Hi, Andy Tetmeyer at Hed Wheels. Normally I’m not one for shameless self promotion, but I will stick my toe in the water nevertheless:
I will be teaching wheelbuilding at the upcoming Trifest '09. No matter what you’ve heard, it is not a black art, BUT - there are some simple tools and methodologies that make it much simpler, faster, and give very uniform results. I’ll show you (within reason) everything I know as you build your own set of Hed wheels. You buy the parts, Hed provides the tools, Trisports.com provides the venue. I take you through the entire process, and you leave with a fully warranteed, factory spec set of wheels. Price is the regular retail cost. 4 students per class, I will teach 3, maybe four classes and I expect class to go around 3 hours.
We’re offering Bastogne, Ardennes, Jet 4, and jet 6 rear PT. If there is interest, we can talk about PT on the jet 4s, ardennes and bastognes.
March 7th and 8th, maybe I’ll see you there. Steve will be around too - he is going to give a seminar about wind tunnelling - when and why you should consider it. Trisports.com will have schedule information.
Can I ask what you prefer to measuer spoke tension? I found the Wheelsmith tool not quite as consistant with “non-round” spokes as the Hozan tool…but at a fraction the price.
I presume that you also use some flavor or spoke prep? What do you lube the nipple-rim sirface with?
r-10, you do realize I’m teaching a class, don’t you?
we use park tensios, loctite and oil.
Signup is somewhere at the trifest site. we just put it together over the last couple days, I don’t know yet where the signup details are on the trifest site. I hope to get a trisportser to give me the details soon.
Well, once you figure in the cost of shipping in the molds and presses, power conversion, etc. - we didn’t think we’d have takers at several thousand per wheel. Plus I’ve never actually made one. I know how to do it, but to teach the class I would need a little more experience. At 10000+ wheels I DO feel qualified to teach a spoked wheel class.
I’m wondering. Is it possible to become proficient enough at building wheels to make it worth while to swap a Power Tap hub between training and racing wheels on a regular basis (given you’re not racing every weekend, say 6-8 times per year)? It seems that the only fault that most people find with the PT system is the need for two PT hubs, one for training and racing. Is it too expensive, or too time consuming, or do you have to be super precise when building around a PT hub? I hope I’m not demonstrating too much ignorance here, but I’m really curious.
It would be about a 30-45 minute job (for me) to unlace and rebuild, but I don’t think I would do it.
Your spokes should have some sort of thread adhesive on them, it will lose effectiveness when you are monkeying with build/unbuild.
the same adhesive will gum things up, and could attract dirt unless you are very careful about where you put your spider when it is not built into the wheel. Dirt and gumminess are less than ideal. your nipple threads will deform too, so ideally you want new nipples every build. and you would also have to pay attention to keep the drive and non-drive sides of the rim always the same, or probably lose some rim durability.
all that makes it not worth it to me. That and the fact that our wheels are capable everydayers, so you can train on your race wheel.
If none of that convinces you, keep in mind that Saris now sells hubs without the computer head. You can get the swank SL+ kit for your race wheel and then build your training wheel on a cheaper heavier model then just swap the computer head around. not quite cheap in my book, but certainly cheapER.
Long long ago a mag did some testing. Permanent Loctite worked best (didn’t need retruing). The downside is you must work fast and if you need to true you have to heat the nipple of use pliers on the spoke and a tight wrench on the nipple. I think spoke prep was 2nd and linseed 3rd. No idea of protocal or which magazine.
That was my issue with the locktite. If you have any break in the action I have seen de-stressing become a PITA. Also makes for fun with round spokes if you do need a touch up (as there is no good way to secure the spoke and not wind it up).
I think the testing was done with mavic, before pre built wheels existed. I suspect that mavic had a couple of guys that could build wheels pretty damn fast. For mortals its not an option.
Andy,
Maybe a stupid question, but I’m learning as I go. I’m getting a Jet 60/Disc combo and am planning on using the wheels primarily for racing but does what you say about capable everydayers also apply to the disc (weather permitting)?
Thanks!!
–Sax
No way I could use permanent loctite, it just takes me too long to get a wheel built. I remember reading a feature about Shimano’s wheelbuilding facility in Malaysia on Velonews and their wheelbuilders can get a prelaced wheel tensioned and trued in about 4 minutes…
It probably helps if you build a hundred a day. I am nowhere near Andy’s level at a mere 100+ wheels
sax - yes, the jet disc is everyday strong, assuming you are 190 or less, like on all our stock build wheels.
I commuted on a disc for a while when I first started working here. We a new layup that needed testing. I felt soooo cool back then but i don’t think I could do it now. I commute in full bike geek kit already, a disc would put me right over the edge. Or maybe it just makes me shallow for caring about my bike nerd quotient.
