The black art of wheel building…

[Uncle Grumpy]

I'm not arguing with you, I agree it's engineering,

And that's all you need to say.

I'm saying that to people without the knowledge, even simple engineering is a dark art they simply don't understand.

Well then, they would be wrong. See,I don't understand how microchips work. However, I realise the workings of the microchip are not an art, it is still a science. My ignorance of something doesn't change what it is. Anyone thinking otherwise has a tenuous grasp on reality and they are not welcome to sample from my whisky collection which is frankly, extensive and delicious.

Grumps

 

[novocaine]

And that's all you need to say.

I don't understand how microchips work. Yet to me, the workings of the microchip are not an art, it remains a science. Anyone thinking otherwise has a tenuous grasp on reality and they are not welcome to sample from my whisky collection.

Grumps

well, if you don't see beauty in engineering I have to say I feel sorry for you.

I'm a mechanical engineer by qualification and trade, yet I see beauty in good engineering, that to me makes it as art.

I don't how this isn't art. look at it, it's amazing. maybe your definition of art is skewed by what popular opinion says is art.



Guess we should say stop at this point, I'm not changing your mind, you are aren't changing mine (possibly because we are arguing from the same point with different end points).

back to wheels.

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

Art is subjective and engineering is subjective. The rear dropouts on a early 2000's titanium Serotta frame perform an engineering task and are also artistic in the aestetic compared to a Chinese bike and its dropouts that can be bought at Walmart. Both are engineered to a certain standard load bearing weight. Engineering doesn't mean "brutalist" approach or nothing. The entire modern world is filled with things that are engineered where the simplicity in design performs the required engineering function but also aesthetic of function is deemed art in an of its self. I don't think that you are so stubborn or that grumpy.

I think radial wheels are sufficient for XC riding like a wild ape, if tensioned appropriately to manufactuer spec for rims and spokes will hold up fine AND they look rad. People swear a wheel must be built to 3x pattern only or it cannot sufficiently support a load. I think that is nonsense. Change my mind.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

well, if you don't see beauty in engineering I have to say I feel sorry for you.

I'm not sure what I said that gave that impression. Engineering can indeed be beautiful. For example, I think the Eiffel Tower is sexy. The lines, the angles, the curves, the repetition, the mathematics - everything about that piece of engineering is beautiful to point that I think it's perfection. I restore muscle cars and I find a beauty in the way an engine turns over, the way the cam opens the valves and the while thing is timed like a symphony to function.

I don't have to call it art to call it beautiful. I can call it engineering and still be awestruck by its beauty. I can also be awestruck by the beauty in art. Nature is beautiful. Nature isn't art.

None of that changes the fact that wheel building is not art, but engineering.

My life is enriched by the beauty I see all around me. You really don't need to feel sorry for me but thanks for your concern. I'm touched.

If you want to feel sorry for me, do so because my teenage kids eat me out of house and home.

Anyway, have at it. I'm done.

Grumps

 

[Woz]

You are all mad.

Why you would want to perpetuate this obsolete know-how cobbling together something round out of many individual bits and pieces is beyond me. You can call it engineering, science, art, a craft, voodoo or even flower arranging for all I care - it's outdated. Think on the lines of early cars and motorbikes had hand spoked wheels.

Now for a bicycle you buy superior plastic wheels, and for some time you can buy cool looking disc wheels made with a special glue and burnt firewood compound. You don't even have to true them and have a silly spoke key in the toolbox; you just throw them in the bin when needed.

 

[Frankenorange]

well, if you don't see beauty in engineering I have to say I feel sorry for you.

I'm a mechanical engineer by qualification and trade, yet I see beauty in good engineering, that to me makes it as art.

I don't how this isn't art. look at it, it's amazing. maybe your definition of art is skewed by what popular opinion says is art.

View attachment 757994

Guess we should say stop at this point, I'm not changing your mind, you are aren't changing mine (possibly because we are arguing from the same point with different end points).

back to wheels.

You can just make out the drive-by shooting taking place, at the 7-11, in the upper left hand corner.