Relacing the wheels

I still feel very stupid for building 4 (count ’em, four) wheels incorrectly. Especially when I built wheels just fine before then. Anyway, I got to work on the Bluebird. While I had the rear wheel off, I put on a new rear cog with one fewer teeth. This will hopefully make 5th gear a better cruising gear. There was a little problem as the ideal cruising great seemed to be right between 5th and 6th gear, with 5th being too easy and 6th being to hard.

But the weather is great, so I could work on the porch, which is a minor plus.



Here you can see the incorrect spokes. Notice how bent the spokes are as they curve on the wrong side of the 2nd spokes they cross (the first crossing spoke is right at the hub). So following the path of a spoke on relation to the crossing spokes, I went over-under-over (and also under-over-under) when I should have gone over-over-under (and under-under-over). I also should have figured this out earlier, simply by looking at one of my other wheels when I was building these.



Here is the after picture, with the spokes all straight.



And another picture of the properly laced wheel.



I got faster as I went on. But it’s still time consuming, you have to strip the wheel and remove half the spokes. I realized after doing one side of the first wheel, that there is actually a system, which involves removing every fourth spoke (every other spoke on one side) and then lacing them correctly. And then you do the same on the other side. The time saving part is that you only have to remove the nipples from half the spokes and not all of them. But the whole project took about 6 hours. Luckily for Zora this is all covered under warrantee.

The $70 pothole?

So much bike work, not enough biking. So around midnight I decided to enjoy my new moustache handlebars and bike around Central Park (one of the nice things about living in New York City, at least when the main loop road isn’t open to cars).

Coming off the bridge, on 60th Street right around Madison Avenue, I hit a pothole. A bad one. I saw it, it was small but deep, but I was too close to swerve. I probably could have jumped it, but for some reason I froze and didn’t. I hit it, hard. A half block later, as soon as used my front brake, I realized that the impact dented my front rim. Not horribly, but noticably. The wheel is still round, but on the left side of the rim there is a little indent It will bother me every time I use the front brakes. Beyond that the rim isn't damaged. It went ever-so-slightly out of true, but nothing I couldn't fix. And the other side of the rim is fine.

I don’t know anything about hammering out rims. And, as I just found out on-line, this is a $70 rim.

I didn’t built this wheel. It has radial spoking (and every fourth nipple is brass, just for the hell of it). I wonder if the rim would be OK if it were triple-crossed? My guess is no. But I still wish the spokes weren’t radial.

Then when I got home I swamped handle bar stems on all my bikes. The new handlebars made the handlebars too high on the Screamin' Salmon. That and I decided to turn the bars around, so that the they angled up. This way the brake is better positioned, more towards the bottom. And Katie's bike really needed a higher stem. So I took the high handlebar stem off the Screamin' Salmon and put it on the Del Ray. I took the Del Ray stem and put it on the Bianchi. I took the low Bianchi stem and put it on the Salmon. I like the low Bianchi stem for one reason: it was two screws and you can take the bars off without taking everything off the bars. But I couldn't put the new handlebars on without taking everything off. Maybe it's for the better as the old handlebars had duct tape, and I really need an excuse to redo them with proper handlebar tape on them. The handlebar stem shall be the excuse.

But then I learned that Bianchi handlebars (and most Italian road bikes) are 26mm and regular handlebars are 25.6mm. Small difference, but it matters. So I had to order a shim for the Salmon and a new stem ($40) for the Bianchi. Jeezelouise! The old stem from the Del Ray went into the closet, where it will sit for years before being thrown out.

Truing the rear wheel

When I first tried to lace the wheel last night, I thought the spokes were too short. The first cross spoke wouldn't reach the nipple in it's whole. I took the wheel apart this morning and did it again today. Turns out the spokes are just right. Maybe that's why master wheel builders don't drink on the job.

"Truing" means making a wheel in-line laterally. An out-of-true wheel will wobble and rub against brake pads. All my bikes have very true wheels. It makes bike riding more fun. And true wheels stay true while out-of-true wheels just get worse.

The truing stand is the only expensive bike tool I own. I'm happy I have it.

The spoke pattern is standard 3-cross. That means each spoke crosses under and over three other spokes before reaching its nipple. It's a simple, strong design.