"Master Wheelbuilding" is a complete tutorial on how to build
wheels. Students learn how to take hubs, rims, spokes and nipples
and assemble them into a finished wheel by lacing up the
components and then tensioning the wheel to achieve proper
tension, trueness and dish. No prior knowledge is assumed. If you
want new bicycle wheels, you are faced with the following
question. Should I buy stock wheels from a bike shop or have them
custom built for me? This DVD gives you the attractive option of
building them yourself. In so doing, you will save money and
achieve an excellent result. Cycling enthusiasts usually wonder
if it is possible for them to build a wheel as good or better
than one they can purchase. The answer is emphatically yes. In
the DVD, Bill explains rim brake, disc brake and fixed gear
wheels and how to build them. Students learn how to use a truing
stand, tensiometer, dish tool, and spoke wrenches. Little tricks
picked up from building thousands of wheels are mentioned. The
pros and cons of bicycle parts are discussed such as: aluminum
and brass nipples; straight gauge and double-butted spokes, round
and bladed spokes; Sapim CX-ray spokes; different extrusions and
shapes of rims; deep section rims; differences between clincher,
tubular, and tubeless rims; Stan's NoTubes rims; and, Velocity
rims including the popular Deep V. Park Tools are used most of
the time, such as the Park professional model truing stand, Park
TM-1 tensiometer, and Park spoke wrenches, including the new
4-sided master spoke wrench which is very handy when tension
levels start getting high. Bill demonstrates both the Park and
VAR dish gauges and the Cyclus 4-sided spoke wrench that is
important for bladed spokes, particularly Sapim CX-ray spokes and
DT Swiss Aerolite spokes. Stress relieving is explained and
demonstrated. Appendices go into further depth on the physics of
wheels, how they work and what makes them strong, how to
calculate spoke length, use a truing stand, torsion loads on
wheels during accelerating and braking, and more. The skills
learned in the process of building a wheel are also useful in
routine bicycle maintenance, for example, in truing wheels and
tensioning existing wheels to improve their speed and efficiency.
From years of experience in building wheels and teaching
wheelbuilding in a classroom environment, Bill is well familiar
with the errors that novice builders are prone to commit and
emphasizes the steps necessary to avoid them. He explains several
mid-course checks to ensure the wheel is being assembled
correctly. Even experienced builders use these same checks to
catch and correct mistakes early. After you have learned how
build a bicycle wheel, you will be able to build any kind of
wheel for a ain bike, road bike, recumbent, trike, hybrid,
touring bike, tandem bike, fixie, downhill, single speed, etc.
You'll soon realize the enormous satisfaction of riding on
quality wheels you have built yourself and then start doing the
same thing for friends and family. Building wheels is similar to
flying an airplane in one sense, and Bill is a licensed pilot so
he knows. No matter how many times a pilot has taken off and
landed a given airplane, he follows a checklist, over and over
again, to ensure that some key step is not inadvertently omitted.
Building a wheel is similar. The key to the whole thing is
following a procedure carefully as if it is a checklist. If you
just randomly jump around, you will end up with a mess every
time. But, if you are disciplined and pay attention to what you
are doing, you will get consistently excellent results. "Master
Wheelbuilding" will get you there!