Back to the grind in many ways
Posted by: Michael Slater in Uncategorized, tags: bicycle, cornholio, spokes, wheelbuilding
Cornholio joined us in sending Mom and Dad to the airport at 4:30am
Well Mom and Dad are back in Pittsburgh. We certainly enjoyed their visit. I think they enjoyed it to (everything except mom’s late night curry-refund at Mt. Alvernia). Hopefully we can make a visit back to Pennsylvania during 2010 Summer. I was really dreading so many flights to the USA this year, but already my business trip scheduled for next year was cancelled today, so that’s one less punishment-journey I have to make.
I changed color schemes for Auntie Mary. Let’s see if that is any easier for her to read.
The indentation into the aluminum flange is normal. The broken spoke is not.
Spent the evening lacing and tensioning a new rear wheel for my bicycle. I think I did a poor job the first time I built it, then never checked the wheel. Subsequently it went slack, fatiguing the spokes. They started popping furiously on my last big ride. Somehow we (Michel) managed to true the wheel salvageably so I could finish.
When I got home, the spokes were clearly junked, so I threw them all out and am rebuilding the wheel again. I laced it in about 25 minutes tonight without too much drama.
Mistakes made? Looks like I must have twisted the hub in the wrong direction because my pulling spokes are inbound spokes instead of being outbound spokes. A small(ish) detail but it annoys me. I know Sulaiman will notice.
Other mistake? When I bought my spokes (288mm and 290mm) my brain wasn’t working and I ordered 32 of each, rather than 16 of each. So I have exactly twice the spokes I needed for this project. I guess if I break the wheel again(!), I’ll have a third set of spokes to build. Ugh. Hoping that doesn’t become necessary.
The wheel is reasonably ok already. I’ll finish it tomorrow when I’m fresher. I spent about two hours on it tonight which (I know, I know) is about double as long as it should take a skilled wheelbuilder. But I’m not skilled; I’m barely even a wheelbuilder at this point…It’s just me and my Jobst Brandt.
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