Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

These wheels are ‘everyday’ wheels to replace a pair of heavier Open Pro / Ultegra hub wheels.

DT Swiss 240s hubs are a great light weight hubset with excellent durability.  The 240s is convertible from Shimano (shown) to Campagnolo with just a freehub body swap – no need to re-dish the wheel or replace the axle.

To keep the front wheel lively and light DT Swiss Revolution spokes and black alloy nipples are used.  To add some stiffness to the rear wheel DT Swiss Competition spokes were used and black brass nipples add some long-term durability.

Kinlin XR-270 rims are a great all-round clincher rim.  This wheelset uses them in a 24 front / 28 rear combo.

Hope Pro2 singlespeed hubs in Gunmetal colour:  The Pro2T (the “T” is for “Trials”) uses two pairs of offset pawls to double the standard Pro2 hub’s engagement points from 24 to 48 – this also doubles the noise while coasting :-).  The hub body underwent a shape change for mid 2008 because Hope found a very small percentage of shells failed under trials use – the bulge at the freehub side is the new version.  A standard Pro2 uses an aluminium freehub body whereas the trials / singlespeed version is steel to reduce marring from the cogs.

DT Swiss Competition black spokes and black brass nipples.  Spoke stiffness is important on 29er wheels because of the larger diameter of the rim.  The Competition is double-butted with a 2.0mm head and thread and a 1.8mm center section.  Brass nipples (in hard-to-get black) add some long term durability.

Stan’s ZTR Arch 29er rims are one of the lightest mountain bike rims available but their width and profile makes them remarkably stiff.  They’re ability to accept either standard innertube or tubeless setups makes them very versatile.

This added up to a 1977g wheelset which is stiff enough for out of the saddle singlespeed riding yet light enough to feel quick and smooth on the trail.

One of the coolest things about the Tune hubs is their range of colours.  The hubs are anodized but the result is a thick, glossy, ‘wet paint’ finish which looks stunning in natural light.

These hubs are the venerable Mig70 / Mag180.  Spokes are Sapim CX-Ray with matching blue Sapim nipples, and the rims are light weight Alex R400’s.  Total wheelset weight is 1359g; not bad for a 24h front / 28h rear combination!

These wheels were built ‘in secret’ and were a birthday present for a customer’s lucky wife :-)

With every wheel I build I include an information sheet which shows the lateral and vertical trueness of the wheel as well as the spoke tension on each side of the wheel.  I’ve been doing this for just shy of 3 years now and although I’ve taken some flak over the geekyness of it the concept seems to be catching on with a NZ bike shop doing a similar sheet and even Park Tool writing a spider chart for their TM-1 tension meter.  As they say copying is the best form of flattery :-)

3 years ago most bike shops didn’t have a spoke tension meter, let alone know how to use one.  Luckily things have come a long way and now I even get requests by home mechanics to buy TM-1’s.

But what good is using a precision device like the TM-1 if you don’t know how accurate it is?

Park Tool offer a re-calibration service for the TM-1 but I wasn’t about to send my tool back to the USA and be without it for a month so I designed and built a jig to be able to do my own calibration (as well as run stress / strain tests on spokes – but that’s another story.)

The jig is a very solid device made from cold-rolled 32mm steel square bar.  At one end the spoke is held by it’s j-bend, at the other end a load cell is attached to a linear slide running on two parallel guide pins and a thrust bearing.  By turning the knob the spoke is put under tension and can be measured by the load cell.  The load cell is a very accurate and repeatable strain gauge which has almost no temperature or humidity dependence.  My loadcell is a Seltron STC-100 and is it’s regulated and read by a Rinstrum R310 display – both of these are very expensive bits of kit.

Here is shown a typical calibration process.  The loadcell is zeroed before a spoke is attached to the device then tension is applied.  The spoke is read with the TM-1 and the units are compared with the tool’s conversion table.  I typically test two different spoke tensions on three types of spoke: DT Swiss Revolution, DT Swiss Competition and Sapim CX-Ray but the jig will accept any j-bend spoke and has future capability for spokes such as Mavic Zicral.

In doing calibrations for the time the tension meter with typically over-read or under-read by up to 10kgf.  My personal tension meter is calibrated on a monthly basis and rarely needs any on-going adjustment so it seems there is just a settling process for the tools.

This procedure is not limited to the TM-1 and will work with any brand – please contact me if you have a tension meter you wish to calibrate.