The Great Bicycle Build Part 3

Yesterday my younger son and I put all the spokes on the front and back wheels, 32 spokes on each wheel.  The technical term for this process is "lacing the spokes."

Here is the beginning of the process for the back wheel.  My son laced the first 16 spokes (eight spokes on each side of the hub) to get things off on the right foot.  Then we set the wheel in the truing stand for ease of construction with the remaining spokes.  Note the elegant symmetry.  I was reminded of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man sketch. 

Our goal was a 3-cross spoke pattern.  The pattern is beautiful and has the advantage of increased strength from the crossed spokes, which reinforce each other.  I immediately set to the work and laced up a 0-cross pattern, which I was proud of until politely informed that I had gone astray.  All of the spokes I added had to be unlaced.  Such are the pitfalls that await the novice bike builder. 

Finally,  my son and I got all of the spokes where they belonged for the 3-cross pattern.

The spokes haven't been tightened fully, so they are still a bit wiggly.  The spoke tensioning and wheel truing (straightening) process comes next.