Motorcycles

[PMS Witch]

A little off topic...

The other day, I watched a television program about bicycle manufacturing. One thing that caught my eye was how they laced and trued the wheels.

A fixture held the hub and rim horizontally. The spokes were put in place and their threads started by hand. Then a multitude of screwdrivers tightened the spokes at once. The wheel, now laced, was placed in a trueing machine.

In the trueing machine, the wheel was held vertically. Wobble and eccentricity were measured and the required adjustment calculated. Then each spoke was adjusted, one at a time. The wheel emerged with equal tension on all spokes, true, and eccentric after the last spoke was adjusted. Revisiting was not needed.

It appeared that the wheel was laced in less than a minute. The truing was completed in a few seconds. Anyone who has ever completed this work at home using only a homemade indicator and a spoke wrench will appreciate how tedious the job can be.

Cheers, PW.