Madison Wheelbuilding Classes

Through the summer, I am offering smaller wheelbuilding classes at my workshop here in Madison. I would expect that ordering parts and doing the advance work for the class should take about three weeks, then schedule a weekend in Madison for hands-on wheelbuilding.

I will work with one to four students here in Madison, with a Park TS-2 truing stand available for each student. As you look at the classes page on the Earle Wheels Website, http://earlewheels.com/classes.html, the sessions will be Day One on Fridays, with classes available July 12 or 19, August 2, 16 or 30.

If you are a beginning wheelbuilder, you do not need to lace your wheels before you come to class. I will teach you the whole process from start to finish, and you will go home with a very good pair of wheels. More experienced builders should count on bringing two pair of wheels to work on.

Bring a bicycle, so that we can enjoy some of the good riding around Madison. With the three-day class schedule, count on a short ride Friday afternoon, a longer ride Saturday and a quick jaunt through the University of Wisconsin Arboretum on Sunday.

If the three-day schedule does not work for you, contact me to arrange a two-day class, with a longer Saturday session.

Here's the deal on tuition: If you want a one-on-one class, I'll charge $250. Single student in small-group class is $175. Buddy class, two students in a three or four person class, registering together is $300. Club class, three or four students registering together for a class by themselves is $425. The Madison workshop would get crowded with more than four students. I will be able to give each of you the attention you need to finish at least one pair of really nice wheels.

More Maynard if you want it

It turns out the Maynard Hershon has only left the national bicycle magazines. Here's a note from him:

I did not quit writing for bicycle magazines, but I do not contribute to a nationally available one these days. I'm still monthly in the Bicycle Paper, a Pac NW free bicycle paper out of Seattle. My stuff is included in the Bicycle Paper web site and then archived there. You can read years of my columns at that site. I'm regularly in the Rivendell Reader...if you can call the Reader regular.

Here is a link: http://www.bicyclepaper.com/

I need help to get to BAMF

The Bicycle: Art Meets Form (http://www.bicycle-artform.org/index.html) is shaping up to be the best show of the year. I really want to go, but launching Earle Wheels has drained the bike budget for the year. If I am going to make it to this event, I'm going to need some students for my wheelbuilding class http://earlewheels.com/classes.html.

I anticipate that the sessions for the class would be Friday morning, Saturday morning and much of Sunday, say 11 am to 6 pm with a break in the early afternoon. I will work with the students to make the schedule work for most people, and of course, I want to see the scheduled presentations, so we will work around those. Tuition for the class will be $199.

I need at least six students, and I need to hear "I'm interested, tell me more" in just a few days. I know it is short notice, but if you are in that area, or are already scheduled to go to BAMF, here's a chance to learn to build good bicycle wheels.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Sunday mornings I can usually go to the end of my block to the one of the main riding roads south of town and either catch or be caught by somebody to ride with. It is one of the things I love about my home.

This Sunday, however, I was exposed to the worst of cycling and it left me angry and disillusioned.

The organized Sunday ride of a big local club was going my direction at the same time I was, and it took me less than a single block to realize that not only was this a group I did not want to ride with, but that they were actually putting me in danger.

The road out of town has a marked bike lane wide enough for comfortable two-up riding, but the lead section of this group was wider than that and once the group hit the first stop light, they not only clogged the bike lane, but also the full width of the car lane. They did it again a block later at the next light. As I watched from the back of the group, I could easily understand the rage that motorists feel toward this gang on inconsiderate louts.

As we started down the hill, on a relatively straight road with a bike lane, I found myself afraid to pass even one person, because the riders at the back of this group were randomly braking without warning and a couple were weaving across the entire width of the bike lane. So now, I not feared being hit by an out-of-control angry motorist, but was also scared of getting hooked into traffic by somebody who did not know how to ride in a group.

My last post was about classy riding. Well, this was a text book on what NOT to do.

I changed my route enough to escape these people, but the actions of this unruly mob left me feeling a little more paranoid of motorists than before. I kept thinking that the big group would generate a serious case of road rage in someone who had just enough sense not to plow into a big group, but more than enough rage to flatten a solo rider on an empty stretch of road.

We all have to share the road. Let's show just a little consideration for all road users.

One word for a whole lot of attributes

Class.

There was a time when the best thing you could say about a rider was that he had class. "He's a classy rider." Maybe not the fastest guy in the bunch, but still somebody everybody looked up to.

His bike was always well-maintained, his water bottle full, two tubulars strapped under the saddle. His clothes were clean, too. Real bicycle clothes, not just a cotton T-shirt over a pair of bike shorts.

Once the ride started, his class showed through. He could hold a wheel, and if you were on his wheel, he did not do anything to put you in danger. You knew about the glass, the potholes and the cars up ahead. If he accelerated, it was smoothly so you could stay on his wheel. He would let you know when he was slowing down.

The story on the Earle Wheels Website comes from my friend Maynard Hershon. People who have been around cycling and/or motorcycles for a while know Maynard's writing. Classy.

Maynard wrote a lot about classy bike riding, and he embodies it on and off the bike. He wrote a lot about saying "Hi" to other cyclists. He wrote about sharing the road. And then he quit writing for bicycle mags.

Despite the grace of his writing and his popularity, most people ignored his message. And when his writing disappeared, so it seems did the last voice advocating class on a bike.

I wish my words could convey more about what it means to be a classy rider. And I hope when I am out on the road, I can still be a classy rider.