First wheelbuild

LSMike said:

Well, it's finished, I think. Thanks for the encouragements on
here a month or two ago. I built a 406 rear wheel for my
Hurricane, Alex DA-16 rim, arbitrary spokes, Deore XT hub, SRAM
12-26 road cassette, and a folding Stelvio tyre. Just done a
short test ride and all seems well so far.

I've not yet decided whether I'm going to brave using it on
Sunday's London-Southend. Perhaps I will opt for using the old
wheel until I know more about the reliability of the new one.

Well done, that man. If you followed Sheldon's instructions it should
be at least as good as any mass-produced wheel, and probably a lot
better. Go for it. My money's on its remaining perfectly true
throughout the ride and the next several dozen. It's a nice feeling
riding a wheel you've put together yourself, isn't it?

--
Dave...

LSMike said:

Well, it's finished, I think. Thanks for the encouragements on here a month
or two ago. I built a 406 rear wheel for my Hurricane, Alex DA-16 rim,
arbitrary spokes, Deore XT hub, SRAM 12-26 road cassette, and a folding
Stelvio tyre. Just done a short test ride and all seems well so far.

I've not yet decided whether I'm going to brave using it on Sunday's
London-Southend. Perhaps I will opt for using the old wheel until I know
more about the reliability of the new one.

Congratulations.

For some time now I've thought it would be a great skill to develop, but I just
don't need that many wheels!

Steven said:

For some time now I've thought it would be a great skill to develop, but I just
don't need that many wheels!

Though if you know what you're at you can keep your existing ones in
perfect shape. I tend to just throw money at it and get the LBS's wheel
chap to do periodic truing, I'll have to develop quite a bit of skill to
get that good.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Steven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

For some time now I've thought it would be a great skill to develop, but I
just
don't need that many wheels!

But surely you need a hub dynamo? :-)

(that was the first wheel I built. I was most [censored] at Robin Thorn when
he told me not to bother and to get them to build it - instead I should
practice on scrap wheels first. I was even more [censored] when he charged
me 3 quid to look up the spoke lengths - at the time I was buying a rim,
spokes, hub - oh yes, and a touring bike for my wife.
Needless to say that wheel is still fine, some years later.)

cheers,
clive

Clive George said:

But surely you need a hub dynamo? :-)

(that was the first wheel I built. I was most [censored] at Robin Thorn when
he told me not to bother and to get them to build it - instead I should
practice on scrap wheels first. I was even more [censored] when he charged
me 3 quid to look up the spoke lengths - at the time I was buying a rim,
spokes, hub - oh yes, and a touring bike for my wife.

I don't buy from SJSC unless they're the last place on earth stocking
the item. I don't like the way they do business at all. 3 quid - you
could have downloaded Spocalc for nothing and it would have taken about
1 minute to produce the right figure.

Peter Clinch said:

Though if you know what you're at you can keep your existing ones in
perfect shape. I tend to just throw money at it and get the LBS's wheel
chap to do periodic truing, I'll have to develop quite a bit of skill to
get that good.

If they're *good* wheels they will need no retruing until the rims wear
out, or until you get a rim wedged in a storm drain :-( It is possible
to build such wheels given decent components and high spoke tension.
Some rims are too flimsy and don't allow much spoke tension, so they
will tend to go out of true in use. Despite their outrageous cost, the
DT rims are very good in this respect.

"Zog The Undeniable" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:42cd943f.0@entanet...

Quoted message said:

Clive George said:

But surely you need a hub dynamo? :-)

(that was the first wheel I built. I was most [censored] at Robin Thorn
when he told me not to bother and to get them to build it - instead I
should practice on scrap wheels first. I was even more [censored] when he
charged me 3 quid to look up the spoke lengths - at the time I was buying
a rim, spokes, hub - oh yes, and a touring bike for my wife.

I don't buy from SJSC unless they're the last place on earth stocking the
item. I don't like the way they do business at all. 3 quid - you could
have downloaded Spocalc for nothing and it would have taken about 1 minute
to produce the right figure.

I don't either now, but at the time they were local to me, and I was still
young and foolish. I did get the three quid back next time I visited (buying
pedals and shoes).

I moved to Settle. Great, I thought, Settle Cycles seems like a reasonable
shop. Trouble was the owner was a miserable gitbag ('smiling jim'😉. I
stopped going there until they changed hands. The current people are nice to
deal with, so I shop there again and recommend them.

cheers,
clive

Clive George said:

I moved to Settle. Great, I thought, Settle Cycles seems like a reasonable
shop. Trouble was the owner was a miserable gitbag ('smiling jim'😉. I
stopped going there until they changed hands. The current people are nice to
deal with, so I shop there again and recommend them.

All Terrain Bikes are also excellent if they sell what you need. They
sell individual spokes and put them in bags with the lengths marked on
them, so you don't mix them up (separating 292mm and 294mm spokes is a
VERY tedious operation). Fast delivery too.

He charged you 3 quid when you were buying all that.

You know why he's called Thorn then.

It's because he's a [censored].

Anybody who does that kind of thing knows nothing about business.

I've bought quite a lot of stuff from them down the years but seldom do
now as they're too dear.

"Zog The Undeniable" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:42cd9911.0@entanet...

Quoted message said:

Clive George said:

I moved to Settle. Great, I thought, Settle Cycles seems like a
reasonable shop. Trouble was the owner was a miserable gitbag ('smiling
jim'😉. I stopped going there until they changed hands. The current people
are nice to deal with, so I shop there again and recommend them.

All Terrain Bikes are also excellent if they sell what you need. They
sell individual spokes and put them in bags with the lengths marked on
them, so you don't mix them up (separating 292mm and 294mm spokes is a
VERY tedious operation). Fast delivery too.

I've had some stuff from them. But in the end having a shop a whole mile
away wins :-)

(Settle is a really great town - we can get just about anything we want here
these days, and it's all in easy bike range).

cheers,
clive

At Thu, 07 Jul 2005 21:42:42 +0100, message <42cd943f.0@entanet> was
posted by Zog The Undeniable <[email hidden]>, including some,
all or none of the following:

Quoted message said:

I don't buy from SJSC unless they're the last place on earth stocking
the item. I don't like the way they do business at all.

That is your choice. I have bought many things form them, including
whole bikes, and would say this:

* their customer service has been (for me) excellent every time, with
no quibbles whatsoever - low-margin web shops often cannot afford to
do this

* their knowledge of touring is encyclopaedic

* they have stuff which other shops simply don't have, like
replacement GB Randonneur bars.

Nobody is forcing you to buy from them, they do notify their high
shipping charges in advance, but the fact that you don't like them
doesn't make them a bad place - and to be fair I think you were
probably not saying they are a bad place.

Robin Thorn is a difficult character, IMO, but he knows his stuff, and
the self-evident success of the shop indicates that they must be doing
*something* right.

Sorry to be argumentative, but a lot of people bash St John Street and
I think it's somewhat unfair. They are a bricks-and-mortar shop with
a bike building business, and comparing them with the likes of Wiggle
is not really fair.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Steven said:

LSMike said:

Well, it's finished, I think. Thanks for the encouragements on here a month
or two ago. I built a 406 rear wheel for my Hurricane, Alex DA-16 rim,
arbitrary spokes, Deore XT hub, SRAM 12-26 road cassette, and a folding
Stelvio tyre. Just done a short test ride and all seems well so far.

I've not yet decided whether I'm going to brave using it on Sunday's
London-Southend. Perhaps I will opt for using the old wheel until I know
more about the reliability of the new one.

Congratulations.

For some time now I've thought it would be a great skill to develop, but I just
don't need that many wheels!

I remember reading a post some years ago from someone who said he kept a
pracice wheel to rebuild whenever he felt stressed; he found it
therapeutic.

AC

--
Using Linux GNU/Debian - Windows-free zone
http://www.acampbell.org.uk (blog, book reviews,
Assassins, homeopathy, and skeptical articles).
Email: replace "www" with "ac@"

Zog The Undeniable said:

I don't buy from SJSC unless they're the last place on earth stocking
the item. I don't like the way they do business at all. 3 quid - you
could have downloaded Spocalc for nothing and it would have taken
about 1 minute to produce the right figure.

I crossed them off the list when I saw them doing the "Thorn (NOT Dawes,
Trek)" [censored] on ebuy.

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
"Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed"