Simon Brooke said:
We've had an interesting cycling weekend here. As well as the crit
documented elsewhere (well, partly because of the crit), Don of this
parish was down with a back wheel with four broken spokes, and a seven
year old daughter with a bike with no stabilisers which she couldn't yet
ride (as well as a three year old daughter on a teeny little bike with
stabilisers).
The wheel was still attached to the bike, it is just that the spokes had
gone on the commute home before we set off to Simon's
Quoted message said:The spokes were interesting. Because the wheel has a Nexus 8 speed hub
gear, roller brakes and a deep section rim, they were an unusual size.
The bike shop didn't have any the right length, but lent me a thread
rolling jig with which, after a false start, we rolled much longer
threads onto six new spokes and then cut them down to length to repair
the wheel. First time I've done that.
I nipped into EBC this am, by car unfortunately, to get some better
quality ones (as well as a truing stand, rim tape, ...), but they did
not have any the correct length either. I had measured the spoke at
240mm from bend to inner diameter of the rim (checking again now it is
232 ??). I will have to go again with bike to let them see for
themselves the length and gauge I need. Either that or I need to get a
rolling jig.
After the experience of repairing a few spokes, I am quite keen to build
a wheel from scratch and since I have been hankering after a dynamo on
the front ... The strange thing about my bike is that the rear while
does not have any dishing requirements, one side has the drive, the
other the roller brake, however the front does require dishing as the
roller is is not balanced on the other side with anything.
As an aside here, does anyone know of any sites that given details of
rims and hubs will tell you the spoke lengths you need?.
Quoted message said:Earlier we'd taken the girls down to the playing field at the bottom of
the village where elder daughter rapidly learned to ride her bike,
pedalling right across the flat field after starting on a gentle slope.
After a bit of practice she could start on the flat unaided, but the
grass was pretty hard work, especially for smaller daughter.
So after we'd fixed Don's bike I took the Cannondale, and with Don and
both daughters and bikes we went up to the school playground at the top
of the village to practice on tarmac. Small daughter loved this, but
larger daughter was very nervous of falling on the hard surface and was
rapidly discouraged.
Now, the thing about living in a village on a steep hill is there's two
ways from the school back to my house. One, down the street, is steep
enough to be intimidating to any inexperienced cyclist, let alone one
riding without stabilisers for the first time; and the other a little
quiet lane running three quarters of a mile up one side of the glen,
over a bridge, and back down the other - which nevertheless manages to
be a very gentle downgrade pretty much all the way. So I proposed to Don
that he take small daughter straight back to the house, and larger
daughter and I would go the long way round.
And this we proceeded to do, with larger daughter finding the gentle
downgrade made cycling much easier and rapidly developing confidence.
But soon there were shouts from behind, and bombing along after us came
smaller daughter on her tiny bike, with Don trundling gently along
behind. And so we proceeded. At the end I wasn't sure whose performance
was most creditable - larger daughter's for gaining so much confidence
and competence in the use of her bike, or smaller daughters for covering
one and a half miles on her horribly inefficient little machine and
remaining indomitably cheerful and energetic the whole way.
When I picked the girls up from school the afternoon (I had a bank
holiday, but the girls did not), I took the bikes and they cycled home
via a close that a school friend lives in. This close has a parking bit
in the middle and so forms a circuit that has virtually no motor
traffic. The elder one has cracked it. I did not need to help her at all
as she whizzed by, it is a joy to see. Now I need to get the young one
off the stabilisers.
--
Don Whybrow
Sequi Bonum Non Time
"I suppose they are vicious rascals, but it scarcely matters
what they are. I'm after what they know." (Gibson-Sterling, The
Difference Engine)
