When I built up my fat bike, I had the intention of saving
some money and drilling out the rims myself.
I had some spare time so I decided to take on the project.
I started by marking the rim for the holes and then
drilling 1/16” and 1/8” pilot holes in
each location. I made a fixture to hold
the wheel while drilling, it made
holding the wheel easier.
Once all of the pilot holes were drilled I started with the
1 3/8” holes, I was committed to this once I drilled the first hole. Some people relocate the valve stem hole to the
seam weld on the rim and then they drill out the old location to the larger
size, I did not do this. I marked the valve stem hole and weld to make sure that I would not drill. I also used some electrical tape to protect
the edge of the rim from the metal shavings. Each wheel took about an hour to drill.
Once all the holes were drilled I deburred them and installed
the Surly rim strips. I think that the
blue strips are a nice touch. The
deburring process takes a while, but you really need to make sure there are no
sharp edges.
In total the drilling removed 230 grams or ½ pound off of
each wheel. I had a pile of aluminum when I was done.
The bike feels a bit
snappier and it looks cool too! My bike is down to 31 lbs, which is not to bad. My
biggest advice to anyone that is going to do this to take your time, it took me
about 4 hours over a couple of days.
