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.