There are no templates for success with a craft like wheel building, each of us creates a personal system unique to our situation. Since we never finish honing the craft, it pays to study other builders who are willing to share.
Rich Lesnik, master builder at Rivendell.
Among excellent makers of allen wrenches (think: Bondus, Allen, PBSwiss, Pedro’s, Park, Wihus, and others) only one has addressed engagement geometry like external socket wrenches have.
Hex screw on left. Allen screw on right.
Historically, allen screws arose for embedded fasteners. The wrench inserts into a fastener rather than surrounding it. But the hexagonal interfaces have similar limits. In order to transmit maximum torque to a fastener without deformation drive shape was devised for external sockets, often known as “flank drive.” That name belongs to Snap-On, a socket drive pioneer but you’ll find such drive geometry everywhere today. Read more →
Two exciting classes are on offer at PT Cycle School. June 24-25 is Wheel Building 2. June 26-30 is Bike Mechanics 1. Hard to imagine a more beautiful place (Port Townsend) or a better class offering.
Mechanics 1 is taught by Tori Bortman, author, experienced teacher and mechanic from Portland. Class is limited to 12 students who enjoy wonderful workstations (including EVT lift stands), full tool kits, and plenty of hands-on. It’s a fast paced program, not for the casual. Elevate and make current your bike mechanical skills. The course is $1,000 and scholarships are available.
In the Cotton Bldg on the PT waterfront.
PT Cycle School is a Washington licensed workforce training and education school. This curriculum is a match for that offered at other fine bike schools across North America.
Wheel Building 2 is my project. We ran a similar, advanced session at UBI in 2018. It was very successful but this time will be much more hands-on. Each attendee (limited to six) will build a wheel that’s not hugely distracting (I supply parts or not) and we’ll discuss all aspects of the process—thread compounds, lacing setups, alternative stands (P&K stands for all), tension output and graphing. stressing the structure, etc.
Me and co-presenter, Jude Gerace, at UBI.
Design and physics, the main focus of our Portland session, is valuable (material science, rim stiffness, nipple interface, tire fit and dynamics, tension and fatigue, MOI, calibration, etc) and we will cover that too. You’ll also get an in-depth, hands-on with spoke cutting and threading. Suggestions welcome as each of you brings unique perspective and career objectives.
Two full days, $300. I am not aware of any commercial offering of this level of wheel building. Such knowledge is usually only shared in one-on-one mentorships within workshops and manufacturers. It’s not generally available.
There are still spots available for both. If this late timing works for you, don’t pass it up!
September is on (2018) and there’s news to share. Up in Port Townsend, WA a new cycle school is getting underway and I taught Wheelbuilding 1 last weekend—twelve diverse students, a beautiful location, and 12 excellent wheels built.
Nice workstations.
Wheel building is booming, though it’s rare to see evidence in the cycling press. I’d call it a work in progress, rather like craft brewing back in the day. Pioneers were scrappy and uncertain. When they first appeared, the big brewers knew it would be sporadic and limited (college towns, resorts). They actually got murdered over several decades and now craft brewing carries a large percentage of that market. This seems to be happening with wheel building.
Today most small builders are in likely cities (Portland, SF, Seattle, Boulder, LA…) but their global rise (UK, AU, NZ, EU…) shows it’s not a local trend. Your area may be barren but many successful builders are elsewhere. Check these, among hundreds more:
Not personal recommendations (but all excellent). The more you look, the more you’ll find.
If you are contemplating getting underway I recommend exploring two questions.
Where Am I?
You may plan a strong web presence but your immediate scene is your most important asset. Local riding is a key element in your opportunity.
© Sugar Wheelworks (Portland)
Put aside personal preferences and experience because, as a wheel builder, you should welcome, understand, and whisper to all forms of wheels. Can’t do too much research and preparation to cultivate your local community.
Who Am I?
There are many types of builders. Wheel construction seems pretty straightforward but those who succeed do not share one approach. One science I hope, but not one style. Who are you? Understanding your style helps direct your effort and avoid confusion.
1. Hobbyest
Handy with tools, good with gear, likes self sufficiency, finds building fairly easy, builds own and wheels for friends and family. Not so keen to make a simple task complicated or dramatic.
2. Social
If you’re gregarious, wheel building can bring quite a range of human variety your way. Creating a business around the needs and exploits of riders is attractive to customers. You’ll want a welcoming workshop with plenty of ambiance and regular outreach.
© gravy wheels (Novato)
3. Nerd
Many an engineer type is drawn to building and customers, in turn, to them. Emphasizing tech with gauges and instruments, sharing spreadsheets and charts, teaching the “how” behind wheels can be a central theme if that is your drift. But it is not necessary to reek of tech. Performance minded customers need to trust but rarely require knowing all about the science.
© Cutlass Wheels (Baltimore)
4. Artistic
Wheels are beautiful and there is room for plenty of self expression for a builder. The bar is very high for visual compatibility with the bike, high finish of components, and unity of design. Aesthetics are an ever changing scene, rules flex, styles evolve, and builders help drive change. We’ve all noticed what fixies combine on machines so basic they simply showcase wheels.
© Roues d’Olive (Fully, Switzerland)
We are combinations of such types but discovering that inner builder is key to separating your offering from vague and mainstream options. Riders seek custom building for more than alleged benefits of value or performance. They want to deal with a real person, not just an “add to cart” button. There is no “better” style but the clearer yours, the greater authenticity you broadcast.
Authenticity attaches to wheels, gives them karmic power riders remember for years. Authenticity of our prized possessions adds meaning to our lives. That’s your ultimate product as a custom wheel builder.
Go for it and please share your experiences with others (and me :-)!
Let’s talk rotating weight. Rotating weight is a big issue for wheel builders. Why? We make choices that determine wheel weight, its total and location. Builders must understand this topic.
Rotating weight directly affects inertia, so the topic is really inertia. Inertia is the resistance of a mass to acceleration. Moment of inertia (MOI) characterizes this resistance and depends on rotating and non-rotating mass. Builders should be measuring wheel MOI.
I’ll show you how to measure moment of inertia (MOI), plus I’ll share a spreadsheet to shortcut the math supporting MOI measurement and its effect on riding. Plug in numbers and get usable wattage estimates.
Read more →
I once called tensioned wire wheels “the most ingenious contrivance in all of human engineering.”
Extraordinary claims must be based on extraordinary evidence (Carl Sagan) and tensioned wheels have it in spades. Think, more than two billion nearly identical wheels see daily use on our planet. There is no widely used structure with such astounding strength to weight, and they conquered gravel on the moon!
courtesy of Petar Milošević, displayed at the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics
On the eve of this very non-commercial weekend (Easter 2017) let’s reflect on a personal aspect of wheel building. Much time is spent on performance, component options, tension strategy, and rider relations but building wheels is more a lifestyle than economic choice.
For many, the atelier (workshop of an artisan) is home. Wheel building succeeds in no space at all (think, back seat of a support vehicle) but for most their atelier is a spiritual place. So much time spent deep in the maize of tension and trueness, work space is an integral part of the process.
Here you share aesthetics and design priorities with visitors. There is no one way to do it, each of us is different, but every thoughtful wheel building space meets needs we all share: simplicity, tools at hand, tranquility. While building is a straightforward engineering process, the work is largely cerebral. The atelier is both a stage and a tool.
I’ll never tire of other wheel builders’ spaces and can’t help but fantasize what work there might feel like. One such belongs to Olivier Lambert whose “Roues d’Olive” is deep in the Swiss Alps in the picturesque town of Fully.
Village below, riding above!
Just imagine the challenging and spectacular scenery he enjoys year around! And when it’s time to work, the atelier provides a serene, almost film set-like tranquility that must help calm one down after a lively dirt session!
Tidy, simple, quite nice.
Rim decals are clever, initials with topographic lines.
Lacing often involves ingenuity as there’s precious little available on which many builders agree. Olivier has a nice desktop cutout to support the rim. A camera tripod provides a steady, adjustable hub support. Good idea!
Upholstered and professional.
For some, an ideal atelier includes a dog bed or headphones to block out industrial noise. Lucky to live in a riding paradise. May customers find you (but not to the point there’s no time to ride)!
Enjoyed Mikulas Novotny’s breathtaking righty, folding bike a few weeks ago? Hopefully spring in Prague is turning from moody (snow and tree blossoms) to sun and picnics. Meanwhile, Mikulas sent over a few clever images by photographer Stepan Klima.
Urban swank speaks for itself, so here you are:
Splitting the lanes.
Know about ear worms, tunes you can’t get out of your head? I am plagued by a bike worm. Bicycles can imbed themselves in my head and, short of owning them, I am helpless to escape. Sound familiar?
Can I escape this worm if I share? Welcome to the coolest bicycle I have seen lately. No wonder it’s stuck in my head.
In 2013 I first saw brief mention of Mikulas Novotney and his unique design. Not enough pictures, not enough background, I had questions (and compliments) but no answers! Asked one of Wheel Fanatyk’s customers in CZ to try and reach him. Sure enough, we exchanged info and after familiar delays, I eventually got answers to my questions.
Coincidently, I recently noticed that Mikulas has been included in a lavish book about frame builders, The Bicycle Artisans, published last year.
His bike is genius: a full sized wheel machine that folds in half and can be rolled around like luggage.
Righty front and back.
You saw it, now you don’t.
Rolls like luggage.
While accomplishing this ambitious function, Mikulas also insists on structural simplicity that even without a folding element, is beautiful. Nothing enhances bicycle aesthetics like simplicity. This one should be in the permanent MOMA collection.
To achieve this master work, Mikulas needed to be free of preconceptions from the bicycle world. He succeeds in part because he is not from the bicycle industry. Despite a devotion to fixed gear urban riding, he is architecturally trained. Another reminder that, while bike veterans may know some things “best,” we are also trapped by the past. Cycling carries 150 years of sales and engineering baggage. Designs to meet our challenging future must be free to go where we haven’t been. Bikes speak for themselves and solo creatives like Mikulas deserve our attention.
To my mind, he is a precocious master. Here is a transcript of our exchange: enlightening for me and I hope motivation to creatives that are not certified bike designers to dream, sketch, and build.
WF: You are a designer, architect, engineer? What is your direction?
MN: I started my studies on Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague as a product designer. But soon, after finishing my bike project I decided for an internship in the architecture atelier. After one year experience, and summer job in RaumlaborBerlin studio I became a student of architecture. Architecture and bicycles are the matter of the heart for me.
WF: Are you a bike fanatic or a Duchamp [fine art] type of interest?
MN: I’m definitely a bike fanatic. I prefer riding. Building is nice, but I do it mostly for this reason.
Elegant at rest.
WF: Did you design the bike for a project, for fun, for friends?
MN: This is a result of a two semester project at the academy, focused on movement by self power in the city. I’ve chosen a bike, which you can put easily into the car trunk on your way to work/school, and after parking on suburb, you can continue on the bike. You can take it also to the tram, bus or train when weather changes, or the part of the city is too hilly. I wanted bike with optimal riding properties, which would looks simple at the same time. Important was also that you don’t have to carry the bike, but just lead side by side.
WF: How many prototypes? Did you ride it much? How is the ride?
MN: I didn’t have money or time to make tests before building the final prototype. I had to design precisely and think out everything… measure all the components which have been used (and some of them also modified) in stores with a caliper and prepare perfect technical drawings. When I persuaded a bike manufacturer that my design can work, he let me build it by myself in his workshop. I had a lathe, mill, and a guy who can weld what I prepared. It was nice experience.
Since I know that it works in terms of riding and folding I ride it less and less, because I’m more afraid about the only prototype.
Ride is good. You have to get used to fork on one side and top tube in angle to the direction of travel, even if you’re convinced that it’s psychological.
WF: What are its specifications (material, size, weight, cost…)?
MN: It’s made of Reynolds Cr-MO tubes, but heavier than it would be in production because a lot of parts are now assembled of several welded pieces. But it weighs about 25 pounds at the moment.
WF: Did you build only one? What are your goals for this idea?
MN: I’d really like to put it into production. I want a small series. Necessary to keep it simple, but well crafted and well equipped. It’s also possible to add gears integrated in BB and mudguards of course. At the moment I’m speaking with a company that seems able to produce it.
WF: Does this bike embody your design philosophy? How? I see beauty and multi-function. You?
MN: Thank you. I hope this design meets its purpose in a smart way, and that is very important. But it should be still proved by usage.
WF: Any info about you, your path, the scene where you live, what is next?
MN: There is my blog, where you can find some other projects and brief info.
I’m finishing my studies on Academy this year [2014]. I’m part of the fixedgear/singlespeed scene, but generally I don’t care about bicycle types.
All details serve a purpose, yet simplicity flows.
Put me on the list for the first. If it doesn’t happen, I’m going to make one (and escape from the worm). The breathtaking asymmetric front end is enough to want this ride!
Thanks, Mikulas, and good luck with this and other creations.
