Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

I rebuilt a pair of Reynolds Strike 66mm deep carbon rims onto a pair of White Industries H3 hubs.  The original Reynolds hubs were heavy and cheap but the main problem was that Paul needed some extra lateral stiffness.

The new hubs are lighter and have wider flanges for better lateral stiffness.  The front and non-driveside rear spokes are bladed DT Swiss Aerolites, the driveside spokes are DT Swiss Competitions.  Lateral stiffness increased 20% for the front wheel and 25% for the rear wheel with this rebuild.

These are some tools which I use for wheelbuilding.  I’m very picky about my tools and I either make or modify many of them to make them more efficient to use.

These two adapters allow me to build 15mm and 20mm thru-axle hubs in my Park stand – I made both of these.

This syringe-looking tool is for installing nipples into deep section carbon rims without dropping them – this is another tool I made.  There are a few threads on the end of the ‘needle’ which thread into the back of the nipple so you can guide it into the rim.  The handle rotates on a teflon bearing in the palm of the hand which makes it easy to thread the nipples.

This T-shaped tool is for building with 3/16″ internal spoke nipples and I’ve ground down the head so that it fits into rims with small spoke holes like the old Lew rims.  I also have a couple of nut-drivers and a Campagnolo tool which is similar but quite a bit shorter so not as useful in deeper rims, and the tools diameter is much larger which interferes with the rim so I use this Grammo tool the most.

Finally here are my DT Swiss spoke key and bladed spoke holder.  You can see the wear marks on the brass spoke holder from many wheels of use!!  I’ve shortened the spoke holder so that it holds closer to the end of the spoke to prevent twisting and chamfered the outside of the tool to make it quicker to engage the spoke.  I also use a Park spoke key which clamps on 3 sides of the nipple compared to the DT which clamps on 4 sides.  The Park is easier to use but for some wheels with alloy nipples and higher tension the 4-sided DT prevents damage to the nipple.

I built some fixie wheels using the eccentric White Ind ENO hub for Ben a while back

Hey Tristan,

Found these on my camera today and thought you’d like to see how the wheel you built was used.

Its been brilliant by the way, gotta love simple ideas executed well.

Training effect of the fixie has been wicked too.. 4hrs round the Wairarapa on most weekends is a good honest ride esp if theres a good head wind.

Have yet to drag steve out on his fixie but then again the mtb is a bit more useful in town!

Cheers,

Ben

These KCNC parts showed up from the USA today – the light weight steel rotors are a mere 85g each, and the quick release levers are 46g a pair.

The quick release levers look really well made, feel solid, and have good clamping force. The local KCNC importer doesn’t import these for some strange reason and instead suggests the CarbonTi skewers which I found to feel cheap and have poor clamping force despite their high sticker price.

The rotors are destined for Cameron’s bike and two pairs of the KCNC skewers are spoken for, but I do have one spare pair of black skewers and all going well I’ll be keeping a few colours in stock. At $110 /pair they’re good value compared to the $170 Tune AC16&17 which are 33g / pair.

Rhys always asks a lot of questions after I work on his bike (a good thing) so I though I’d document the fork upgrade from a Reba to a 2010 Fox F29RLC and the fitting of his new Wheelworks 29er wheels with QR15mm Hope hubs.

One of the big downsides with 29ers is their higher handlebar height.  Compared to the Reba the new Fox was 10mm taller (bad) but has 20mm more travel (good) so once the forks sag into their travel the ride height should be only be a few mm higher.

I was surprised how light the new Fox was with the FIT cartridge.

The net result is 459g weight loss and a better performing fork and wheelset….win!

I had a pair of forks which I wanted to measure the fork rake to see if they’re a suitable replacement for another fork.  Accurately measuring fork rake is hard without a frame builders fixture but using the lathe I managed to do a good job.
First I mounted the steerer tube in the 3 jaw chuck with a quick release axle held in place between the fork’s dropouts….

…Then use a vernier to measure from the bed of the lathe to the top of the axle.  The axle needs to be perfectly horizontal to ensure accuracy – this is easy to do by measuring both sides of the axle and making sure they’re the same….

…Then rotate the lathe chuck 180 degrees and measure again….

…and with a bit of simple math we know the fork rake is 42.1mm

A vernier height gauge would have made things easier and would be useful to have with my granite surface plate – I’ll put one on the shopping list.