NEXT Cycling

09/08/2022

One Meelion Dollars. I know what I've got.

01/19/2022

I wrote a new blog! As usual, pack a lunch for this one. Link in the bio. Photo is click bate from my time in the Persian Gulf in '91, which got real interesting right around this time that year.

01/18/2022

Fun little side project, I'm doing track wheels now! These are headed for !!

05/22/2020

Had a fun talk with Max at TGR for their Maker Series. I still find these awkward to read but I enjoy talking about wheels and small business so there you go.

Carbon wheels on bikes are all the rage these days, but with so many options in the industry, it’s hard to stand out as a small brand. Vermont’s Jerry Chabot felt like he needed to offer something unique, so that’s exactly what he did when he started ​NEXT Cycling.

05/01/2020

Pleased with how the in-house wheel building station came out. Very compact, mobile so I can put it away, but does everything. The ergonomics are also great which I've struggled with in the past. I like the stand right in my lap so I'm not leaning in all the time. Successful prototype that I'll live with for a while and tweak as needed!

05/01/2020

Restored the spoke machine #402 today! Can't believe how nice it came out. Still has a great patina but now it's clean and shiny and oiled and smooth like room temperature butter!

04/23/2020

New project: resurrect this old girl. Number 402! That's old! Pretty excited as I love to restore old machines.

04/19/2020

Cat #6 (or 7?): Relaxed

I'm back. Before the break we established that we want high entropy wheels, or in regular person speak, wheels that are round and true when they are relaxed and the spokes and rim aren't fighting each other unevenly to make the wheel round and true. Pumpkin likes to relax. He knows what's up.

How do you achieve that condition in a wheel build? You spread the forces evenly so that the spokes are in equilibrium (refer to previous cats). You do THAT by adjusting the spoke tension during the build.

You make the wheel round and you make the wheel true. Then you make all the spoke tension on the same sides of the wheel The Same. That of course of puts the wheel back out of true. So you do that step again. That of course makes the spoke tensions not The Same, but to a lesser degree. So you even the tension again. Then you true again. Make The Same again. Repeat as necessary.

You also mix in some stress relieving (I prefer to call it stress equalizing). Which changes the tension. Which pulls the wheel out of true.

But you do your best and you make the wheel as round and true as it let's you make it. With all the the spokes are pulling The Same and everything in equilibrium and there are no pent up stresses in the wheel that are going to work their way out later. If you try to force out that last little hop, you're putting an uneven stress back into the wheel. Stress is bad. Be relaxed. Be like Pumpkin.

04/19/2020

Cat #5: I'm going for a bike ride. Check back later for Cat #6 and the end of this discussion.

04/19/2020

Cat #4: Destresed.

Not to be confused with distressed. That's for jeans.

Pumpkin is at rest. All his internal energy has been released and he has arrived at stasis.

Back to entropy. Forces bound up in a closed system will release internally and the system will find equilibrium. That's actually an increase in entropy, as entropy can only increase (if I'm simplifying).

The MAXIMUM entropy state, which again every closed system is traveling towards, corresponds to a "state of stable equilibrium. Once the system reaches this maximum-entropy state, no part of the system can perform work on any other part."

What's that got to do with wheels? Simply put, every wheel chases it's tail until it's really tired and finds a nice sunny spot to curl up in. EVERY wheel. Pumpkin is special, you aren't. Your wheel will follow the law of entropy. My job as a wheel builder is to put wheels in the box at their maximum entropy state. At stable equilibrium. Internal forces are all released into the system and the forces are spread evenly. The hard part, of course, is ending up with a wheel that is round and true in this state.

Cat #5 coming up.

04/19/2020

Cat #3: Nailed it!

Pumpkin's nose is perfectly centered between the fork legs. Just like (ok stay with me here...) the rim should be on a well built wheel even after years of riding.

Pumpkin knows the wheel needs to be round and true not just on the stand, but later, after a few thousand load/unload cycles to work out any bedding in or relaxing of the spokes, which I would characterize as the internal stresses of EACH SPOKE working themselves out (refer back to Cat #1).

Have you ever gotten a wheel and ridden it two weeks and then had to bring it in to get trued up? That used to be normal practice. That's the spokes finding their balance. The spoke tension WILL even itself out eventually, because entropy. It's all entropy nowadays. Or ball bearings. Or cats. I digress.

Wheel building, to me, is about entropy. From Wikipedia: "Entropy is simply a quantitative measure of what the second law of thermodynamics describes: the spreading of energy until it is evenly spread." That's a pretty good description of entropy, actually. Just like in Cat #2, internal energy (forces) are going to work themselves out until you arrive at rest.

Cat #4

04/19/2020

Cat #2: round and round we go!

Ok I guess the previous post was not a great analogy as cold setting should theoretically not damage the steel as long as it is theoretically stress relieved so that there is theoretically no internal "tension" within the structure anywhere. Theoretically. Plastic vs elastic deformation and all that yada yada I'm telling cat stories here not teaching material science.

The point is, I can FORCE a wheel to be round and true on the stand by pulling hard on this spoke or that spoke and bending the assembly to my will. If I'm working to a "round and true" metric, that's a great wheel. Just like Pumpkin on the shelf, I can spin the wheel and grab my tail at one spot and KILL IT GRRRRRR (I mean, or tighten that spoke, or whatever). It will look great on the dial gauge.

TL:DR THAT'S A TERRIBLE WHEEL. Super fun game though. Meow.

Cat #3 coming at yah...