I think you need more than that. One way to do it is to cut the hole in the middle for the hub, then make a radial cut to the edge. Place the covering over the wheel, and tape one edge of the radial cut to the hub and to the rim. Pull the covering around the wheel, and see how much overlap there is at the other end. Add enough (say .5-1.0") for joining the two edges, and cut off excess (or not).

Remember that you don't need to dish the drive side.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Ken,

Did you cut the monokote to fit the wheel? In other words, make a template of the wheel and use it to cut the monokote to fit the wheel?

Or did you "just" glue the monokote to the wheel with a rough estimate of the correct size and trim it after you had glued it to the wheel?

How's the new wheel holding up?

Mike

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TheBikeRacer.com

For the drive side (no dishing), I cut a square of Monokote, figured out the center, glued my rim template to the center, cut out the hole, put the sheet on the wheel, folded it up so it wasn't touching the rim, put contact cement on the rim (4 spokes width at 12/3/6/9 o'clock), stretched (too much!) the covering onto each glued area one at a time, then glued the 4 spoke width sections that weren't already glued. After letting that set overnight, I then ironed the covering to stretch it out. Then I cut off the excess at the edge of the braking surface. I finally figured out how to do the latter bit (short of building a jig that held the blade in place a fixed distance from the edge of the rim): holding the handle of the blade in my right hand, and the blade itself between my thumb and forefinger of my left hand, I drew the blade from left to right, *using the tips of the thumb and forefinger to track the braking surface and glued surfaces, respectively*. This prevented the blade from slipping and cutting the covering.

I've only used the wheel about 3 or 4 times outdoors, including a TT last weekend. No damage whatsoever. I must say that the horizontal dropouts on my P2K make it difficult to insert/remove the wheel without putting a dropout or the derailleur through the covering...

Ken Lehner

For the non-drive side that needs "dishing" I created a full size template out of a thin piece of cardboard. It actually isn't cardboard because it doesn't have a corrugated center. Anyway, I cut a slice down one side so that I could find out how much to overlap. I taped this template to the rim all the way around so that I could see how much the "slit" overlapped. It is about half an inch overlap down at the braking surface. But, this may vary from wheel to wheel.

Wolffan,

How'd your disk come out? Any pictures?

Mike

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TheBikeRacer.com

Sorry it took so long to get pictures. I couldn't find my digital camera! I have used this weel in 3 races. One of these races was a 32k bike length with 25mph wind gusts. So far, I have had no problems. It is hard to keep the mylar shiny. It gets scuffed and dinged easily. These pictures are taken after the three races, so the mylar is getting beaten up. But, it is definitely intact. I have collegiate nationals in three weeks. I am debating whether or not to redo the mylar.

Unfortunately I don't have a website to host the pictures. Any suggestions?

Okay, I have attached the photos of the disc wheel over at trinewbies.com

Here is the link! :

http://www.trinewbies.com/...id=23578&posts=1

OK--I've been thinking about using two pieces of Monokote in a yin & yang pattern. How much harder would this make the operation?

It would be doable. Bonding two pieces with a small overlap works very well with the iron. But, you may have to attempt it 2-3 times before you get it how you want.

Wolffan,

That things looks sweet! Why do you think it's getting dinged up?

Also, Nice seeing a VA Tech fan. I had/have lots of VT Alumni friends - Grew up in NoVA. Went to Mason.

Mike

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TheBikeRacer.com

mwbyrd,

It gets dinged up when parts of other bikes bang into it. This can happen a lot when we drive to races. But, the heat gun usually smooths out the dings.

Actually, I have the VT sticker because I race for the VT triathlon team. I am a grad student, so some day I'll be an alumni as well :)

-Andy

Also I ws thinking of using a heat gun (paint stripping tool) would this work well? anyone try this?

By the way, your wheel looks meticulously awesome (except for that Virginia tech sticker ;). Kind of inspired me to at least try to make one too. I was looking for something more permanent and something I could take off because of my roof rack, but maybe I'll give this a shot. Where do you guys get the Monokote. At some hobby store I guess, but do you know of any crafts stores or other places that have a large selection so I don't have to buy online?

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berndog
How did we all get sucked into this crazy sport anyway?!!

I used two places to buy monokote...

1) www.towerhobbies.com (best online hobby shop)

2) my local hobby shop had some. Check all your local hobby shops. Any shop that sells RC airplanes will carry monokote (or ultrakote).

I painted mine using Lustrecoat; the more seams you use, the harder it is to iron (the adhesive loosens at a lower temperature than that at which shrinkage occurs). See http://www.inmotionep.com/events/2004/April/SandyHookTT_04032004/gallery/sandyhooktt_2004_ee7g5495.aspx
for a picture.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I actually didn't "dish" my non-drive side....makes for a much easier install. I made sure to somewhat evenly distribute the excess material around the perimeter of the wheel by only stretching and pressing the material into the contact cement in segments 180 degrees from each other and then grabbing at 90 degrees to that, slowly working my way around the rim....the paint stripper heat gun I used smoothed these areas out nicely with only minor "wrinkles" left on the edge, no worse than the drive side anyway (and from what I can tell from wolffan's pix, no worse than his either). Try it without dishing first...if you don't like it, redo it with a "dish".

I've only used mine once so far this season for a TT in a stage race. Worked great in ~20 mph crosswinds and garnered a bit of attention around the start line when some guy commented "Sheesh, you Cat 5 guys have better equipment than me...and I'm a Cat 2!" I then replied "First, the front wheel is borrowed, I got the clip-ons for $20 at a swap meet, and the disc is just a homemade cover."

I instantly had 4 or 5 people saying "You made that? Sweet". They nearly fell over when I told them it was just a spoked wheel with $20 worth of airplane mylar on it.

It'll be getting a lot more use now that daylight savings is here...a local TT series is starting up on alternate Monday evenings for the rest of the summer.

BTW, the heat gun works GREAT for smoothing out any "dings".

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/