RE: [CR]building wheels

(Example: Books:Ron Kitching)

From: "Tom Harriman" <transition202@hotmail.com>
To: <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>, <earle.young@tds.net>
Subject: RE: [CR]building wheels
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:19:21 +0000
cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


Dear Tom.

Having both ridden both store bought wheels and wheels of my own making, I would like to shed a little light on this subject. The wheels I built my self were of better quality, and improved the ride of the bikes. They ne eded to be trued less often, and I never had broken spokes or broken axle s. All around an improvement.

However, ride quality is a difficult thing to measure, and as there are no standards, we have to trust in each others impressions of how changes we make to our bikes affects there rides. The old saying applies here her e, we can't really measure quality, but we know it when we ride.

The other factor making this difficult is a little does of pride. I feel p retty good the first time I take a new set of wheels out for there maiden s pin, which I'm sour has an influenced all of our impressions of our bikes . We should all take comfort and pride in the fact that we are helping to keep the art of wheel build alive and strong in our culture.

Tom (as True as his wheels) Harriman. San Francisco, Ca
> Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:37:22 -0700
> From: tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com
> To: earle.young@tds.net
> CC: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: [CR]building wheels
>
> Earle,
>
> I don't know that any recent post was a direct attack on you, but clear ly
> you think one was. I don't want to take sides, and I know I'm risking
   t
> hrowing fuel on your fire, but I have a question: How do you know your wh
> eels are so special? Do you personally ride your own wheels and those
> of other experienced builders and notice a difference? Is that differenc
> e in the feel of the wheels as you ride, or is it a difference in durab ilit
> y? Have you ever tried doing a blind comparison? Do you rely on fedba
> ck from other riders who you build wheels for? Are these professional
> riders? Have these riders ridden lots of wheels buit by other experience
> d builders, or are they comparing your wheels to stuff built by machine ,
> or some kid at BBC building his 20th wheelset? It seems to me that
> it would be very hard to show that there is a significant difference betw ee
> n a wheelset built by you and any wheelset built with carfeully chosen pa rt
> s by a
> guy who simply knows how to build wheels, such as a guy like me who ha s bu
> ilt only several hundred sets.
>
> My earliest wheel builds were pretty sloppy, and it took me forever to dial
> them in and even then I doubt the tenison was particularly even or at th e
> correct level and they weren't perfectly true. My more recent wheelsets
> are more precise, with good even tension and excellent final shape. T he
> practical difference was that the earlier ones might have needed to be t ru
> ed a bit more often, but even that comparison could reflect the use of diff
> erent parts. So, in my experience, there was little practical differ ence
> between my early so-so builds and my later very good, perhaps excellen t bu
> ilds. I'm left thinking that there is a point of diminishing returns, an
> d I'm quite skeptical about the supposed benfits of anyone's superlative wh
> eelbuilds.
>
> Personally, exclusively using DT spokes, Wheelsmith spoke prep, and
   a well-
> chosen rim has done more to improve my satisifaction with my end product th
> an getting mired in the details of aboslute of relative tension measureme nt
> . But that's just me, and I'd like to know the objective basis for yo
> ur confidence in your builds.
>
> Tom Dalton
> Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA