Retro Wheel Build

Back in the days before aerodynamics had been invented the only thing that mattered on a race bike was weight. And the place it mattered most - and still does - was wheels. So as a permanently skint teenage time triallist I used to gasp in awe (but more usually exhaustion) as I was overtaken on a distressingly frequent basis by the North's toughest riders on super light wheelsets with silk tubs ringing on the tarmac. It was the 80's version of the 'disc wheel roar'. I was sure that if only I could ditch the tractor wheels on my race bike for a set of Mr Mavic's finest rims nothing could hold me back from stardom. And Mr Mavic's very, very finest rims at that time were the beautiful GEL 280s. 280, of course, referring to the rather optimistically claimed weight in grams, GEL standing for "something french beginning with G, Extra Leger". And extra leger they certainly were. Even today you have to look pretty hard to find a pair of box section carbon rims with a similar weight. So the cyclists' version of Murphy's law ("ability to afford kit you've always lusted after increases in inverse proportion to your ability to propel it forward at any decent rate") started to kick in and I eventually found a very suitable set of rims on eBay. Only Royce seemed to offer a suitably stylish hub in 28 hole drilling, and just to make the job of forward momentum a little easier I stumped up the cash for Sapim CXray aero spokes. Numerous visits to the always helpful customs officer at the post office later, I had all the bits ready to go and spent a weekend lacing and truing them up on my wheel jig, and gluing on tubs.
In spite of all the guff people spout about the art of wheelbuilding, it just takes patience, logic, a decent set of tools and an inexhaustible supply of tea & Oasis CDs. And the end result is shown in the photos, topped off with a close ratio Marchisio cassette (and why oh why do Campag and Shimano no longer make straight through cassette ratios? I really, honestly don't need either an 11 tooth sprocket or a 21 tooth sprocket. Or 10 sprockets come to that).

The question now is how long they will last before disintegrating. Time will tell.

Chistmas in Skipton UK.

I spent Christmas in Skipton with Sean and his family. Coming from Canada I didn't think the -10 celcius temperature would be a problem. It was so cold the fish pond in Sean's back yard froze solid. Cold is cold, dose not matter where you are. We just layered up and out we went. This picture was taken on top of a local Moor. It was a nice mix of road and off road riding. Sean was good enough to lend me his Fort Cross Bike for my stay in the UK. We did some really nice rides through the Skipton country side. The country roads were perfect for riding, quite and very little traffic. Spectacular scenery. One of the climbs Sean took me up was a 25% grade cobble road. It was about a kilometer long with tight switch backs. I wish I got some pictures of that beautiful climb. Truth be told if I stopped I don't think I would have gotten started again. I was just really glad to have mad it to the top. Sean had bought me a really nice head lamp for Christmas, so of course we had to test it out. We set out for our last ride on my last day in the UK. We left around 6:30am. Sun up wasn't much before 8:00am. Lots of time to test out the new light. It was like having a car head lamp on my handle bars. It was so cold out it didn't take long for my water bottles to freeze up. That was a first for me. We barely made it to the top of our climb because there was so much ice on the road. We decided not to try and ride across the top of the Moor as it was frozen solid. After walking the bikes for a while we decided to turn back. We still had a four hour ride. Just as we were getting back to town it started to snow. We decided to have breakfast at a local cafe, beans on toast with poached eggs. By the time we left the cafe for the ten minute ride home the snow had started to stick. We wouldn't want to be out to much longer with the snow starting to stick.
It was really great to have Sean as my personal tour guide to show me all the great riding he has on his door step. The one thing I learned about riding in the Dales is there isn't much flat riding,
you are either going up or coming down. Gives new meaning to rollers. Hey Sean the Richmond boys wouldn't like your routes to much.

Just a quick thank you to Sean, Claire, Matilda and Betty for being such gracious hosts and opening up their home to us over Christmas. We had a fantastic Holiday. Great Rides.