I started lacing my own wheels using the bike frame with reversed brake pads on the caliper arms as the truing stand (the brake pad nuts were the side to side guides, a 10mm combination wrench rubber banded to the pads for up and down), and a spoke wrench because that was what I could afford at the time - 95% of my net worth was my bicycle and the other 5% was my few tools (back in the mid to late 70s). I cannot recommend that to anyone. A truing stand is a wonderful thing, a truing stand with dial gauges is much, much better. A tension meter is also a wonderful thing, but one of the best things that I have added to my wheel-building tool collection is the $16 Mulfinger Nipple loading tool from Efficient Velo Tools. I think I would recommend it as the second tool after the spoke wrench. The dish gauge and Park nipple driver just gather dust nowadays. It is really helpful to be able to think and visualize in three dimensions if you want to build wheels - not everyone can do that. I have even had wheels built by bike shops that specialize in wild twisted spoke wheels screw up on wheel builds - extreme differences in flange sizes can require different spoke crossings on the different sides of the same wheel. Look at an old Model A wire wheel for an example 1X on the inside and radial on the outside. I am no Rich Lesnik nor Peter White, but I can now build a pretty respectable wheel. Learning how to work on your bike is a great thing, don't stop. Like the Boy Scout Motto - Be Prepared.
Laing On Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 9:31:40 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote: > It’s winter here in Michigan and business at the local bike shop is slow. > The shop had a brilliant idea to host a class for a small number of > students to teach basic bicycle maintenance/mechanics. Students were to > bring their own bikes, which was wonderful because we would learn to work > on what we actually have. Our teacher was quietly brilliant, extremely > patient, and, well, dreamy. (I would love to set him up with my friend from > my women’s club ride and then be in their wedding. Unable to ascertain his > marital status without committing harassment, I am still in the throes of > scheming.) > > I digress! > > He taught us how the shop gives each bike a once-over. It’s an M shape, > starting at the front wheel, going up to the bars, down to the pedal/chain > ring, up to the saddle and down to that rear wheel. From there we moved on > to wheel truing, derailleurs and shifters, and finally, brakes. > > There were three of us in the class; one aluminum Trek with flat bars, a > steel Jamis that had been ridden hard on the trainer in covid, and my > raspberry Platypus. We all had V brakes. They had indexed shifting and I > had friction. When examining our bikes, we/he found several problems > (though not on the Platypus because I drag that bike in for every little > thing) that we then observed our teacher fix. I now know what a loose > headset sounds like (the Trek). Though, ironically, if you hit my front > wheel to elicit the sound, the German mirror will respond with an identical > sound. There are some skills that I still see best left to the experts - > wheel truing, for instance. I audibly gasped when he took after the spokes > of a wheel to mess them up for demonstration. I am leaving my new spoke > wrench in the packaging because no good can come from that thing. > > I am still not brave enough to do a lot with tools to my bike, but I’m > working on it. I like that some of the mystery was taken out of it all and > I can see how parts work. Do I dare disclose here some of what I thought > beforehand? Oh, fine. I thought a wheel out of true meant they had to bend > a rim back into place. I had NO idea spokes were the culprit, nor did I > know you could adjust them. 😬 And so on and so forth. > > Our mechanic was so encouraging and told us we should experiment at home - > don’t worry, he assured us, you won’t break anything. But I wonder if he > will feel the same when I show up with my collection of redundant > Rivendells; pieces and parts left over and collected after rolling around > on my garage floor. “I have been fixing my bike and now it won’t work.” > > Anyway, it’s a small step of self-betterment and I’ll keep walking that > direction. I’m sure some of you out there can relate. > Leah > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/0fd5b663-4e34-42db-ab28-19666497baa9n%40googlegroups.com.
