New Wheels

It such a nice past time to come home after work and built-up a wheel. In the office one has worked with paper on abstract processes but here the end result can be touched and looked at.


For the past three months I have worked on the built of a new wheel set for the Olmo frame. It took a while to acquire the right components and as usual I made some mistakes. During the last week I started to built the wheels after work. It is nice to sit in the evening on the balcony outside the kitchen with a glass of red wine and work patiently on the truing. It very much helps me to relax and after a wheel or so I am much nicer to my family. One glass of red wine although is enough.


Both wheels (the second set I did on my own) are now completed and I took some photos in front of the "Ajisai" in our garden. In Japan "Ajisai" are blooming during the rainy season., however in Bremen they tend to bloom between April and October what is equivalent to the rainy season here.

The hubs are Shimano 600 AX from the mid-Eighties, the time of the first aerodynamic cycling craze. In the next photo you can see that the flange of the hub is not flat but has little cut-outs to accommodate the spoke heads. 

This has been designed to prevent the spokeheads from protruding from the flange, thus making the whole component more aerodynamic. It also defines which spokes run on the inside, and which on the outside of the flange.


The spokes are standard off the shelve Swiss revolution 2.0 mm spokes, with 1.5mm main section.


The rims are from new Rigida, type DP18 in silver with braking surface. Today the variety of new rims offered in the market is surprisingly low. There are a bunch of Mavic types, notably Open Pro, Open Sport, CPX22 and CPX33, some DT Swiss, some Rose and some Rigida but not much more. The same is true for spokes. Apart from DT Swiss and Sapim there isn't much left in the market. Riders and OEM manufacturers today tend to buy System wheels which is a pity.


I included (invisible) standard blue Schwalbe rimtape, my favourite one due to the color, thickness and flexibility and Continental race tubes. Tires are again from Schwalbe, type Durano which is available in many colors and not that expensive. The valve caps are eloxy type which brings luck - my personal "o-mamori".


The total cost for this is about 180 Euro, including the tires. This isn't exactly cheap, one can easily get a Shimano system wheel set for the same amount of money. But the pride and the opportunity to fully customize the set makes it worthwhile.

Here we see the 5-speed Uniglide cassette from Shimano. This used to be the predecessor of today's Hyperglide system which is now widely adapted. The Uniglide was only popular for a short period when makers shifted from screwed cassettes to freewheel bodies.

Next week the Olmo frames will arrive at my house and I will work on the new bikes with the new wheelset. I hope they will be ready for riding next weekend.