Re: [CR] wheel-building machinery

(Example: Production Builders:Peugeot)

Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:23:25 -0500
From: "John Thompson" <johndthompson@gmail.com>
Organization: The Crimson Permanent Assurance
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <49DFD8CA.2070700@verizon.net>
In-Reply-To: <49DFD8CA.2070700@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] wheel-building machinery


Harvey Sachs wrote:
> Jim Papadopoulos, my wife, and I visited the Schwinn works in Chicago in
> the Fall of 1974. At that time, assembly of run-of-the-mill steel-rim
> wheels was a two part process. Humans spoked the wheels. They were then
> put on a machine that mechanically tensioned the spokes. It was
> certainly "good enough". This had been going on for a long time, so I'm
> pretty sure it was not even computer-controlled.

In the early 80s Trek used a "Holland Mechanics" (distributed by Sturmey-Archer) wheel building machine, with final tensioning done by hand.

--

-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA