Hub Offset

Not all hubs are central in the wheel, in fact most have a degree of ‘offset’.

The offset is most important as this ensures that your front and rear wheels are in line. The offset best measured with the tyre removed. A straight edge is then placed across the brake drum face (or the disc mounting face or even the sprocket mounting face) and the ‘gap’ between the straight edge and the edge of the rim is measured.

If you remove the hub from the rim you should note down this measurement and the face the straight edge was mounted on.

At SRM we stock spokes in the blank form and bend, cut and thread each spoke to the specific bend and length required by any particular hub and rim combination. This allows us to match exactly the required spoke length so the spokes are neither too short (with threads showing at the spoke nipple) or too long (with excess threads protruding through the nipple).

It should be noted that spokes lengths vary with the type of rim fitted. Great care is take to preserve the original spoke pattern and careful measurement of the hub offset is observed throughout the final ‘truing’ of the wheel.

During the final ‘trueing’ the spokes are ‘bedded in’ and an even tension applied all round to give years of maintenance free service. In the wheel building process we would take the necessary measurements from the complete ‘old’ wheel (or the customer can do this with reference to the wheel information) and then dismantle the wheel.

If required the hub would have the bearings removed and then be painted.

If serviceable the old rim would be cleaned ready to refit, if not a new rim would be selected and we would drill or punch the nipple holes to the correct angle to suit this particular hub (See SRM Rim section).

The spokes would be made and the wheel built and ‘trued’. Spokes are available in different materials and gauges (spoke thickness).

  • Zinc Plated spokes
  • Unpolished stainless steel spokes
  • Polished stainless steel spokes
  • Butted Polished stainless steel spokes.

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