WHEELS

摘要

Don't think you can't learn to lace wire wheels. While today many builders turn to a specialist like Buchanan's Spoke & Rim for convenience, not so many decades ago wheel building was a part of every motorcycle mechanic's skill set. Wire wheels, so perfectly geometric, are attractive, artistic objects, easy to admire. They go together only one way, so in that sense they are like picture puzzles. Faced with a pile of spokes, a hub, and a rim, despair not. Just go find an assembled wheel of the same type and copy it. Puzzle fanatics first find all the edge pieces. With spokes, you begin by grouping them into outers (inner ends are more bent) and inners (inner ends are less bent). With the hub flat on a table, you put spokes through holes, and by copying an assembled wheel or your sketch of one, you gradually get the angles and crossings right. All ace wheel builders began with zero knowledge but with determination to plow on through error to success.