wheel custom hubs have been etched with serial number.
For specific hubs, brass washers have been added between the spoke head and the hub flange. This time-consuming operation provides a better seat for the spoke head. As a result, there is less movement and less abrasion in that area, helping minimize spoke breakage.
The hub orientation has been controlled so that you can see and read the serial number or hub manufacturer's imprint through the rim's valve hole.
The spokes are stainless steel, ensuring that they will not rust, no matter where or when you ride.
Most wheels will use butted spokes, which are just as strong as straight spokes, but are lighter. Butted spokes localize spoke stretch to the area between end points, minimizing fretting and abrasion, and helping to reduce breakage. Butted spokes also help spread loads to more spokes.
Spoke threads have been treated with Wheelsmith Spoke Prep before building, helping keep the spokes properly tensioned during use, while ensuring the spokes remain adjustable over time.
The rim channel has been carefully checked for leftover metal fragments (see photo), rough spots, sharp edges, bead seat irregularities, and the like. I remove any surface irregularities that might compromise the tire or tube, usually by sanding, filing, or using steel wool.
In most cases, I file and sand the rim's valve hole to limit chafing of the valve during use.
On wheels with Airfoil rims, the braking surface, if required, has been custom-machined by a master machinist with a rig made specially for this rim (see here for details).
Each rim/nipple interface has been lubricated with light oil, helping ensure the wheel trues well and remains truable during use.
The wheel has been tensioned to the tension that produces the strongest, stiffest wheel possible. This tension is usually higher than most unicycle (or bicycle) wheels you will encounter, and is usually the fruit of lots of research, experimentation, and practice. I make constant use of a calibrated spoke tensiometer. For 36" wheels, I will completely map the wheel's tension, often several times, to ensure proper average tension and maximum uniformity of tension.
I use six, and often seven different methods for correcting the spoke line and prestressing the wheel. This approach is so effective in eliminating so-called "settling" of the wheel that the truing of my wheels is guaranteed. Your wheel will stand the test of time and of rough riding.
Every trace of spoke windup has been eliminated, often by marking each spoke before tensioning.
The wheel is trued to very high standards of lateral and radial motion. Usually on 36" wheels these values are less than 0.25 mm on both sides of the rim (laterally) and less than 1.0 mm radially. These standards help ensure excellent brake action.
The wheel is dished carefully so that the rim is precisely centered on the wheel throughout the tensioning and prestressing stages, typically within 0.1mm.
A quality adhesive polyester rim strip of the proper width helps protect the tube from the rim's outer wall hole edges or spoke heads.
The rim strip has been carefully centered on the rim and oriented so that it is readable from the right side of the wheel.
The tire has been selected for best possible external appearance (Coker tires, mostly).
For most wheels, I lightly dust the interior of the tire before mounting it. This helps the tube move into optimal position during pressurization.
Your tire has been properly seated and left at pressure for a time to develop a better "tire memory".
The tire has been oriented so that the manufacturer's name is adjacent to the valve, making it easier and faster for you to access it.
Wheels with splined hubs and included cranks have been assembled with anti-seize and carefully checked for crank alignment, proper fit, and solidity.