Show "Bicycle"

When I ride the trails, almost every MTB'er has a bell. Gravel cyclists and most roadies I've encountered don't use them. When gravel cyclists ride the trails they do so at a faster rate than the MTB'ers which leads to some freaked out hikers when a bike whooshes passed them. Gravel roadies aren't as familiar with trail etiquette from my observation.
 
A slight hitch in my bike building plans unfolded this week. My plan was to strip the heavy steel frame I've called Big Red and move all the parts over to the new Budnitz frame. The best laid plans, yada yada . . .

My front hub won't work with the new fork, which has a 12x100 through axle. The current hub has a cup and cone 9mm QR axle. I was hoping my hub had swapable end caps, but noooo. I considered just yanking the new CF fork and substituting a cromoly Surly fork I have on hand, but I doubt I'd have much luck selling the Budnitz fork . . . there are a bunch of similar ones on eBay. And it seemed a shame to buy a new frame and immediately start parting it out. So I'm stepping into the unknown, taking on a task I've never attempted: lacing a wheel. I ordered a suitable front hub to replace my current hub. It should be here next week. I've been watching YT videos to get a feel for the proper sequence. I think after this, I'm retiring from bike building.
 
A slight hitch in my bike building plans unfolded this week. My plan was to strip the heavy steel frame I've called Big Red and move all the parts over to the new Budnitz frame. The best laid plans, yada yada . . .

My front hub won't work with the new fork, which has a 12x100 through axle. The current hub has a cup and cone 9mm QR axle. I was hoping my hub had swapable end caps, but noooo. I considered just yanking the new CF fork and substituting a cromoly Surly fork I have on hand, but I doubt I'd have much luck selling the Budnitz fork . . . there are a bunch of similar ones on eBay. And it seemed a shame to buy a new frame and immediately start parting it out. So I'm stepping into the unknown, taking on a task I've never attempted: lacing a wheel. I ordered a suitable front hub to replace my current hub. It should be here next week. I've been watching YT videos to get a feel for the proper sequence. I think after this, I'm retiring from bike building.
Did you check online? Some places just sell front wheels with thru axle hubs for not that much. I know Bike Tires Direct sells front thru axle Wheels if you are interested.
 
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The Best Laid Plans, Pt. II. I was just going to swap my Sugino cranks over to the new frame, but when I got them in place, I saw I had 2mm or less clearance between the crank end and chainstay on the rear sweep. The 650Bx47 are tighter in clearance than I expected, but the image is deceiving there; I have about the same tire clearance I have on the Specialized Crossroads. So a set of cantilever crank arms are on the way to give more chainstay clearance. Any illusions (delusions?) of this being a quick build have basically evaporated.

Budnitz3.jpg
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Yeah, I was torn between opting for the longer spindle or new set of cranks. I came upon a set of N.O.S. Shimano Alivios for really cheap, so decided to go that route. Decided to splurge for a narrow-wide chainring to go with it.

I also learned a neat trick for running an internal cable housing, using a spare bit of brake cable. I was pretty skeptical when the YouTube guy said the method was foolproof, but then I watched him fish a cable through a set of drop bars in under 10 seconds. Using his method, I succeeded in running my rear disc brake housing through my down tube on the first attempt. YT really does have useful information sometimes.
 
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My biking experience is about to get a bit more interesting. I decided to go IGH with the new build and ordered a Sturmey-Archer RS-RK3. It has a disc mount and instead of the little chain that comes out of the axle, shifting is done by a rotary mechanism. So more wheel lacing. Should be fun.
 
Hope it's a good experience. I only now the old 3 speed hubs, and my wife's front hub on her Peugot, which is an internal brake and dynamo. So far it hasn't failed in a ton of miles, but the braking has always sucked. Shimano coaster rear hub does the bulk of braking.
 
Hope it's a good experience. I only now the old 3 speed hubs, and my wife's front hub on her Peugot, which is an internal brake and dynamo. So far it hasn't failed in a ton of miles, but the braking has always sucked. Shimano coaster rear hub does the bulk of braking.
Hope so, too. I knew I was taking a risk, but that hub has been used in e-bikes as high as 1500W. It has also been hard to find a 36 hole in black . . . they've been sold out all over. I found a place in Utah that had one, and grabbed it.
 
Doing a 3-cross lacing?
Yep. But If I had any hair on top I'd be pulling it out. Lacing the new hub took me about an hour, not bad for my first attempt. Truing, on the other hand, took me 5 or 6 hours spread over a couple of days. I chased the lateral and rotary trueness back and forth over and over. The only thing that kept me from throwing up my hands and taking it to the LBS is that with every tweak between lateral and rotary, I seemed to be getting an itsy bit closer. I finally got the wobbles out and was happy with how the rim spun on the frame. Mounted my tire, and . . . the centerline of the tire is offset from the centerline of the fork. I don't have a dishing tool, and was just eyeballing the rim as I worked. The wheel runs true on the axle, but is about 3/16" right of center. Sigh.
 
My wheel tweaking went about as well as I could possibly hope. The LBS owner suggested I bring my off-center front wheel down for a look. He stuck it on his pro truing stand, then turned around and called for me to come to the back of the workshop. He tweaked a few spokes, made a few suggestions, handed me a spoke wrench, said "start at the stem", then walked away to help other customers. In a very short while I had a centered and wobble-free wheel. Can't beat that kind of customer service. Next I'll be spending my Friday evening lacing my Sturmey-Archer 3-sp hub to the back wheel. Still need to pull the drive side crank and chainring and install the new ones. Not long now.

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