More Cherry Bomb Chatter!

One of today's most thoughtful and thorough bike technology blogs is Cozy Beehive. There's something for everyone and more. Ron took a close look at this year's Handbuilt Show winner by Sam Whittingham, addressing every feature, and there are plenty to discuss. Some are artistic, some historic, some innovative, most are refreshingly original. Wood rims, of course, are a big part of the story.

Why did a small flurry of subsequent comments focus on the rims? Plainly, some observers simply didn't "get it." The questions and answers came and went until Sam was compelled to describe his experience:

"Wheels: I am amazed that so much fuss is made over these wheels. To me, they are a proven piece of technology and are actually quite logical for a mountain bike. They are not as stiff but are VERY resiliant. Imagine an archery bow made from laminated beech and one made from aluminum. Now pull back on the string. What happens? The wood bow will bounce back to shape over thousands of cycles. The aluminum? Not even once.

I also strongly disagree that the suspension characteristic of the rims is irrelevent on a full boinger. This is is like saying tire pressure has no affect in the suspension characteristics. Good suspension is a fine balance between small very fast acting absorption of rims, spokes, tires, seat, post, handlebars, grips, gloves, shorts, fleshy bits and human joints, combined with the big relatively slow moving suspension of forks and swing arms. I mountain bike all the time in some very gnarly terrain here in British Columbia and if one of these suspension bits is mis-behaving or just missing, you feel it.

I have been using wooden rims for a few years now on my cyclocross bike in all kinds of weather. The feel is amazing. Yes they are solid (not hollow) but at 290 grams do they need to be any lighter. I get asked so much about there toughness that I decided to do everything wrong to see how much abuse thay could take. After 2 years, I have managed to find their short comings but all in all, love them. They do change with climate so they need fairly frequent truing. I have run all kinds of brake pads in all kinds of weather. The rims will not wear down! This surprised me quite a bit. The pads melt away though just as carbon rims do to standard pads. Disc brakes obviously helps with the pad issue as noted elswhere. I left the rims to get quite wet at one point and did notice a problem with spokes pulling a bit into the rim on the rear drive side (makes sense).

Are wood rims better? Worse? Just different. Like owning a wooden boat."

I entirely agree with Sam and appreciate his forthright comments. He's a guy who doesn't mince words. You might consider perusing Ron's thoughtful post and the string of comments. I think he's due for a set of wood rims. Certainly more practical than a wood boat.

Wood rims in France

Such a small world, seems every day brings another reminder. I recently sold an FSA spoke tension gauge to Charles Carrie, an accomplished wheel builder and triathlete (11 Ironmans!), whose shop is 20 km southeast of Paris. He began asking question about Ghisallo wood rims. Before you know it, he built a pair:

Bianchi never looked better

His curiosity just grew from there and last week he became the Ghisallo distributor for France and Monaco. If you read French, check his site.

Wood rims have a hypnotic effect on bystanders but they exert a greater effect on wheel builders. Building is a challenge, a dance, a puzzle, like a kata (karate routine). The mind must be clear and focused. While strategy and movement are practiced and repetitive, there is a large element of unknown. Every set of materials (as every karate opponent) is different, yet familiar. The builder must adjust spontaneously to the unfolding physics.

A rim is a rim, attachment point for spokes, beam that bears compressive loads, a hoop to be made as symmetrical as possible. While all that is true regardless of material, wood still comes as a surprise to those familiar only with aluminum and carbon rims. I admit when I built my first, I felt a bit of disbelief. Rims work so hard and matter so much, how could wood possibly succeed? Then, when the wheel was finished and felt great, I had one of those "aha" moments. I was hooked.

Here's a quote from a post a year ago, a very experienced builder is having such an "aha" moment. He lists all the numbers because I think he can't yet quite believe what just took place:

Ric,
I just completed one of the wood wheels with uniformity as good as any carbon wheel. I took time to carefully true the wheel initially then perfectly balance tension at 40kg. Next I checked tension and trued the wheel before winding up to 70kg in two stages. At 70kg I kept the wheel straight within 0.007 inch laterally and 0.014 radially. Spoke tension is uniform within 3-5% between spokes. The wheel is beautiful ! I think the 70kg number is a sweet spot for those rims.
Rich

Now I hate waiting until the next chance to build with wood. Here is Charles' upcoming combo (brown King hubs, Elegant rims, DT spokes):

The King will soon be crowned

Since I've showed you one of my workshops (in the Morizumi demo video), here's a glimpse of Charles' shop in France. No need for translation, the bicycle shares a universal language:

Atelier Carrie

I'm sure we'll have interesting news from Charles in the months to come.

Wood Rims at Taipei Show

It hardly seems that I missed the Taipei Show this year (mid-March). The coverage afforded such events is so comprehensive, you nearly see as much browsing blogs as actually being there. Of course, there's nothing like seeing old friends face-to-face, but at least I was able to spend some time there the month before. Nothing beats visiting Taiwan just after Chinese New Year. The country is still festive and the weather cool and mild.

This year's Show featured many memorable machines but I'd like to point out a couple of knockout concept bikes offered by Fritz Jou, the famous bike assembly factory. These folks are masters of the trade, creating and delivering entire bike lines for European and American customers. Part of their strength is staying close to style and design trends and one of their in-house experts is Monie (pronounced "moonie") Gaba, formerly director of Omnium, that performed a similar function to Fritz Jou, but from Oxnard, CA. When their biggest customers (GT, Schwinn, etc.) shut down US production, they closed.

Monie produced two retro style fixed gear bikes that featured Ghisallo wood rims. Check these shots:

Red and wood beauty

Cream and green dream

Head tube detail

Gold crown for a royal bike

Luxurious front end

Detail that's hard to forget

I certainly hope we see similar machines available in the market. Any takers?

Ric Demonstrates the Morizumi

For high quality, close up images of the tool, please visit this previous post.

Morizumi-san

Machines do not happen by themselves, and behind every great one is impressive talent. Morizumi designed his spoke cutter/threader based on extensive experience with spoke manufacturing at Asahi Spoke Company in Osaka. This tool combines that special insight with his own cleverness. It's certainly one of the most elegant and effective devices I have used.

He runs a one-man shop where every task is handled personally.

Morizumi builds a cutter

When younger, his hobby was motor racing, especially go-carts. Now, his passion is cycling. He built his own bike and rides on holidays. Today, many of his friends are also cyclists and he makes a variety of machine parts for them. His only product, per se, is the spoke cutter.

Parts ready for assembly.

Morizumi's workshop is small but comfortable. Cleanliness, patience, and great measuring tools are key to the extraordinary tolerances found in his spoke machine.

His machine tools are behind the assembly area.

He built the cutter the way many bicycle inventions happen: he needed custom spoke lengths himself. Even in the heart of the Japanese bicycle industry, specific spoke lengths are often impossible to find. Spoke manufacturing involves minimum size runs like 10,000 per. If you want 301mm, but only 32 pieces, you may be out of luck. Hand cutting and threading is really an extension of spoke manufacturing; as wheel building itself can be the last stage of a bicycle's manufacture, often performed at the point of purchase.

Oversized roller bearings are prepared next to a crate of polished pivot shafts.

When Morizumi created this machine, his last thought was manufacturing them. He needed one himself. Gradually, envious friends convinced him to make them regularly. What a delight it has been for me to offer these to customers worldwide.

Restoration

Some of you will recognize this distinctive track bike:

Schwinn Paramount, circa 1938-39

Hard to imagine the scale and profile of 6-Day racing throughout the 1920's and 30's. No other professional sport rivaled the 6-Day scene. Bikes like the Paramount convey much so more than meets the eye -- a bit like Edmund Hillary's ice axe. You have to visualize him reaching Everest's summit to appreciate what you're holding.

Some of you more astute mechanics will also notice the repair stand. This is an early Desimone's stand built at the famous San Jose, CA shop of the same name. San Jose once boasted 6 velodromes and Desimone's was a big shop in then-rough and tumble downtown district. I still have one that lived at Wheelsmith in Palo Alto for 25 yrs. There's a good story there, for another day.

What's most apparent to me about this bike are the wheels. They're not wood! No surprise, hardly any of the bikes of that era are today wearing wheels authentic to the period. This Paramount probably rolled on wood rims from Lobdell-Emory, the legendary rim maker from Alma, MI.

Our Ghisallo Corsa rim is a near replica of one of Lobdell's most seen models. The Corse is made from beech (the Mediterranean hardwood) rather than hard rock maple, but the sleek shape is the same:



In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if earlier generations of Ghisallo rim makers consciously copied the Lobdell shape. After all, the World's best wood rims (and 6-Day bikes) were American. If any of you have insight into this particular Paramount, please share it. After all, we're enjoying the 70th anniversary of this proud brand in 2009.