and other esoteric stuff!
So Monday i couldn't put it off any longer, checking the damage i inflicted on poor Foxy Friday afternoon. Onto the work stand then, wheel out, tyre and tube removed and into the wheel jig, the 'roundness' was better than i'd expected but the edge of the rim had taken less than i thought but still considerable damage from contact with the asphalt for @ 10km/6 miles, On the plus side i thought i could return it to use with a bit of filing but i couldn't lay my hands on any fine enough instruments so i got m'sen dressed f't outdoors and headed off in search of a draw file or two.
I found some in the local Wilko and on my return set about the abused alloy, taking off and smoothing material to leave it clear of burrs and edges that could intergere with braking or damage a replacement tyre. That done it was time to pick up the Spokey and start work in the dark art of wheel truing and tensioning - it took a bit of time, new wheels must have no more than 1mm play either side, i do my wheels to less than half that, if its a Maddy built wheel it'll be straight! There are better and faster wheel smiths out there but i do a fair job! Anyhoo, the wheel is saved - i think, now i just have to get a replacement tyre sorted out - huge and many thanks to Alan who has donated funds for this purpose, it is really appreciated so if things go to plan Foxy should be back on the road in @ 10 days (its an off size tyre so i have to mail order or travel a considerable distance to get hold of the right thing.
Tuesday arrived with several degrees of frost coating everything so i waited until almost mid day before heading out for a short loop down to Bath, 40 odd km with a high of -2c, one cup of tea and a bacon and egg sandwich!
The highlight of today was a trip to IKEA where i managed to get my meatballs and a piece of rhubarb cake! I've been down twice previously since i returned from GOC, both times there were stupidly long queues in the restaurant so i passed, today was a lot better, its been over two months since i last ate there so i was getting withdrawal symptoms lol. Its a good walk too, over 8km/5 miles round trip so i've had some reasonable exercise too!
I've now posted the penultimate chapter of Gaby book 1, The Anime Days, Jenny's Day covers Drew's Mum's race day, can Drew be himself? eckers like!
So that's it for today, with luck i'll get out on two wheels, a bit further than Bath, before i post again, in the meantime,
Wiedersehn,
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
“Gaby’s Bike Care Handbook”
Now who do we know who might be able to write something like that?
I think
The market is well furnished with maintenance books!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Beg to differ
Gabs seems to have tons of girly ways to convince Dave to change wheels, chainrings, all matter of things. Perhaps her collected advice on this could make for considerable tongue-in-cheek fun.
I guess
It’s an idea lol
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Question
Is this a mountain bike frame or a road bike frame? V brakes, cantilever or old style brakes? 26/27/29 rim?
Side to side isn’t bad it’s the up and down that concerns me. My 700c original raliegh rim has a dead spot that drops about 1/8 / 3 mm in one spot. Alloy rim that was a pretzel when I got it. Along with the Altus shifter and one pedal arm it works and rides ok but it does make some noise when out as the one spoke tinks as I ride.
The more you ride a previously damaged rim the more it works as they want to run true.
I want to make a rack and some saddle bags for carrying supplies and extra water for it. If and when I encounter an identical rim I’ll swap it out. Or if this one breaks I have a spare non matching wheel for it. I do want to get rid of the quick releases on it for less easy to steal axles and seat posts. It is an issue here in Manitoba.
Note hybrids can get really good speed but the tires don’t grip much and light frame can be issues on loose ground! I almost got wet on a turn near a river bike path. I made it but was sure scary!
Foxy
Is o ok e nothing you will have come across, a road going off-road folder capable of racing and touring with a load - a real jack of all trades with 24” wheels and drop bars, I’ve probably forgotten more about bikes than most people will ever know!
When I build wheels they aren’t done until they are round and square so no up and down or side to side beyond .5mm. They don’t self straighten at all which is why the spokes need to be under tension.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Hmm
Rims that have been bent or damaged have metal tension in spots. The more you ride them the more that tension releases. They want to run true. However because of spoke tension they will often need adjusting again after a few rides till an equilibrium is done. Hard to explain. They don’t self true up, they actually go out of true as tension releases.
A better way to think is say you did a rim that was damaged, pothole, or other. You take it home and true it up just using spokes. Go for a ride and it will rub brakes after awhile. It goes out of true again because of the metal tension. The more it is ridden the more tension releases. Takes on average three or four trips before the wheel will not need adjusting.
Aka why I say the more you ride a previously damaged rim the more it will want to run true. It sounds weird but it just works that way.
24 foldable fat roadbike huh. Seen them in stores. Cartridge bottom bracket that needs that annoying special socket and stuff. Neat bit of kit there. Expensive as all heck here in Manitoba but available. There is like two or three bike shops that have all the high end gear. Not something I work on. I have a few tools for bikes, need more, but I do it as a hobby.
Oddly enough ...
... there are two stable states for a spoked wheel as I discovered when we were cycle camping in the Pyrenees many years ago. In a fit of pique (I can't remember the reason - probably trivial!) I slammed my fully laden bike on the ground as I lifted and turned it round and then found I couldn't wheel it to the road. To my horror the back wheel was shaped like a Pringles biscuit - ie buckled! I took it out and managed to get it true again by simply pushing it against a lamp-post and springing it back - no spoke key needed and it survived the rest of the tour.
I too, have built lots of wheels as an amateur - I'm just slow. Certainly too slow to do it as a pro but they're round and true once I've done.
Sadly, my cycling is restricted to 30 minutes each morning on my stationary Wattbike these days. I've just celebrated my 83rd birthday and I've lost the confidence I once enjoyed - particularly on icy roads. Hopefully I'll be back on the road come Spring.
R
I’ve seen worse
Worst wheel I saw was one from a disc brake. He slammed on rear disc brake hard going downhill and somehow sheared of a few spokes and pulled the nuts through a few others.
mark my words
in 20+ years in the trade and double that riding, i've seen a lot worse than that!
You've all seen cartoons where the bike hits a wall / truck etc and the previously round wheels are the depicted as square, of course in real life this doesn't happen - or does it? I was riding an event in Germany maybe 6/7 years ago, a bunch of @ 5/600 hundred of us about 10km or so into a 200km event, single track roads requiring a thinning and stringing out of the field, i was maybe @ 100 riders back when all the brakes went on, slowing us to a crawl, inevitably there had been a touch of wheels, by the time i reached the site there was a guy holding a front wheel that resemmbled very closely one of those cartoons, the rim had a 90 degree corner - something i'd never seen happen before, don't think they'd be straightening that out! (no one was seriously hurt in the incident)
Just a point of order, spokes are usually tensioned not by a nut but by a nipple which is shaped specifically to sit into the rim. I've had nipples pull through the rim myself, not on wheels i've built i hasten to add. The most common reason is too much spoke tension which in turn overstresses the rim at the spoke hole, they don't always fail but an impact or spoke damage elsewhere in the wheel can cause a catastrophic failure such as that mtb wheel. Last time it happened to me was an expensive climbing wheel, all of 21 spokes, the spoke didn't pull through, rhe wheel didn't even lose true, but @ 4cm of rim had exploded from the rest of the wheel, i didn't notice until the end of my ride when i investigated the tinkling noise!
If you build a wheel properly you detension the wheel as you go along, true, detension and repeat until it remains straight after the detension element. each builder with have their own technique but essentially you place the wheel on the floor, push down on the rim and repeat at several points around the wheel so maybe 12/6 o'clock, 3/9, 2/8 etc then turn the wheel over and repeat. It releases any stiction between crossing spokes but also between nipples and rim. You might have to do this 3/4 times but at least 2, if its done properly the wheel will stay in true indefinately and even if a spoke gets damaged/broken. A good shop/mechanic will do this even with factory built wheels in new bikes, sadly most don't and lots of mechanics are terrible wheel smiths!
Madeline Anafrid Bell