Test Ride!

Even though I now have two pristine-looking wheels it’s not simply a case of sticking them on the bike and riding off. This is mainly because this pair is replacing another on a pre-existing bike, and so the bike has to be stripped down first. Once the old wheels are stripped of their tyres, tubes, rim tapes, skewers, chain tugs, disc rotors, cassette & computer magnet, and having fixed a sneaky little thorn puncture that was just waiting there to be discovered, all this kit has to be put onto the new pair. Then the wheels need to be refitted to the bike and the brakes have to be fettled: disc hubs have differing disc offsets, so the calliper needs adjusting; the new rims are wider and the braking surface is a little deeper than the old rims, so V-brake pads need repositioning. Then we’re ready to rock!

When you have a new wheel that you’re riding for the first time it’s not unusual to hear a few pings and clicks from the spokes as it turns its first few revolutions carrying the rider’s weight. This is caused by the unwinding of any residual twisting in the spokes and is the sound of your nice new wheel going out of true. The root cause is a combination of the wheel not having been correctly stress-relieved by the builder, and of not backing the nipples off by 1/8th of a turn during the final tensioning phase. In his book Schraner would have you believe that this is normal and to be expected (Musson says the exact opposite), which only serves to reinforce my growing suspicion that he’s a fraud. It’s a sign of a less than perfect job and there’s absolutely no excuse for it.

How does it feel on that first ride, using wheels that you’ve built yourself? Exciting? Nerve wracking? It’s certainly not like any normal ride, that’s for sure! With the two wheels I built a year or two ago I was very tentative over the first few rides, especially with the front wheel as the potential consequences of a failure here at any meaningful speed are horrendous (and it might scratch the paintwork!). This was partly because these were my first efforts, but also because deep down I knew that I didn’t know everything I needed to: there was uncertainty, and this always made me hold a little back whenever I’ve ridden on those wheels up to now.

Not so here. Of course, I’d be stark staring mad to head out into the hills on a 30 mile epic or straight down to the local jump spot for a good thrashing, but with these new wheels I have the feeling of having got it all pretty much spot-on, albeit via a rather circuitous route. After all, if there was something wrong with them I should be able to tell via the trueness, dish or spoke tension, but these indicators are all fine. A short evaluation ride involving a bit of gentle on and off road riding with some moderate braking and accelerating is the order of the day, all the while listening out for the tell-tale signs of miscreant spokes illicitly relieving themselves of any pent-up stress. I hear nothing. The bike rides superbly, somehow far better than it seemed to before. Am I imagining it, or is this the extra width in the rims giving a bit of extra support to the big 2.4” tyres (or have I just pumped the tyres up too hard?)? Still no pinging from the spokes; this is encouraging. After ten minutes or so of varied riding I stop and check the trueness of the wheels: still as good as the moment they left the jig. This is very encouraging indeed! I celebrate by downing a well-earned pint and buying a pair of massive 2.5” tyres for £20 in the sales. Now it’s time for a proper ride!