Staying True

Stuart Ablett

Member
Messages
15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
As many of you know, I have been changing my lifestyle, getting back in to a healthy one. :rolleyes:

One of the things I've done it gone back to riding my bicycle, and I built a trailer for my bicycle so I can do deliveries around the area.

ver_2_trailer_1.jpg

I rebuilt my old Cannondale bike, and I am using it daily now, that bike has been my companion since 1990!

I recently bought some new wheels for the old bike, because the the rim brakes do wear them out, this is the fourth set of wheels I bought for this bike, the first three where used a lot more off road and that wears them out more quickly. The other day, I was riding the bike, hauling a load for delivery and I hear a tell tale "Ping" of a spoke breaking :doh:

Later that day I went and got another spoke and replaced it, but by that time the wheel had a good wobble to it :(

I wanted to buy a wheel truing stand but it seems there are only two types on the market, one that is flimsy plastic and aluminum, which cost about $120 here, and ones that the pros use in bike shops, which cost $500. :eek:

So, I built my own....

wheel_truing_stand_11.jpg

wheel_truing_stand_12.jpg


I found some pics on the net and went from there....

wheel_truing_stand_9.jpg

I tried it out and it works very well indeed! :thumb:

Cost me about $20 or less for MDF and bits and pieces, I even turned my own knobs, instead of buying plastic ones.

I could not be more pleased with it! :headbang:

......not really woodworking, but it sort of made from wood :rolleyes: ;)
 
Congrats on the bikeing

Hi,

Lots of power to you on the bikeing. My oldest son was into bicycle cross country racing when he was much younger---He is now well into his senior citizen bracket. He had legs the diameter of my waist---couldn't purchase pants---legs would not go into the leg holes.

Now if your legs get fat from bicycling does that count against you in your weight reduction program? Think about it if you start making too many deliveries of 100 miles or more one way.

Enjoy and keep up the exercise. It will reward you the rest of your life.

Jim
 
The truing stand looks good. From my experience, when you break one spoke, others will break later. Also, one cause of spokes breaking is tightening them too much when the wheel is built. The proper pressure is hard to describe but you feel it by squeezing two parallel spokes together.

Good luck on the wheel, and on your progress to a healthier life.

Mike

P.S. If you continue to break spokes, look at having the wheels built with a 4X (four-cross) pattern instead of a 3-cross. The 4X pattern requires longer spokes. You can build them yourself. There's lots of info on wheel building on the web. I've built quite a few in my life.

You usually break spokes on the rear, and then on the sprocket side because of the way the wheel is built.
 
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Mike, I've built a few wheels in my time to, motorcycle as well as bicycle, and I actually had a very old cast iron truing stand at one time, love that thing, but I sold it when I moved to Japan.

The wheels I have are supposed to be nice and strong, they are 28 spoke wheels, which should be strong, but I am heavy and so is the stuff I'm hauling. I've got a new bike on order, it has 36 spoke wheels, 700Cs so it should stand up to the abuse I dish out daily :D

We shall see how long these last, they are the 4th set on this bike, I have no doubt that at some point I'll have to buy a 5th set, that is the way it goes.

BTW, I've now lost more weight than my trailer weighs, kind of neat :D
 
nice job.

When I needed a truing stand, I just pulled an old front fork out of the trash an mounted it upside down in my B+D workmate, and duct-taped a nail to the side.... ;)
 
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