Geoff App

[Nathanedmunds]

does anyone know if there are still original Geoff App bikes around

 

[orange71]

search on 'cleland' and you'll find loads of info here. Geoff Apps is a sometime member, too

 

[GeoffApps]

Hello!

 

[Nathanedmunds]

hello Mr apps . i have posted on your web site about the variable drice like DAF had and AMP forks.

I thought i'd use a picture of me in my tweed suit building a wheel in your honour Mr Apps.

 

[GeoffApps]

...and what better garb could you use for wheel building? Talking of wheel-building, have you looked at the Kwikspoke on flickr?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48162770@N ... 416477859/

 

[Nathanedmunds]

wow . so i'd only need to buy the longest spokes and just cut them . sweet.

 

[GeoffApps]

Sure, that's the idea. Some spokes were formed like this in the late 40s and early 50s, but they don't work in wheel building machines.

But for small bike shops and serious fixers you can knock up a set of spokes in about 15 minutes. Better than those thread rolling machines!

People say that the spokes can't be as strong formed in this way, but I have one set of original Rudge Whitworth wheels the same age as me, still going strong. And the AventuraTT wheelsets are made with them too.

 

[Nathanedmunds]

what interests me is how the spoke stays in the flange . is the knuckle over 90deg? and where can i get one?

I can't see how they wouldn't be as strong . it's pretty much how DT swiss make their spokes but they cut them the other end. I've done snowflake pattern wheels that are just as strong as a normal wheel and that involves twisting spokes around each other. After all they are steel .

 

[GeoffApps]

The spokes do stay in the hole in the same way as standard spokes.

The tool I designed and had made, but I was very lucky the engineer completed it.

There is an improved version that has been with the engineer for four years now, it's nearly complete, but I can't get him to do the final little bit.

It really comes into its own when experimenting with different lacing patterns, and when you're not quite sure how long the spokes should be; if you've got it wrong, just cut another set.

I'm sure this would make a valuable tool if it were produced, but I don't have the resourses, and I'd probably get ripped-off, as usual.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

A Japanese brand (perhaps Hoshi - I forget) used this elbow form in the eighties and nineties for their bladed-profile spokes. It saved having to slot the hub.

edit: indeed they were Hoshi:

http://www.euroasiaimports.net/productc ... tegory=174