Here she is.. build time was one hour and thrity minutes... a front MTX laced to a front formula hub.
This spoke pattern is called a Crows Foot Hybrid required 2 different spoke lengths. I got the wheel perfect with no hop or wobble

That's a good time for a crow's foot build. Good job.

that time also includes removing the spokes from the old wheel... but I found this wheel an easy build

I never assumed any different :)

Start to finish, including spoke measuring. My first Crow's foot took longer than that I'm sure.

with every dr game project, there is a dr game video...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zxtYxO5PZTs

I choked on my beer. lol

Ok that's the WRONG way to pre-stress the spokes but i'm gonna post the link on mtbr anyways... they'll love it.

kevin, you rule.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=240243

When the founder of the magura cult laughs... you know kevin's made the big time.

Took me a while to understand why you were hitting your wheel, but now I get, it hahaha.

What's the proper way to do it anyways ?

Squeezing pairs of spokes (on the same side, pick the parallel spokes) with your hand is the accepted way. Some wheelbuilders will brace the end of the hub against something solid, like the floor or a column/tree or a wall, and then press the rim sideways trying to push it towards the same object and stress the spokes away from the hub. Then there's people like kevin...

awesome, thanks for the link

Thats wickid keving sorry for kind of a stupid question but why did you hit it witha hammer in the video?

because he's Kevin, duh

He was setting his spokes in, when a wheel has just built, the spokes aren't bent properlly, they need to be bent so the wheel can hold it's true...

He's not really doing it, it's not even the same colour hub as the one he built.

you're right, it's actually with a deore xt that he's hitting with a hammer!

That's NOT how you set spokes in... setting spokes is done using your hands,.. anyone who does it any other way is a hack.

http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html#seating

That's how I do it.

I also usually do my builds the same way as Sheldon does. Which is, if I'm reading his site properly, the opposite orientation to what Shimano tells you to do with the trailing spokes....go figure, but I agree with Sheldon's reasoning more :)

The only time I know of where I would use a hammer to seat spokes is on old hubs where the spoke head isn't sitting fully into the flange. Using a hammer and punch you can seat the spoke head..... a step that is not needed on todays wheels.

Thanks for the info!