Topic: Help me see the error of my ways/lace

[Bootsey]

It's my first time trying to re-lace a wheel, and I'm stuck, by something I imagine is ridiculously simple.
The bike is a 1975 CB550K, stock hub & stock 19" rim. New spokes & nipples to suit from David Silvers, which are identical to the old ones.

So I lace up the first side of inners starting at the valve stem hole -  every second hole on the hub going to every fourth hole on the rim. The nipples are only just threaded on.  I make sure the rim dimples are orientated the correct way, and once laced, the hub is turned so that angle of the spoke is correct.
With everything exactly the same, flip the wheel. I count 7 holes around from the opposite side spoke at the valve stem (as explained here https://bikebrewers.com/lace-motorcycle-wheel/) The explanation here all seems to match the photos I took before disassembling.

With the nipples loosely on, there is plenty of movement. I can get the first one, maybe two spokes in, but they have to be coaxed around the already fitted spokes. The more spokes fitted, the harder it becomes, and the spokes would need bending around the others to fit. Hopefully the pictures below will illustrate what I mean.

So what question is, what is my simpletons brain missing here?

[Chief]

I am new around here, but I have been surfing around the FAQs and there are some very good posts in the wheel and tires FAQ about wheel lacing and truing.  I have yet to try it myself but I plan to.

[gwallis]

You have to do all of the inside spokes first... on both sides.

I hope that helps!

[DaveBarbier]

I followed this post exactly. Even used blue tape, haha. I never laced a wheel before but got it right the first time thanks to this post by Saltcitycafe.

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=135846.0

[Chief]

+1 to this!

[Bootsey]

Thanks Dave, I'd missed that one & it was quite helpful.

So I got the wheel all laced up, fairly certain it's correct. The thing that was stalling me, was that it took a bit more flexing of the inner spokes to get them to fit around one another than I originally thought it should - but i guess that's how the spoked wheel is able to perform how it does. I ended up having to take some of the first side inners out each time I fitted another on the second side, & the outers were dead simple.

Now to get it trued.

[seanbarney41]

don't forget to figure out how and why your rim turned black...and fix that

[Bootsey]

don't forget to figure out how and why your rim turned black...and fix that

They wear it as sign of mourning for the former chrome, which was very much deceased.

[seanbarney41]

don't forget to figure out how and why your rim turned black...and fix that

They wear it as sign of mourning for the former chrome, which was very much deceased.

ok, thats a pretty good excuse