I would just like to thank everyone here who gave me advice on building my first wheels. I embarkeded on the front one on Saturday, and 5 surprisingly easy hours later I had a wheel which was within 1/4mm of true laterally, and no more than 1/2 radially. I took it out yesterday, gingerly at first, but eventually clocking up 20 miles of rough Wiltshire lanes and towpaths. The wheel seems rock solid.
To anyone thinking about doing this, I would say go for it. Take your time, have a copy of The Bicycle Wheel to hand (mucho kudos to Jobst Brandt) and find out what F sharp sounds like before you start. Can anyone post a link to an F sharp sound file by the way?
For those of you who know, how long do I need to ride before I can be sure than the wheel is correctly built?
I will be starting on the rear wheel this weekend... but I've got to make myself a dishing stick first!
Can anyone post a link to an F sharp sound file by the way?
The penultimate note of this extract from the Aria of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations (BWV988, in an unusual recording for sitar by Virginia Black) is F#. The piece is in G major.
I would just like to thank everyone here who gave me advice on building my first wheels. I embarkeded on the front one on Saturday, and 5 surprisingly easy hours later I had a wheel which was within 1/4mm of true laterally, and no more than 1/2 radially. I took it out yesterday, gingerly at first, but eventually clocking up 20 miles of rough Wiltshire lanes and towpaths. The wheel seems rock solid.
To anyone thinking about doing this, I would say go for it. Take your time, have a copy of The Bicycle Wheel to hand (mucho kudos to Jobst Brandt) and find out what F sharp sounds like before you start. Can anyone post a link to an F sharp sound file by the way?
For those of you who know, how long do I need to ride before I can be sure than the wheel is correctly built?
I will be starting on the rear wheel this weekend... but I've got to make myself a dishing stick first!
Gaz
PS In case anyone was wondering, open pro on DT swiss competition and XT hub. And the spokes *were* the right length!
I would just like to thank everyone here who gave me advice on building my first wheels. I embarkeded on the front one on Saturday, and 5 surprisingly easy hours later I had a wheel which was within 1/4mm of true laterally, and no more than 1/2 radially.
At first glance I took those to be fractions of an inch...
Quoted message said:
To anyone thinking about doing this, I would say go for it. Take your time, have a copy of The Bicycle Wheel to hand (mucho kudos to Jobst Brandt) and find out what F sharp sounds like before you start. Can anyone post a link to an F sharp sound file by the way?
I will be starting on the rear wheel this weekend... but I've got to make myself a dishing stick first!
What are you using as a wheelbuilding stand? To check a wheel for dish just turn it round in the stand, what you are checking is the centrality of the rim between the locknuts. -- Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"
Can anyone post a link to an F sharp sound file by the way?
The penultimate note of this extract from the Aria of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations (BWV988, in an unusual recording for sitar by Virginia Black) is F#. The piece is in G major.
The penultimate note of this extract from the Aria of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations (BWV988, in an unusual recording for sitar by Virginia Black) is F#. The piece is in G major.
I will be starting on the rear wheel this weekend... but I've got to make myself a dishing stick first!
I made a stand. Two upright plates welded to a horizontal base plate - separated by the same distance as the dropouts on my bike. Cut two vertical slots for the wheel to fall into and clamp the wheel with the quick release. (I used a wheel is part of the jig).
Then I drilled and threaded a hole to fit a bolt that I use to check that the rim is central - flip the wheel over and see if the rim just touches the bolt whichever way round the wheel is. Also useful to check for runout.
For those of you who know, how long do I need to ride before I can be sure than the wheel is correctly built?
There's no specific distance, but its a lot longer than you have to ride it before you'll know if it's not. If you have to stop using it because some part of it wore out you did a good job. If you don't have to true it in that time you did an excellent job.
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I will be starting on the rear wheel this weekend... but I've got to make myself a dishing stick first!
I've been building wheels for over twenty years and I still don't own one.
I will be starting on the rear wheel this weekend... but I've got to make myself a dishing stick first!
What are you using as a wheelbuilding stand? To check a wheel for dish just turn it round in the stand,
or forks/stays,
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what you are checking is the centrality of the rim between the locknuts.
That's true. If you can build a front wheel without a sishing dtick, you can build a rear one without one too (although one will make it easier to detect small errors reliably).
Nice to hear the success story, Gazza. It'll take a few more rides like that to be sure, but I bet it's fine as it is.
For those of you who know, how long do I need to ride before I can be sure than the wheel is correctly built?
There's no specific distance, but its a lot longer than you have to ride it before you'll know if it's not. If you have to stop using it because some part of it wore out you did a good job. If you don't have to true it in that time you did an excellent job.
This is the classical halting problem in Computer Science. You can only determine if a program will stop, not if it won't.
BTW, my second set of wheels are still going strong after 15 years.
For those of you who know, how long do I need to ride before I can be sure than the wheel is correctly built?
There's no specific distance, but its a lot longer than you have to ride it before you'll know if it's not. If you have to stop using it because some part of it wore out you did a good job. If you don't have to true it in that time you did an excellent job.
This is the classical halting problem in Computer Science. You can only determine if a program will stop, not if it won't.
If your wheel won't stop it's usually the classical braking problem or you just invented perpetual motion 😉
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BTW, my second set of wheels are still going strong after 15 years.
I've got more sense than to ride around on my early wheelbuilding efforts nowadays as I cannot afford to ignore improvements like alloy rims and stainless spokes.
PS In case anyone was wondering, open pro on DT swiss competition and XT hub. And the spokes *were* the right length!
Exactly the same as my rear wheel. I checked it for truth last night - ended up tightening one spoke by 1/4 turn, but couldn't find anything else to do to it. Last time I checked it (2650 miles ago, and about 1650 miles after I built it) I slightly tightened 3 spokes.
