4 ms·

you sound highly confused, what is compressing? the rim? the spoke?

• hinkley 3y ago
  You need to reread Brandt. There are two situations when you can push on a string. One is when it’s frozen, and the other when it’s tensioned. How do you unload a bow string? You push it off the notches.
  • denimnerd42 3y ago
    bro. you're wrong. just build a bicycle wheel some time. it becomes very obvious how they work as you take it through the various stages of tensioning.
    • hinkley 3y ago
      Why do you think someone would talk about Brandt’s work if they hadn’t used it? I’ve built more than half a dozen bicycle wheels. My set, my spare that my brother road (into the ground - my first set and practically the only problematic ones, but he road over bumps without getting out of the saddle), a set my dad commissioned from me, and a pair that he had me build for a friend. All by age 17. I then worked as a mechanic for two summers of college. I was never the fastest, but if we had a customer we could not afford to disappoint, I or the senior mechanic got the job because my repairs did not come back. I saved three or four wheels that would have been scrap by unwinding the spokes halfway and building it back up again like a wheel build. Only added an extra ten or fifteen minutes but it works a charm. When a good customer comes in on Wednesday before an out of town bike ride you can’t afford to fuck it up. I think I only built a couple professionally, and usually singles. That’s a lot of labor and few will pay.