Utility Wheels @ 6 months

It’s been a good six months since I started my wheel building project. The utility wheels, currently installed on my On-One Inbred singlespeed (the cheapie version with track ends, made from “DN6” gas pipe), have given five months of service through an autumn and half a traditional English winter. How are they coping?

Well, this could be a very short post because they have been faultless. In fact so much so that I no longer even think about the fact that I’m riding on my very own hand-built wheels. In spite of the hours of tender loving care that brought them into the world, and the admiring glances that I was forever giving them when new, now I just… I can hardly believe I’m writing this, but… yes, I fear that inadvertently I may have begun taking them for granted!

That’s potentially a good thing – possibly the best thing that could have happened, because it implies that I have total faith in the wheels. But is this misplaced? Such blasé confidence is only justified if you know for a fact that the wheels have been correctly built. Assuming that the wheels are undamaged in any way, you can objectively establish this with three simple checks: the wheel is radially and laterally true; it is centrally dished; the spokes are tight and their tension is even throughout. These three indicators are quickly and easily measured, before, during and after every ride if you wish (I don’t), and if you can give all three the thumbs up then you’re hot to trot!

So, there’s not a great deal else to say about the wheels. The Inbred itself has benefited from Pace RC31 carbon forks up front to replace the hated On-One Superlight steel wrist-breakers that Inbreds come fitted with as standard, and the wheels now sport huge new boots in the shape of WTB’s Weirwolf 2.5”, a great all-rounder.