With the warm up in weather and lack of snow and ice, Ive flopped to freewheel. Its crazy! You can, like, go down hills effortlessly.

Seriously though, its a nice change of pace. Only thing is that its NOISY. This bog standard ACS Claws I got has the pawls of Thor. I put some gear oil in it in a solvent base, so well see if that quiets it. I do not want to go to the dark side and install a Shimano one.

lol.

my freewheel dont make a noise. all the important bits were ground off ages ago.

well.


not much anyone can retort to that.

Fixed wheels are as easy as fronts to build as you dont have to dish. Just lace and tension. Do the initial tighten from inside the rim with an electric drill/driver. My first one took maybe three hours, and I was going slow, drinkin beer and being methodical. The lacing part is easy--but I still had to use a guide to remember the order.Getting them up to tension while keeping the thing round just takes patience. True it in the upside down frame of a bike with pencils rubber banded to the stays to keep the rim centered.

Its something to do instead of going out on a Friday.Three hours and dont forget the beer to keep you loose. I think any capable person should be building them in under an hour with a little practice.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Do a standard 3X. Its strong and very simple to lace if  youre systematic about it.

Dont forget to stress relieve the spokes to seat them in the hub flange. My new fave way of doing this is to put the hub axle on a block of wood and firmly press down  on the rim, working all the way around and both sides. This will also relieve any wound up spokes.

I cant wait to build my next set, makes you feel like a real grown up wrench. Im still grinning from the first three I built--that are all still true as the day I built them.

Dood, I built my last three with a 99c spoke wrench, as I couldnt find my Park one. Dish, schmish--whack it in the frame and use a ruler and the stays. Rock and Roll is here to stay.

Save money and get a little glow of pride--whats not to like? The difference between my wheel, and one built by a guy at my LBS, who is indeed good, is that mine took longer to build. He uses a tensionometer, I use my ear. He uses a truing jig, I use an old frame. So what? The end results are pretty much identical as far as durability. My dish might be 0.5mm off, but I can live with that. I also know what Im dealing with. Ive been truing and dialing in wheels for 20 years, and short of a broken spoke or two, wheels I tune, stay tuned.