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)!

[all images courtesy of Olivier Lambert]

Back from NAHBS (3/9-11) and CABDA (2/1-2), time for a Wheel Fanatyk product update!

Tensiometer improvements
Carrying case upgrade: a luxurious black Nanuk 904 (MSRP $49) with custom foam inserts. One customer called it “like a Navy Seal lunchbox.”

Read more →

Wheel builders are not whiners by nature. The challenges of the craft are enough to turn arrogant builders, humble and most whiners into learners. Consequently, many nuisances of our work go undiscussed. Today I present two solutions to annoying personal peeves.

Oiling is a big part of bicycle mechanics and wheelbuilding. We drip, squirt, inject, mist, and drown bicycles with a variety of lubricants. I’m fed up with second rate delivery of these. It’s either aerosol can or disposable squeeze bottle. Neither meets my standard for precision, ergonomics, reuse, or aesthetics. A plastic bottle with a small hole will drip oil when you point and squeeze but this is the 21st century and we have a long tradition of clever oilers that seems bypassed in this era of consumer packaging.

Precise and durable.

Presenting the Wheel Fanatyk Oiler. This is an established but too rare design that’s perfect for bike mechanics. A 250ml (8.5oz) capacity means you can dispense liberally if needed. A broad base gives the can stability. Three ball-check valves and two staged cylinders allows enormous pressure. A brass tipped, rigid spout gives pin point precision. Its oil gathering sump carries a filter to keep the mechanism clear and the oiler stays primed for weeks.

Ergonomic and clever.

Transfer your favorite formulas to these bottles and lube like a sharp shooter. Label each oiler with a sharpie pen on masking tape. At just $4.90 each, you can afford as many as needed. Escape the insult of consumer quantity squeeze bottles with fall off spouts and throw away pumps. Use the Wheel Fanatyk Oiler and up your game from consumer clumsy to professional! Check here.

Second peeve of mine is the scarcity of adequate magnifying glasses to examine fastener threads (or look for splinters). Spoke threads, in particular, are valuable to study especially if you’re mixing brands, using re-threaded spokes, or cutting your own.

Compact and effective.

The Wheel Fanatyk inspector is an upscale version of a device that evolved in the fabric trade. A thread inspector is a lens mounted the exact distance over fabric so no focusing is needed. Threads can be counted to make sure knitting machines are correctly adjusted. For us, this is the perfect setup to study small, especially spoke, threads.

Lit by 3 brilliant LEDs

The inspector’s metal body has a screwed on bottom cover allowing access to watch batteries that power three brilliant LEDs. A 30mm diameter 20X lens gives a broad field of vision. You’ll be astonished and informed by what you see. Don’t struggle with miss threaded small screws and spokes when you can identify their problems and move swiftly to a solution. The inspector is shipped with a second set of batteries. Check here.

Battery case at left, LEDs around lens.

What do threads look like?

Check a few of these thread forms. To the naked eye, they look about the same. Time to stop taking them for granted or cross-eyed squinting. Our thread magnifier will set you free and guide you to insight that today’s professional needs.

Spoke thread from a brand name factory.

Spoke thread from another brand name factory.

Post production re-threading by clumsy distributor. ©melodywheels.com.au

Thread damage from a third factory brand. ©melodywheels.com.au

The Oiler and Inspector belong in any sophisticated bicycle workshop and we’re going to ship them with every Morizumi SCT machine starting next month. In addition, each SCT will also come with a stainless steel base pan. Ours is a heavy gauge (10oz), highly polished pan in 302 stainless, designed as a surgical tray. We cut three holes necessary for mounting under the SCT. With a base pan, the SCT can receive the ample oiling to keep it running smoothly. Excess gathers harmlessly in the pan, to be wiped clean periodically. Our heavy duty base pan is available for current Morizumi users at $30.00. Check here.

Pan with holes, reflecting nearby spokes.

A few images of the SCT with its pan and new accessories:

Pan in place.

Another pan shot.

Pan from the right side.

Proper (optional) use of the included steel wedges.

SCT and its 3 new accessories.

Can’t resist a detail shot. Such a nice machine.

Our Spoke Cutting & Threading (SCT) machine has undergone some pretty nifty improvements. All the tweaks below are found on SCT’s we currently (2016) ship. If you plan to attend NAHBS in Sacramento, please pay us a visit in booth 85 to see this marvel in person.

The design’s inventor is Morizumi Masakazu who made them by himself and, since 2007, is represented worldwide by us. In 2014 Mr Morizumi stepped back from production and a new team took over. Mr Morizumi stays closely involved with the project and we continue to add clever details.

Read more →

My fellow spoke nerds deserve something to chew on, even at the risk of boring other worthy readers.

Disclaimer: I’m going to share some magnified images of threads. Some of you may find these unexpectedly ugly and not representative of the named brands. Mind you, none of this post is intended to evaluate brands. Let’s just explore the details.
Read more →

This is especially for those who cut and thread spokes. Be it with a magnificent Morizumi or a venerable Phil Wood machine, thread rolling is the game. While industrially commonplace, it’s not well understood by those who do it daily.

How Things Work
Quite a few of you like to figure how things work. Here is a glimpse into the nature of thread rolling. The die set (a pair of flat plates with grooves) that makes spoke threads (by rolling a spoke between ribbed surfaces) has grooves spaced at the thread pitch.

Super hard, super precise – that’s a die to live for.

So there should be a die size for each spoke gauge, right? The gauges:

A total departure from World fastener threading policy!

Here is the conundrum: the thread pitch for bicycle spokes is the SAME regardless of spoke gauge. Huh? One of our brilliant predecessors ordained they shall all be 56 threads per inch (metrically speaking, 0.45mm pitch).

Isn’t that Illegal?
Name another fastener where the pitch does not become finer as the diameter goes down. That’s to minimize breakage and it’s universal practice. What good’s a World Order if not to standardize things that work better?

Except bicycles. Basically, we (cycling) make our own rules. We discovered this short cut works. Theory out the window. Let’s make bicycles simpler to understand and to make. From a wheel builder’s perspective, thread pitch determines the feel of wheel truing. 1/4 turn of a nipple makes a similar dimensional change to length regardless of spoke gauge. That is the idea behind a universal thread pitch.

One More Logical Step
Since we have adopted the same pitch for all these spoke sizes can we use the same dies to make the threads? Just run them farther apart for thicker wires? All 56 threads per inch? This is a challenge to the laws of physics.

Even wizards can’t break the laws of physics!

A die has small grooves that make peaks and valleys of the thread form. These grooves are set at an angle specific to the diameter of the spoke. As the spoke rotates, grooves are created simultaneously on each side, that  eventually meet up to create a continuous thread.

For a smaller diameter spoke, the angle is greater (from perpendicular) because a small circumference means a groove gets around more quickly (and must not run into itself). A larger diameter spoke (12g is 30% greater circumference than 14g) means a greater distance for each rotation. The groove angle must be smaller so the thread is continuous.

Wiggle Room
The actual change in angle from 15G to 12G sounds like it would be significant (according to the circumference difference), but it’s tiny—about 1º.

In practice, there is plenty of tolerance (wiggle room) and dies optimized for smaller gauges (15/14G) can roll perfect (to-the-eye) threads on larger gauges (12/13G). For this practical benefit we encourage all bicycle gauges be threaded with the same dies. It works!

Now go forth and thread like guru’s!

Pardon a digression from the more broadly interesting subjects we’ve been visiting lately. Purely for those who build professionally and juggle spoke lengths, I carry and discuss the allegedly World’s Best spoke cutter and threader. Okay, I’m dangerously biased.

Many people buy the Morizumi for its most superficial feature, the rarity of spokes jamming during threading. When it comes to livability, this trait means a lot. But how does the machine manage to jam rarely (never for many). Read more →

Ever since NAHBS in Denver this year (2013), we’re deluged with orders for custom spokes, thousands of spokes. Why now and why so many?

The custom building scene is growing. More and more individual riders are building and re-building their own wheels. And wheel builders at unappreciative shops are are opening up on their own. Meanwhile, the spoke supply is worse than ever:

(1) High prices (understandable considering where spokes are made).

(2) Awkward minimum quantities (50 or 100 minimums), which is awkward because, considering gauges, colors, and lengths, there are over 300 common spoke sku’s.

(3) Requirements to have a “store front.”

There’s obviously a market for custom length spokes in precise quantities. Only lately we hear Morizumi buyers saying “I was buying spokes from Harry who has a cutter but I decided to get my own.” Or “I want to be the first Morizumi owner in the front range.” People can tell there is no spoke cutting oversupply.

So great news, Morizumi’s at $3200USD are worth every cent, a profit center for any wheel building or repair operation. Read more →

If you’re obsessed with awesome wheels then you’ve noticed that spokes play an important role in their function and beauty. A big part of our love of the Morizumi Spoke Machine is its wonderful threading.

Perfection.

One of the machine’s dedicated users sent a couple shots of fresh threads. Notice the uniformity. Few spoke factories maintain their equipment to product such fine threads. Read more →

In the quest for worthwhile livelihood, I’m always on the lookout for clever occupational situations. I hope you’ll agree that Graham of Tiller Cycles in Warwickshire, England is among them. He runs a bicycle repair business from his long boat, serving the communities between Leamington Spa and Braunston, since 2003.

The good ship Brass Farthing

Read more →