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Wheel Building - Wheel Work

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pedal4416

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Hi everyone! I know sometimes its hard to trust your local bike shop with your Vintage/Antique wheel work, or you just plain old dont know how or don't want to try it yourself, so I am offering my services. I have 20+ years of wheel building experience, 26 years working professionally in/running/owning a bike shop. I have in stock or can order about every size, gauge, or butting spoke you need as well as modern alternatives to old rims. Once and a while Ill have NOS vintage spokes. Estimates are free and I charge depending on the job. I can also do full wheel restoration. I am not 100% set up to steam/straighten warped wood rims at this time(working on it) I can true as best as possible. PM me with any questions.

Check out my website for recent builds:

Owl Wheel Works

Tom
 
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Hello Tom. I love the antique bikes on your website


not overly polished - good :) ... looks like Hartford / Keating / Columbia...

Since you seem to built quite a lot of wheel-sets, I have a question:
If you respoke an antique wood rim, do you interlace the spokes ? (not refering to tangent spokes but crossing and inside spoke over an outside spoke or vice versa, for more lateral rigidity) It seems to me that in the US, that practice was carried out really late ... my US-bikes date around 1895 to 1910 and they all feature non-interlaced spoke pattern. Since interlaced wheels will be more rigid and durable (at least I think so, hope I'm right ;) ), I always wonder why it wasn't done in the US.... In Europe, pretty much with the invention of tangent spokes the interlacing was also carried out by most manufactures (not all of them, lets say 90%). Any explanation for this ?
 
Hello Tom. I love the antique bikes on your website


not overly polished - good :) ... looks like Hartford / Keating / Columbia...

Since you seem to built quite a lot of wheel-sets, I have a question:
If you respoke an antique wood rim, do you interlace the spokes ? (not refering to tangent spokes but crossing and inside spoke over an outside spoke or vice versa, for more lateral rigidity) It seems to me that in the US, that practice was carried out really late ... my US-bikes date around 1895 to 1910 and they all feature non-interlaced spoke pattern. Since interlaced wheels will be more rigid and durable (at least I think so, hope I'm right ;) ), I always wonder why it wasn't done in the US.... In Europe, pretty much with the invention of tangent spokes the interlacing was also carried out by most manufactures (not all of them, lets say 90%). Any explanation for this ?
Hi @FreedomMachinist
I usually follow what the original wheel had if I have it to go by. If not I tend to over-under cross the lace especially if its a wheel that will be ridden, unless the person im building the wheel for specifies to not cross. Im not sure why US manufacturers did not do this. Even Schwinn held off on the over-under until really late (70's?) I feel lacing with the over-under builds a stiffer more rigid wheel. As for the bikes on my website, I love as found crusty bikes! I try to not restore them and just preserve what's there. I have more to add to the site one of these days.
 
Yes, interlacing at the last cross will add a degree of lateral stiffness to the wheel and in some cases make it a bit harder for the wheel to go out of true from bumps. It's more helpful on heavily-loaded bikes and bikes needing every bit of help at the wheels (loaded carrier bikes, commuter bikes, gravel/trail bikes, etc.). For an antique bike that will be ridden in good conditions on decent road surfaces, it's up to rider preference. I prefer to interlace mine if the components and time will allow, but I don't sweat it if I'm riding non-interlaced wheels either. Pedal is correct that many of these old wheels are still around without interlacing and they function fine after 50+ years.
 
Even Schwinn held off on the over-under until really late (70's?)
LOL, funny, because in Europe at about that time, the trend went back to non-interlacing - to cut costs by replacing human hand labor by automated spoking machines, which could not handle interlacing :)


Fast forward the video past minute 1 , and you'll see such a machine... quite impressive engineering
 
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