Doing digital dishes

January 1, 2015

A few times a year I get a query about the digital dishing tool I’ve shown online. It’s something I came up with myself though I’d be surprised if I was the first.

You’ll recognize the base tool as the standard Park Tool WAG-4. It’s a decent tool with sliding blocks that lets you check dish even with tires mounted. Checking dish with the analog indicator probe is fast and easy. The problem is it’s not quantitative. I record a ton of stats about every wheel including tension at every spoke and three kinds of alignment. To record dish alignment with a conventional tool you need feeler gauges and that’s a bit cumbersome.

I had a spare digital gauge in my toolbox so I mounted it up with no fuss. The lug back on the gauge can rotate 90° so I oriented it perpendicular to the shaft. I re-used the existing hole on the WAG-4 so no drilling required — I simply removed the existing screw and replaced it with a slightly longer one to accommodate the thickness of my gauge mount plus a washer. It’s a wood screw and I was able to find a longer one of the same diameter and thread pitch at Home Depot. That’s it.

The issue with my gauge is the throw of the indicator — the range isn’t appropriate for all axle lengths. I could find an indicator with more throw but this was a project done on the cheap (the cost of a screw if you discount the bits on hand). I deal with this problem by installing indicator contact points of different lengths, suitable to the axle in question. Actually I do gross dishing using the regular analog probe and then install the correct tip to record final dish. When using the regular probe it’s handy to remove the contact point altogether so the digital indicator is out of the way.

How does it work? Pretty well. Having the accuracy of a digital gauge makes you realize the limitations of the underlying tool. I balance the digital dishing tool over the wheel and hold it with the lightest touch otherwise the tool flexes and tilts, distorting values. This amount of distortion wouldn’t lead to bad wheels but it doesn’t hurt to sweat the small stuff if you’re bothering to measure.

Versatile road wheels

November 23, 2014

The requirement for this build was a set of do-it-all road wheels for a very fit rider. That means training, some racing, gravel and whatever the day calls for. That means a preference for lightness without entering fragile territory. I put together this package of White Industries T11 hubs, H Plus Son Archetype rims and Sapim Laser spokes. The spoke count, 24 front and 28 rear, combined with a light butted spoke help keep weight down. It’s still enough spokes and uses a stiff enough rim that they’ll be plenty resilient. For style points, check out the blue hub and matching alloy nipples.

Dura-Ace training wheels

August 31, 2014

These wheels are built for stiffness and strength thanks to DT Swiss Competition spokes and a deep rim profile. They’re not light wheels but weight is often misunderstood. More weight means more energy is required to propel the bike forward, most noticeable when accelerating. But when cruising at high speed, heavier wheels have a flywheel character that makes the bike feel like it wants to keep going. Light wheels may climb best but heavier aerodynamic wheels improve descending.

Archetype road disc

August 22, 2014

Similar to a previous set but with Shimano XT hubs. Again with Center Lock rotor attachment, which I like for its relative ease of installation and removal. Typically CL hubs are a little lighter too. The rims are H Plus Son Archetypes in the premium grey finish. I’m not a fan of conspicuous branding — these rims may have the cleanest branding of any bicycle component.

For the long haul

August 8, 2014

I’ve become a big fan of dynamo hubs. For commuting it’s great to have bright lights without charging batteries. For touring I feel the same and rely on dynamo power to charge the gizmos I can’t live without. Apart from the weight penalty, hub dynamos are pretty terrific.

Check out this upgrade for a rider’s Surly Long Haul Trucker. This wheelset re-uses the stock Shimano XT rear hub and adds a new XT dynamo front. Since this LHT is ridden unloaded too, I’m mindful of weight and mitigated the dynamo’s added mass with lighter Mavic rims and butted spokes. Surly uses straight gauge spokes on their stock wheels, which targets price rather than function — butted spokes are a must for touring in my book.

Vintage but awesome

July 25, 2014

Vintage styling is pretty trendy but I’m more concerned with parts that work well. These ideals don’t always go together but this wheelset says you can have both.

The polished TB14 rims from H Plus Son are very shiny and look great without stickers. Unlike traditional box section rims the TB14 has a modern 23mm width, which is a better fit for wider tires. The quality is really high, which you see in the weld area. Or rather you can’t see any trace of the weld, neither on the face of the rim nor inside the rim channel.

Sweet singlespeed

July 14, 2014

This is a photogenic singlespeed cyclocross wheelset. The design is tuned with a lot of coordinated choices specifically for the rider and his needs. Each wheel uses 28 DT Revolution spokes to deliver the desired stiffness at an attractive weight. Brass nipples expecting wet, dirty conditions. The rims are H Plus Son Archetypes, which are a nice width for cyclocross tires and strong enough for racing. Hubs are White Industries ENO, which are a basic sealed bearing design with bolt-on attachment and great finishing. The White freewheel is the pièce de résistance.

More road tubeless

June 28, 2014

This is a set of wheels similar in many respects to a build blogged previously. The rims are the same but the weight is about 1% more at 1520 grams. That’s in spite of lighter hubs and eight fewer spokes, which goes to show counting grams is not the same as counting spokes. This build uses a mix of Sapim Race and Sapim Laser spokes to deliver the stiffness required.

These wheels will get two layers of Stan’s yellow tape and Stan’s road tubeless valve stems, which I sell. They’re getting the updated Schwalbe One tubeless rubber in a 25mm width. Very nice!

Road disc trend

June 9, 2014

We’re seeing more and more road disc bikes on the market. The scene is changing quickly but not all hub manufacturers are on trend. DT Swiss makes excellent hubs that are easily convertible between axle standards and freehub specifications. You can take a DT Swiss mountain hub and swap in a Shimano/SRAM 11 speed freehub body with no fuss. Unfortunately because DT is late to the party, you can’t buy their hubs ready to ride. You have to buy the freehub body separately and do the swap yourself, leaving you with a 10 speed freehub body in hand. Not ideal.

These are photos of a recent wheelset — DT Swiss 350 hubs laced to H Plus Son Achetype rims with DT Swiss Competition double-butted spokes. Freehub swapped to support Shimano 11.

Lightweight mountain

May 31, 2014

These are lightweight wheels designed to rejuvenate a bike that gets a lot of use but has considerable life left. If you’re still using OEM wheels, you’ll be surprised how new hoops transform your ride. Components were chosen for weight and these wheels hit 1500 grams with valves and tape. The front hub is an uncommon 25mm thru axle model, which matches the owner’s fork.