My daughter is also a bicycle person, and we went out to dinner this evening. First, visited the bike store where we both have worked, talked new bikes, old bikes and other fun things. Then had a nice dinner at the restaurant at the other end of the building from the bike store, all in a complex called Machinery Row, here in Madison.
It gives me great pleasure to see my daughter being excited by the same cycling passion I have enjoyed for nearly forty years.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Website rollout sale
Order any wheel service through www.earlewheels.com between now and
February 14, 2013 and take 10 percent off your total order.
This includes cataloged wheels, custom builds and the
wheelbuilding class at Cirque du Cyclisme ’13 in Leesburg, Va., May 17-20,
2013.
All inquiries must use the contacts page from www.earlewheels.com.
Thank you for reading.
What I learned teaching my wheelbuilding class
January 18, 19, and 20, I had three students come to Madison for the Brazen Dropouts Bike Swap and my newly formatted wheelbuilding class. Of course, being the teacher, I learned as much as the students, and will incorporate that into my wheel classes.
Even though I have always emphasized even spoke tension as the primary goal with any wheel, my students showed me how to gauge that the wheel hits the right balance of round and true with even tension.
My students taught me to include photos with the text. I'm very new to digital photography, especially the part after the picture is snapped, but I will be learning. This image is from a recent building project for my good customer Joe.
My students taught me that I need to check their homework and then check my own. They also taught me the value of restricting choice for class projects, at least a little bit.
I will be including all of their lessons into my wheelbuilding classes. The class at Cirque du Cyclisme (http://cirqueducyclisme.com) is ON, assuming I get the required minimum of students, and I'm investigating possibilities in Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities.
Even though I have always emphasized even spoke tension as the primary goal with any wheel, my students showed me how to gauge that the wheel hits the right balance of round and true with even tension.
My students taught me that I need to check their homework and then check my own. They also taught me the value of restricting choice for class projects, at least a little bit.
I will be including all of their lessons into my wheelbuilding classes. The class at Cirque du Cyclisme (http://cirqueducyclisme.com) is ON, assuming I get the required minimum of students, and I'm investigating possibilities in Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
A back yard find turned 650.
Last fall, I "rescued" a 1982 Univega Grand Rally that had been sitting behind a neighbor's storage shed for a few years. The frame looked good until I took off the clamp on shifters. Somebody had crudely cut off the shifter bosses that had been brazed onto the frame, leaving deep gouges and some holes in the frame tubing.
I was crushed, because I really like model of bike. It's an under-appreciated Japanese frame with functional but not overly expensive parts, and I really liked the ride of it when I was assembling them at Velo Sport in 1982. I was not sure what I was going to do with it with the frame damage, so I just hung it in the garage.
Fortunately, one of my wheel students, Hal Bielstein, is a frame builder and needed a pair of wheels I had in stock. Hal said the right way to fix the frame was to use some Cycle Designs Fillet Pro to fill the voids, then file and sand it down to be smooth.
Hal and I had also been talking about Peter Weigle's 650B conversions. I like the idea. A performance oriented frame with fat compliant tires set up for road riding. I was going to shoehorn some long-reach brakes on the bike, and make do with the brake bridge where it is, but Hal is going to do the job right.
When this bike is complete, it will become one of my permanent collection. I have bought and sold dozens of bikes over the years, and kept a few for a long time, but have now decided that instead of the "serial collecting" and the random piling up of nice bikes that were good deals, I will assemble a small collection of elegant machines and just keep them. The Univega will be one of those. I will write about the others anon.
I was crushed, because I really like model of bike. It's an under-appreciated Japanese frame with functional but not overly expensive parts, and I really liked the ride of it when I was assembling them at Velo Sport in 1982. I was not sure what I was going to do with it with the frame damage, so I just hung it in the garage.
Fortunately, one of my wheel students, Hal Bielstein, is a frame builder and needed a pair of wheels I had in stock. Hal said the right way to fix the frame was to use some Cycle Designs Fillet Pro to fill the voids, then file and sand it down to be smooth.
Hal and I had also been talking about Peter Weigle's 650B conversions. I like the idea. A performance oriented frame with fat compliant tires set up for road riding. I was going to shoehorn some long-reach brakes on the bike, and make do with the brake bridge where it is, but Hal is going to do the job right.
When this bike is complete, it will become one of my permanent collection. I have bought and sold dozens of bikes over the years, and kept a few for a long time, but have now decided that instead of the "serial collecting" and the random piling up of nice bikes that were good deals, I will assemble a small collection of elegant machines and just keep them. The Univega will be one of those. I will write about the others anon.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Welcome to the new Earle Wheels Blog
Hi, This Blog is to introduce my business, Earle Wheels. There will be three components of the business: New wheels, primarily using rims from Velo Orange; custom builds with parts supplied by customers; and wheelbuilding classes.
The new wheels will be built on hubs specified or ordered by the customer, using rims and spokes that I will provide. For the rollout of the business through 2013, I will be offering Velo Orange rims in 700c and 650b, 32- and 36- hole drilling. Check out their products here: http://velo-orange.com
The rims are well thought out, well made, and most of all, shiny! For classic bicycles and modern bicycles with a classic ethos, these are the rims of choice, with a variety of widths to be everything from fast and light to touring on rough stuff.
My custom work started five years ago with recommendation from one of the good guys in the business, John Barron, http://www.velostuf.com/. Collectors who have located classic rims and hubs send them to me for careful building of their wheels. My long experience, much of it the era of these classic parts, allows my customers to have wheels for their collectible bicycles that they can actually ride.
New for 2012 was my wheelbuilding class. I offered a one-day class at Cirque du Cyclisme, and learned that the classes need to have two or three sessions with some time for homework in between. I taught the new format class on the weekend of the Brazen Dropouts Bike Swap on January 19, 2013. The students told me they got a lot out of it. I know I learned a lot teaching the class.
I will be offering the class at other weekend events throughout the year. I will also travel to teach the class in a 2-day format not tied to an event. Please contact me through www.earlewheels.com for details.
Thank you for reading.
The new wheels will be built on hubs specified or ordered by the customer, using rims and spokes that I will provide. For the rollout of the business through 2013, I will be offering Velo Orange rims in 700c and 650b, 32- and 36- hole drilling. Check out their products here: http://velo-orange.com
The rims are well thought out, well made, and most of all, shiny! For classic bicycles and modern bicycles with a classic ethos, these are the rims of choice, with a variety of widths to be everything from fast and light to touring on rough stuff.
My custom work started five years ago with recommendation from one of the good guys in the business, John Barron, http://www.velostuf.com/. Collectors who have located classic rims and hubs send them to me for careful building of their wheels. My long experience, much of it the era of these classic parts, allows my customers to have wheels for their collectible bicycles that they can actually ride.
New for 2012 was my wheelbuilding class. I offered a one-day class at Cirque du Cyclisme, and learned that the classes need to have two or three sessions with some time for homework in between. I taught the new format class on the weekend of the Brazen Dropouts Bike Swap on January 19, 2013. The students told me they got a lot out of it. I know I learned a lot teaching the class.
I will be offering the class at other weekend events throughout the year. I will also travel to teach the class in a 2-day format not tied to an event. Please contact me through www.earlewheels.com for details.
Thank you for reading.
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