In a message dated 4/10/04 8:34:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
chriseye@comcast.net writes:
> One of our list members suggested building wood rims with "not too much
> tension", what is too much? I don't think that building them loose is
> sound advice.
I did not advocate building them "loose". I've built a lot of wood rim wheels and put a lot of miles and them and have a very good idea of the right tension. It is absolutely impossible to tell in an email, how much tension should be put into them. My caution was based on the idea that wheel builders that only have experience with modern rims tend to put a LOT of tension in the spokes. Per Jobst Brandt, the maximum tension the rim will hold without physically collapsing yields the "strongest" wheel. Jobst's favorite rim is a Mavic E2, they will take that kind of tension where a lot of classic rims, particularly light sew up rims that don't have full ferrules, will very quickly crack if wound that tight.
That said, it's not rocket science, but I wouldn't give a set to someone inexperienced to practice on.
Back in the day when a lot of bicycles had wood rims and roads were bad, didn't the American bikes have mostly coaster brakes? Coaster brakes worked well in America because an awful lot of America is pretty flat, particularly when compared to the Alps. Between that and that there really wasn't much traffic, there wasn't the issue of caliper brake use on wood rims to worry about.
Racing bikes in Europe were using caliper brakes, hence the different pad materials suitable for wood or whatever the rim was made of. In the early TDF when everyone was on fixed gears, brake use was far more minimal than when everyone later switched to free wheels. Longhi patented the "modern" tubular rim in 1935, and Fiamme had their rims marked "Brevetti Longhi" (presuming European/International patent law applied for 25 years) until 1960, and promptly removed it from their products as soon as it was no longer a legal requirement.
In any case, in the 30s aluminum rims caught on for racing because they were better in a lot of ways. They have better braking, you don't have to frequently revarnish, they don't warp in the damp or wet when the varnish is compromised, and they generally don't shatter.
On a road bike today, they are a charming anachronistic novelty, and they require more understanding of the owner as they ARE more problematical than aluminum rims. They have a wonderful ride quality that is unique to wood. If you run them on a fixed gear bike, you'll have a lot less varnish maintenance to do.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA