Newsgroups: rec.bicycles
Subject: Re: Question: wheel rebuilding
From: kim39@husc8.harvard.edu (John Kim)
Date: 25 Jul 92 11:29:58 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

hp.com> BRANDT_JOBST/HP1900_01@HPLOMG.HPL.HP.COM writes:
>Malcolm Butler writes:
>> Finally, I'm fairly new to wheel-building, so any advice on that is
>> also welcome (and yes, I've read the FAQ and I already have
>> _The_Bicycle_Wheel_: thanks Jobst, it's a great book).
>
>Well thanks for the ah... compliment although it doesn't ring quite that
>way because in the same "breath" you ask for advice.  I cannot imagine
>finding the subject digested in more detail than in the book, even by a
>lengthy essay on the net.  Try it, I think it will work.  But first you
>must open the book.
>jobst_brandt@hplabs.hp.com

	Zing!  Another stinger from Jobst, though I must say that I used
his book to build two wheels and I cannot figure out why you would need
any other advice.  Actually, I did have one or two minor questions about
his book so I emailed him and got some great advice.  I'm not a heavy-duty
rider, but I am a fairly heavy rider, and my wheels have done very well.
They stayed true except when I tried to hop a pothole and hopped the
rear wheel onto the edge of the pothole, getting a pinch flat and putting
a wobble in the back rim.  I took the wobble out, but now the tension 
isn't quite even, so I am watching the wheel closely.  

	Now to contradict myself, I do have some advice:
1) You might consider the Nashbar sport rims.  They are made by Sun.
The one with the double-eyelet unfortunately only comes in  a hard-anodized
version, but the other one (US13?) comes in a  silver polished version
for only about $13.  It's heavier than the double eyelet version, presumably
because the center wall has to be thicker to take the stress of the spokes.
(It has a box construction, but the eyelet rests only on the inside wall.)
Be warned that some of these rims have a sharp edge at the stem hole, so
you might want to file it down or cover it with something.  Also, I don't
know if these Nashbar rims are as strong as the Mavic MA2 (which Jobst
uses, if I remember correctly).

2) I finally bought a nipple driver for my 2nd wheel, and it was a great
help.  However, until that I made do with a larger jewler's type 
screwdriver, which allowed me to rest the end of the handle against my 
palm and spin the screwdriver with my fingers.

3) I haven't figured out what to do with my old wheels... nothing wrong
with them except that they are heavy and wide, so 23 and 28mm tires
look wrong when I mounted them on the old rims.

4) Keep your derailleur adjusted or buy a cheesy plastic spoke protector.
I didn't do either and it was very painful to behold when the chain
fell in and cut up some spokes.  I ended up having to replace the 9
outside spokes on the ride side because of my oversight.  ,

-Case

p.s. The Minoura $30 truing stand works fine, but it flexes in the
center when you clamp the wheelin.  By all means if you have the money
buy a sturdier stand!  It is much better than no stand, but it does
not work to owell with solid axles, such as the rear axle from
the lower-end Giant bikes or any Murray bike.  The top of the line
Park stand is superior in this aspect because the axles sit in V-grooves
on the support arms, allowing the outer locknuts to rest against the
arms, whereas my Minoura wont' do that if the axle ends protrude more
than about 1 cm from the outter locknuts.  I can still true a solid-axle
wheel fine, but it is hard to center it using the reverse-the-wheel
method.

Newsgroups: rec.bicycles