For my IRO Jamie Roy fixed gear bike, I had never built up the front wheel to match the rear even though I have had the bike for a few years. I have just been using on old road front wheel I had. I finally got around to ordering the correct length spokes to lace up the front wheel with the Surly hub, and a Mavic Open Pro rim. For the record the spoke length is 294 for a 3 cross pattern for that hub and rim combination.
Half build wheel with inside spokes laced up
I don’t build wheels all that often, but it is kind of like riding a bicycle, once you learn and get it down, you don’t really forget how to do it. I worked at a bicycle shop when I was in college and learned a few wheel building tips from a mechanic that at one time worked for the Coors Light Cycling Team.
For some reason I had a harder time than normal lacing up this wheel. I’m not sure if it was the larger flange Surly hub, or just that my skills are a little rusty.
A tip I learned from my wheel building mentor at the bike shop was to align the rim so the label is readable from the right side of the bike (the drive train side), and align the hub so that the logo on the hub is visible through the valve stem hole. These are some of the small details to look for in a hand built wheel.
The finished wheel
If you are interested in building a wheel, the tools you will need are a truing stand, a spoke wrench, and a wheel dishing tool. I recently purchased a Park TM-1 Spoke Tension Meter which has proved invaluable for getting the spoke tension just right. I also used Wheelsmith spoke prep on these wheels.
One of the best resources for learning how to build wheels is Sheldon Brown’s web site, and also the book The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt
is considered the bible of bicycle wheel building.
This weekend I had been invited to head up to Vermont with my friends Scott, Dave, and Pete to ride on Saturday and Sunday including a 100 miler that climbed over Appalachian Gap and took in a few dirt roads as well.
Unfortunately the weather forecast called for rain and thunder storms, so we canceled the trip, but hopefully we can do it again another weekend later in the year.
If you are interested in finding out more about riding the gaps (mountain passes) through the Green Mountains of Vermont, NortheastCycling.com has a great page on the Six Gaps of Vermont with route maps, and elevation profiles of all the climbs.
In New London, Connecticut, people from different sides of the political and social spectrum are uniting for a more bike friendly city. Often times people stereotype bicyclists as tree huggers, or political liberals, but bicycle enthusiasts are just people who come from all walks of life and bike for many different reasons be it trasportation, fitness, or recreation. In the article from the New London Times people doubted whether making a town more bike friendly would have any positive impact on the economy …
Improving New London’s bike-ablity is not going to be a cold glass of water for the city’s hiccupping economy, and neither Spellman nor Sprecace would argue that point.
… but it has been my experience that improving the bike and pedestrian facilities in a town can help the economy. The town I live in has built a rail-trail and there are constantly people using the trail and visiting the local cafes after they ride. Getting more people out of cars, and making a city or town more liveable can’t be a bad thing. The local bike shop would certainly benefit if bicycling in the town is encouraged.
The Hartford Courant recently ran an article about cyclists trying to gain access to commuter trains in order to be able to cycle the remaining distance to home or work on either end of their train ride. Many cities accommodate bicycles on trains including San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. Currently the Metro-North train bans bicycles during peak commuter hours.
In the UK, where they allow folding bicycles on commuter trains there has been some backlash against cyclists from other train users.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Andy Hampsten’s win in the Giro d’Italia. His win was the first by an American in the Giro and remains the only win by an American to this day. There are points in your life when you say “I remember where I was when” a certain historical event takes place.
I was 20-year-old cat 4 racer just starting a summer job at a bike shop. Every day at lunch I would walk across the street to the 7-Eleven and pick up a USA Today newspaper where they printed the stage results from the Giro to see if Hampsten was still in the pink jersey. How times have changed! Now you can watch live online video of the Giro and have access to instant stage results on CyclingNews.
There is no doubt that Andy Hampsten is one of my cycling heroes, and those great memories are partly why I am the cycling addict I am today. I was able to meet Hamsten a couple of times at the Seattle Bike Expo where he talked about some of the highlights in his career, and he signed an old issue of Winning Magazine where he was on the cover in his 7-Eleven kit.
Be sure to read the series from VeloNews on the anniversary of Hampsten’s historic win, and when it is available again, you can also buy the greatest cycling poster of all time.
The photo above is one I took of Andy Hampsten racing the Redmond, Washington in 1987.
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