rim and spoke selection for Eroica build

[Old Ned]

'I loved the 2 hour record liquorice allsort story'

I hope that's a misprint! However, 277 miles in 2 hours is really going some! :shock:

 

[Holiocornolio]

'I loved the 2 hour record liquorice allsort story'

I hope that's a misprint! However, 277 miles in 2 hours is really going some! :shock:

Was tempted to answer this with a facile - that's because you're too slow comment. But yeah - typo. I'd correct it, but where's the fun in that?

 

[pigman]

Re:

Great listening to an old master telling stories of his craft. So for Keith, a couple of points from me.

I'm a man of the 80s in terms of bike racing, wheel building etc, and I cant remember 15/17 gauge spokes being generally available. It was 14G plain or 14/16 double butted. And there was chromed, stainless and rustless. Choice was the correct combination of looks, weight, strength and price.

Would 15 gauge have let the spokes slide in easier for you than me faffing around with 14 gaugers, not that i'd have matched anywhere near your speed, or were spoke holes smaller back then too to match 15G spokes?

And in terms of lacing - I learned from a book which suggested spokes should be laced symmetrically, so that the "pulling" spokes on a rear wheel were laced from inside to out, both sides, so that the spoke can use the hub "shoulder" to aid the pulling process. How good was this advice?

 

[Nob]

Then we had in the 80’s also elliptical shaped spokes & flat bladed spokes where you Had to file a small slot on the hub to allow the spoke to be threaded

 

[Holiocornolio]

Question. Was just looking at a Roger de vlaeminck bike poster and noticed that his 1977 Paris Roubaix bike had more spokes in the front than the rear wheel checked a few other pre 1980 bikes and it doesn't seem that unusual to have had 36 or 40 in the front and 32 in the back. Why? I always understood that it was ok to have fewer spokes in the front as they don't take much load.

 

[Old Ned]

Question. Was just looking at a Roger de vlaeminck bike poster and noticed that his 1977 Paris Roubaix bike had more spokes in the front than the rear wheel checked a few other pre 1980 bikes and it doesn't seem that unusual to have had 36 or 40 in the front and 32 in the back. Why? I always understood that it was ok to have fewer spokes in the front as they don't take much load.

In Paris-Roubaix (which was a De Vlaeminck speciality) I would anticipate that the front wheel takes quite a bit of load - if not an absolute hammering! Doubt you would get a 40 spoke front wheel, more likely a 36.

 

[pigman]

Re:

Or there may have been a limited number of 36h wheels for PR, the norm being 32h. He punctured his rear and was given a standard 32h. These were days where cycling budgets were more meagre than today's £5k wheel expenditure

 

[keithglos]

The notion that half the spokes are "pulling" can be easily proved. If someone has a bike with a tangent spoked wheel and when "pinged" makes a reasonable sound all it needs is someone to load the pedal progressively while the spoke is pinged.
Then report back on change of pitch.
I am not able to try this at present.
I would not expect much difference in pitch.

When spoking a wheel it is fairly obvious that spokes from the inside flanges should be inserted first.

Keith