Wrenching Skills Challenge Jan 15- March 1st (Page 2)

I know I am early, but my frame is completely tore down, filled, sanded, and new paint on it. It is building time!

I just spoke with the bike store and parts have been ordered for the fixie:

Vuelta Red Track Wheels
Vuelta Track Crank Red 46T
Bullhorn Handle Bars Black
Brake Levers (End of Bars)
Brakes Caliper
Chain Red

The next few days I hope to get the frame all finalized, get the bottom bracket back in and some final touch up paint on it. Then wait on parts to arrive.

Who else is working on their bike?

If by "working" you mean "buying a few parts and waiting until I have enough money to buy the frame", then yes. 

I'm building a time trial bike from parts I pick up on eBay and on super sale somewhere.  I'm hoping to keep the total cost minus the wheelset (which I'll just pull from my roadie for now) to about $600-700.  So far I've picked up:

Profile Design T2 Aluminum aerobars   $0  (these were my clip-ons)
Profile Design T2 Wing Base Bar           $54.95  (Performance Bike...NEW)
SRAM Rival FD                                           $20  (eBay...barely USED)
SRAM Rival RD                                           $45  (eBay...barely USED)
SRAM Apex brakset                                    $47  (eBay....barely USED)
SRAM T500 Aero brake levers                 $30   (eBay....NEW)
FSA Energy Standard MegaExo Crankset    $80  (Performance Bike...NEW on super duper sale)

So far, I'm about $275 into it but no bike to speak of. 

Other than the frame, I still need the aero shifters and a bottom bracket, plus cables and stuff.

Wow, pretty cool. Where is the frame coming from?

I'm meeting with my fitter next month and we're going to discuss options...I'll be looking aluminum obviously to keep the cost down.  One of the tri shops around here has the 2011 Quintana Roo Kilo frameset for $300 in what would be my size...I just gotta make sure that frame will work with me.  I think it should; it's pretty conservative and pretty adjustable.  It that's out then it'll be an eBay special!

Mike, I'll be interested in how your fitting and purchase go. I may do some work on my OLD mountain bike next, then a ground up build for a Tri bike might be after that. It is all up in the air.

I have been working on my wheel truing algorithm and the paper describing it.  I am interested in knowing about the people that are interested in using it and their computer skill level and the truing equipment that they have.  This will help me decide what to do next.

At this point, I have to decide if I give this algorithm away or try to sell it.  If I post the algorithm publicly, it probably loses any commercial value it might have.

Let me know if I have a bunch of people wanting to try this algorithm and you know how to read a Matlab program a bit and you have a truing stand with digital dial indicators and a tension meter (or an iPhone with a tension app) or the money to buy the equipment. If so, I will work something out to make the algorithm available. The state of the algorithm right now is that it works quite well mathematically but is not at all a commercial product. It is pre-beta.

To take this idea to the next level and make it a commercial, it will take another effort to create friendly user interface, I have looked at websites that will program up an app from specs, selling to Park Tool, and learning to program the app myself, offering to an engineering school as senior project class.  I am open to suggestions, even offers to help.  This is probably a 120-200 hour programming job.

Other than the question of what to do next,  I would like to report that the algorithm seems to really work.  I can true a wheel (that is not damaged) to about .2 mm laterally and .1 mm radially in one iteration.  It takes me a while to start from scratch, which includes measuring the wheel geometry, entering it and then taking a set of normalization data for the dial indicators.  An iteration, where I just log displacement and tension around a wheel, calculate spoke turns, and apply them to the wheel is pretty quick.  If we have a library of wheel geometries online, then the setup is already done and it is a really fast to true the wheel, like 30 minutes.  And the results are excellent.  The hardest part continues to be to adjust the spoke turns accurately.  The spoke can either twist with the nipple or thread into the nipple.  It is hard to tell what it is doing.  A really old wheel, like the 35 year old Mavic tubular I trued, has nipples that really stick.  It is hard to get any accuracy on the spoke position when the nipple sticks and then suddenly pops and rotates.  I use a paper clip on the spoke to see the spoke twist but when it pops suddenly, the paper clip has too much inertia to hold its position.  I did get the Mavic wheel satisfactorily true (-/- 0.3 mm) but I would do better to disassemble the  wheel and lubricate the nipples.

Let me know what the interests of this group are.  If you are just interested in my results but not in using it yourself, I will post some plots of the results.  If you have the resources and want to try it out yourself, let me know.

Thomas Wilson

The finished product:

WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Chris, that is SO AWESOME!  She is BEAUTIFUL!

Would it be inappropriate to ask how she rides?

p.s. Red chain, cranks, rims, cables and bar tape = tight :)

Yes Chris, I am super impressed/jealous. I love it.

Oooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!  Pretty!!!

Thanks guys. It rode nice, tomorrow will be a better test. It is a different animal, so I am in the learning curve. The bike is nice, but it is going to really help me a bunch. The fixed gear/no shifting aspect is a new deal for me, that's for sure.