Well it is way past time I added something to this page. Having just had to start moving all my bikes to another house I realise I have an awful lot of bicycle things. This fact didn't stop me from buying some more for myself as a birthday present. I found some lovely wooden rims from Italy on ebay and with another gift from Phil at Different Cycles, a pair of Campag hubs, made up some wheels for my Colnago. Then another exciting find on ebay was some Pave tyres in traditional colours. They look so good together!
Building the rims was not as hard as I imagined though they are flexible and can go out of true easily. I was careful to build slowly keeping tensions even by feel and then went to a bike shop to check spoke tension with a gauge. They were pretty even at 50kg so I just had to tweak them up a bit more. I read somewhere about 70kg is a good tension but I don't actually have a gauge. The ride is yet to be confirmed as it has been flooding everywhere and I have only had some shorter rides on wet roads. It did seem like they were different in feel but the tyres help that too. It is a much less harsh ride. Some people probably equate the kind of feel to a deadness or slowness because they feel so different to skinny clinchers at 145psi. I'll have to do some more rides swapping wheels to see. I have never felt I was slower because of this feel but certainly more comfortable. That is important now I am over 50!
Labels: bicycle wheels, tubulars, vintage cycling
