Plan 2020 - Clincher Rear Wheel, aka "The DT Wheel"

One of the many critical things I need for training is a clincher fixed gear rear wheel. For the uninitiated, it's not just a matter of "converting a wheel". A track rear wheel is narrower, has a different hub, and is a specialized piece of equipment. With all the wheels I have, one thing I don't have is a knock-about fixed gear training wheel.

I do have a nice hub, so using that as a starting point, I built myself a nice training wheel.

Wheel building kit

Back in the day I built a lot of wheels, but wheels back then were simpler things. Nowadays the rims are taller, have a lot of nooks and crannies where you can lose a spoke nipple or something, and usually have lower spoke counts. Weight doesn't count as much as aero, and there's a whole new category of rims for disc brakes. With disc brakes the rim isn't the brake so the rim can be lighter and, most importantly (ha!), it can have decals on the side.

I decided to get a rim with decals on the side. I went with DT R460 rims just because they looked cool, they were clinchers, and they were relatively inexpensive.

Before my bike shop days ended I had gathered some wheel building supplies through a DT sponsored, in-shop course. Can you believe someone came to the shop and taught us how to build wheels?

Part of the kit included the pen-like gizmo in my kit above, a device designed to hold a spoke nipple so you could thread it onto a spoke deep inside an aero wheel.

I never used it until I build this wheel.

I also used spoke nipple washers (never used until this build). They're the cone shaped washers in the bag in the top right of the bin.

The crooked screwdriver is made to screw on nipples quickly. It's like a speed handle screwdriver.

The old wheel, before I tore it apart. Note cog on hub.

Built wheel, still to be tensioned.

Building the wheel took forever, probably about 2.5 -3 hours. Building it ended up being a calming experience, meditative experience. For the first time in a while I was lost in the process, focussed, and only realized how much time it was taking when I realized that I had to keep an eye out so I wouldn't be late picking up Junior (this was before the shelter at home thing). I left the wheel untensioned so there's a bit left to go, but otherwise it's all set.

Cog. I didn't remove it, built the wheel with it on the hub.

It's a bit funny, we used to joke about using cogs so small you could change a spoke without removing the freewheel. Well, this was my race wheel from 2009, and I just left the cog on through the entire tear down and rebuild process.

The other side of the hub.

It may not be pristine but for now it'll do.

Equipment - Riggio Track Bike, Part 1

I've mentioned on rare occasion that I actually own a track bike. I've alluded that I've raced it. And, in the near future, I hope to be able to have the track bike whole once again and even get to race it. It's called a Riggio.

What it's called. Pretty brown, right? I should race for UPS.

I took a picture of the frame decal but it didn't come out. It's basically a chrome color sticker with something like "special tubing" on it in some foreign looking language. It's nothing special.

Superbe Pro rear hub, with the heaviest spokes known to mankind connecting it to the Sun M17 rim. I don't know why I used those spokes.

I had a Fiamme Gold Label front wheel but it got lost somewhere. Or maybe it was the rear wheel and I relaced it. Either way, the Gold Label is gone.

The other side. Note the dust accumulation. I've basically stored this bike for 15+ years.

As a testament to how old it is, I had just clipped the harness for an Avocet 45 computer. For those of you that don't know Avocet computers, consider yourself lucky. For many years a certain Greg Lemond rode with an Avocet on his bars. However, I doubt it worked because for many years, every single Avocet computer would go blank. Usually this happened in the middle of that century you were doing and now you had no idea how many miles you had left.

The 45 was one of the Avocets that actually worked, and I relagated it to the track bike when I became a big Cateye fan. So the 45 harness was a NOS harness (I have a spare, still in the bag, just in case). I saw the 45 computer during the move but it's gone for now. So I will get by with a yellow Cateye that I won last year.

No rear brake. The rear tire is new, been on rollers a couple times. Lots of dust. I took the tire I had on it originally to use it on one of my race wheels.

Fork crown to tire clearance is minimal. No brake hole either. Note Aerolite pedal.

Superbe Pro crankset, with a broken Aerolite pedal frozen in the crank.

I need new cranks. I lost one of my blue chainring bolts (BMX pieces from the fab 80s) so there's a normal one in there. I also don't have a 15 mm thinwall socket wrench anymore so I can't get the stupid crank off. Grr. I do like the "UDrillM" super light chainring. Combine a bike racer with more chainrings than he knows what to do with, a drill press, and lots of time allocated to "making my bike better" and you end up with a number of drilled out chainrings. Unfortunately only one came out right.

The left side. Not as pretty as the right side.

Bike in its glory.

It's a 51 cm although the headtube looks more appropriate for a 54 cm. Level top tube track bikes do that for some reason, I think this is because the top tubes are usually shorter, the front end (front hub to BB distance) is shorter due to steep head tube angle.

The front wheel is a new one, got it yesterday as I can't find my track axle for my TriSpoke. I also put on an uncut Michelin Pro2 tire on it since I figure I won't see too much glass on the track. I even went and looked for a short valve stem tube so I don't use a precious long valve tube on a box section wheel.

The bike, with "race wheels", weighed 17 pounds back in the day. When I finish it up I'll see how it is now. The front wheel, I have to tell you, is an anchor - no blowing around on that thing.