FreeRide Montpelier

a wicked awesome bike co-op!

Archive for the 'skillz' Category


Wheel Lacing Party

Posted by pastavibes on July 20, 2007

As soon as we get out QBP account I’m planning on getting some spokes
and building up some wheels. The procedure is pretty simple, but a
bit time consuming. I use this tutorial from Sheldon Brown which,
although it seems complicated to read is really fairly simple once
you get started. It probably takes 45 minutes to an hour to lace your
first wheel, and I found it much preferable to do that job sitting on
the couch with a beer. So if anyone wants to experiment with building
some wheels I’m proposing a lacing party. Get some rims, hubs, and
spokes, and come over to my place. we can have some beers and lace
some wheels, then true them up at your leisure on one of the wheel
stands at the coop.

There are plenty of wheels at the coop with broken spokes and whatnot
that could be rebuilt for the cost of 36 spokes, but it is easier for
truing to start with new rims. Anyone who wants to do this let me
know, and we can figure out what spokes (and rims and hubs if
necessary) are needed and do a group order. I think spokes are
cheaper in boxes of 100, so if it turns out that any of us are using
he same sizes we might save a few bucks.


Matt

Posted in wheels | 1 Comment »

Tubular Tire mini-workshop

Posted by pastavibes on July 6, 2007

I’ve never had to deal with mounting tubular tires before, and
probably neither have most of you, but I recently got a bike with
tubular tires, and they need replacing. So I figured I might as well
share the experience. Are you’re interested in seeing how tubular
tires go on, or maybe you’ve got an old set of tubular rims that
you’d like to breathe new life into by gluing on some new tires. Let
me know if you’re interested, and I’ll try to arrange a time when all
interested parties can get together.

If you don’t know anything about tubular tires, but would like to
here’s a some online resources:

Sheldon Brown Glossary entry on Tubular Tires:
http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_tp-z.html#tubular

Jobst Brandt on how to mount a Tubular:
http://sheldonbrown.com/brandt/mounting-tubulars.html

Bike Forums “Totally Tubular” thread:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=154679

-Matt

Posted in wheels | No Comments »

Spoke Calc

Posted by pastavibes on May 26, 2007

I’ve got this handy dandy Excel spreadsheet that lets you calculate
the spoke lengths for various Hub/Rim combinations, as well as input
the measurements directly. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

Also, this page is great for learning to build wheels. Many a novice
(myself included) has built their first wheel following this
tutorial. http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html


Matt

Posted in wheels | No Comments »