Building

What better use for the new kitchen?

Finally got around to building John's wheelset for the world's fastest bike. I have been sitting on the parts literally for months, but figured there was no hurry since last time he was here he dislocated his elbow (following me off something), and is only just now getting back on the bike.

My building skills are improving. I was able to lace the wheels (the hardest part for me) without consulting a book although I did take a few peeks at some of the built wheels on the bikes prior to starting. In addition, this is the first time I placed every spoke in to the hub prior to lacing, previously, I would add spokes layer by layer.

Lacing both probably took 1.5 hours, tensioned the front in 1/2 hr, rear in an hour which is probably a record for me. These are about the 7th and 8th wheels I have built. Getting faster, but no speed demon yet. How many professional wheelbuilders can do a Carpal tunnel in three minutes though?

King hubs laced 3X to Bontrager Mustang OSB rims with DT competition spokes and prolock nipples. They tensioned up very nicely. I am impressed with the stiffness of these rims. The seem like very, very nice XC rims if you don't necessarily want tubeless. I think Bontrager has their own rim strip which served me nicely in the 26" version of these rims. I would say I like them better than the Stans Flows or Arches. Certainly built way easier.

They will go on John's full XTR Niner EMD back to Kentucky after I have finished thrashing them for a while. Very, very nice bike and quite nice looking. It will have my last used Reba on it, so it is WB and rigid for me.

The fun thing about wheelbuilding is seeing all these wimpy, flexy parts slowly transform into an amazingly stiff, light, durable construct that will support 200 lbs going at high speeds in rough terrain. All just with a few turns of a screw. Extremely cool and relatively unchanged for 100 years.