The Bicycle Wheel

After watching several videos and asking for advice, I was still reluctant to start. A friend suggested finding this book. While there is a LOT of technical info in the beginning, the actual instruction is very well done and easy to understand. I’m headed to my LBS to get measured sor and buy some spokes and nipples and give it a go. Highly recommended.

Jobst Brandt was the father of documenting bicycle mechanics. Brandt, along with Sheldon Brown and a few others, are the underpinning of modern self-help bicycle information.However, the book highlights Brandt being a bit of a zealot. He finds one bit of info, and decides he alone has interpreted engineering correctly.From a practical standpoint, it works, but some of his info is false. He spends so much time arguing against one wrong interpretation that he misses that his own interpretation is also inaccurate. This was a big turn-off.For Example:In the past, people said hubs hang off the top of the rim, which is false. He insists that pre-tension of the spoke allows it to literally be a compression member, and that the hub rests on the bottom spokes. This also is false. It "effectively" is a compression member, but literally, it is not. Literally, the hub hangs off of the sides of the rim. The weight tries to elongate the rim horizontally, and the side spokes pull back against it. As such, the hub hangs off of the spokes which are nearly parallel to the ground. There are computer models in color on the internet which show the loading. It confirms the hub does not hang off the top spokes (Brandt's true claim) but also that it does not "rest" on the bottom spokes (Brandt's false claim).

I just built a set of three cross wheels for my bike and used this book as a guide. This book has most everything you could want to know about wheels and wheelbuilding. I only used a smidgen of the book to get done what I needed done, but there is a lot of info on offer here.

If you want to learn how to build wheels, or even just understand their mechanics, then this book is required reading.It is an older book and doesn't discuss disc brake usage or the resultant hub torques. It does discuss rear wheel hub torque and that can used to inform your guesses about the behavior of wheels with disc brakes.Most of the rim discussion centers around tubular style rims.It is not a standalone work. You'll still need to hit up the local mechanic for pointers, watch some YouTube, and maybe read some of the other books around, but this should still be part of your study.

This should be a cornerstone of any ones workshop. I used this book to build my first few wheels. It provided me with a foundation and confidence to build and work on wheels. I had to purchase a new one because my old one became tattered and worn. Purchase yours and build with confidence!

In 1980 I would have loved this book. The author is still in the 1980's when building wheels. That was fine as that was the wheel I was building. But all he really talks about are 36 spokes and low and high flange hubs. Says very little why one is better.forget about a modern wheel with a low spoke count and carbon fiber.Since I built my first wheel, we have the internet, mainly, Youtube. No book required! Much easier to watch a video. Spend your money on some good tools instead, as they will help you more than the book.

Well, I have the book that I bought a while ago. The book works on wheels that I had done in the 1980's. I lost my long lost book, and I thought that there were to be newer wheel lacing and truing. Well, I guess a good wheel is all that anyone need. The book gives this and that's all that anyone needs. I work at a bike shop and I thought that maybe there were fancy wheel truing and lacing.

This a good book that will enable you to build bicycle wheels and provides a decent engineering overview of the structural aspects of wheels. Well worth it... but, unfortunately, out of print.

Very Useful Book, love it ^_^