3 SPEED BIKE WHEEL

Spoke

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Media Type: CD
Artist: CALEXICO
Title: SPOKE
Street Release Date: 08/12/1997
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP

As one might expect from former members of Giant Sand and Friends of Dean Martinez, this one is another sun-dried tomato. With vocals murmuring just below hearing level and guitars pushing and shoving between a lonesome, distant twang and a sleepy strum as on "Sanchez," the music feels like a soundtrack from a hippie western where the hero survives banishment in the desert by eating peyote buttons. Like the Dean Martinez hombres, Calexico draws upon a choice array of exotic instrumentation (accordion, mandolin, violin, vibes), but the heart of the record is closer to a low-key Meat Puppets hootenanny, the primary combination of guitar and snare drum providing the colors as well as the frame on gentle beauties like "Glimpse" and "Spokes." A well-placed occasional rocker, like the surf-fired "Scout" or the bar mitzvah delight "Mazurka," shake things up nicely, but for the most part, you won't stray too far from the futon. Then again, why should you? --John Chandler

How to build bicycle wheels by Chris Brennan.

This is an incomplete, half assed tutorial on building bicycle wheels. I'm assuming you already have your parts measured and have gone through getting spokes cut and all that jazz. This particular build is 32 hole 3-cross (meaning each spoke crosses three other spokes from hub to rim) - but you can easily modify it for other spoke counts or crosses with some simple math which I'm not going to do for you.

FIRST PASS!

We're starting on the right side (drive side). Your rim will probably have decals near the valve hole on the right side. Your hub (for the rear) will have the threading for the cassette or cog on this side. The front may or may not be asymmetrical, so find the right side by comparing it to the rear.

A lot of tutorials advise you to separate your spokes into groups of whatever cross pattern you're doing - in this case that would be 4 sets of 8 spokes per wheel (32). I personally don't see the point in this but it may be good to do for your first build just so you can more easily visualize what you're doing before it happens.

One thing I'm going to get out of the way is a little trick I developed after much frustration on my first build. Although I've never actually watched anyone build wheels professionally I can assume this is actually the way you're supposed to do it. If you're building deeper profile rims, it will be extremely difficult to get the spoke nipple through the back of the rim after the second pass (you'll see why after you get there). Initially I tried doing this with a screwdriver and nearly went insane. The trick to doing this is to take a spare spoke and thread the nipple on it a few turns from the top (that is, the side with the head and groove for a flathead screwdriver). Now you've got it at the end of a spoke and you can put it through the rim without dropping it inside (especially nice for deeper profile rims)! I felt like a genius when I thought of this and then realized it's probably well known among mechanics as the only way to do it with any sort of efficiency. Yet I digress - you can now take your spoke key (you have one right?) and twist it off the spare spoke and onto the laced spoke all in one brilliant step. See? See how I'm doing it?

The first spoke is important. Your master spoke is going to be the one to the right of the valve hole. First pass is trailing spokes, drive side. Imagine the hub being twisted clockwise (the direction the chain would pull it assuming it's the right side). The first spoke should be nearly parallel to where the valve stem would come out. this is mostly important because if you start somewhere else you may cross over the valve at an angle which would make it really hard to fit a pump onto the valve. Believe me you don't want to have to unlace a whole set and start again. I've been there and it sucks.

I like to lay the rim on my lap and work that way. You can use a table if you like. Pick any hole on the hub (if you're feeling clever you can align the logo on the hub to the valve hole) - and drop the first spoke through the flange and put it through the master hole (to the right of the valve hole) and twist a nipple onto it. Twist a nipple.

On a 32 spoke build the hubs will have 16 holes per side, 8 laced from the inside, 8 laced from the outside. So for spoke number two, skip one hole in the hub and drop another spoke through from the top. The idea is that we skip every other hole and drop a spoke from the top, when the time comes we'll flip the wheel and do the same on the reverse side. You can go ahead and drop the rest of the spokes in every other hole at this point if you fancy that. Be careful though to skip THREE holes on the rim. When you get them all attached they should be evenly spaced as shown in the picture. Notice that the hub is twisted counter clockwise to take up the slack in the spokes. This is important and you should try to keep it twisted properly when working on it or it may confuse the shit out of you when you flip it over.

Doing a similar job to the taxi is Thailand's ubiquitous tuk-tuk (????????). So named because of the sound of their engine, these are motorized rickshaws and are popular amongst tourists for their novelty value. Fares always have to be bargained for and most time offer no savings over an air-conditioned taxi, except perhaps if you're good at bargaining and can speak some Thai. Never believe them when they tell you that the Grand Palace is closed – a typical routine to suck you into one of the notorious gem scams!

This foursome seen outside Wat Po, Bangkok.

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