[CR]RE: Wheelbuilding

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Avocet)

Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 22:29:59 -0500 (EST)
From: <wheelman@nac.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]RE: Wheelbuilding

I am by no means an expert here but I have done about 20 wheels or so by now. The first trick I learned was to take my old wheel and place the new rim right along side it and tape them together in 4 spots not covering any spoke holes. You have to align the valve holes and make sure the spoke hole direction is the same. Now you can move one spoke at a time from the old rim to the new. This way you keep the same spoke pattern on the old hub (Steve's tip) and don't have to rebuild a wheel.

I have done about 10 from scratch and still learning. Thank goodness I can hang at the Bike Stand where Steve has shown me a few times how to get started, always the most difficult for me. You see, Steve is an expert wheel builder having done it for a living at one time. To watch him do it is what I would call art. Grabbing a hand full of spokes and with the flip of his thumb he fans them out like playing cards. He then drops them into place faster than you can tighten saddle clamp. I was in there the other day trying to size some spokes for a 650 wheel with 28 spokes. He pulled out some book, got out the calipers and took me to school again. After doing some math I had the spoke length for what ever pattern I wished. Soon I will be at it again.

A neat tip that Steve told me on how to identify a 32 from a 36 spoked wheel from a distance. If you have the parallel space at the valve hole and you look 180 degrees around the wheel and that same space is directly across from the other then you have a 32 hole hub. If there is a cross directly across at 180 degrees it is 36. I know many of you knew this already but I did not and it has saved me from counting a lot of spokes.

Ray Homiski
Elizabeth, NJ