Ride with pride! Think of the spoke tales you’ll spin as you describe selecting your own components, lacing the intricate cross pattern, and bringing the wheel up to professional tolerances of true, round and balanced tension. For yourself or as a special gift, it’s hard to beat the satisfaction of building and riding your own wheels.

High quality rims, hubs and spokes on the market today provide a wide range of component combinations for road training, countryside cruising, fully loaded or light touring, cross-country or steep technical off-road riding, or perhaps simply trekkin’ around town with a grin. For most casual recreational cyclists, a commercially-available, machine-built wheel will provide a decent ride. But you’re not the average recreational cyclist, are you?

If cyclotouring is your gig, you need a light yet bomb-proof set of wheels that’ll carry you and your gear confidently from Cairo to Capetown or Victoria to St. John’s. Or maybe you’re a competitive road rider, or training for that big triathlon, duathlon or swimcycle event, and want the best performance boost for your bike – wheels that are stiff and light, yet strong and reliable. If you like to explore the back country trails, you need a pair of light, strong wheels you can depend on to navigate the twists, tackle the climbs, yet bring you home reliably every time. At Winterborne Bicycle Institute, we can help you get there – to St. John’s, to the finish line, or simply back home again – on wheels built by you.

This is a weekend-long course, adapted from the proven learning approach we use over two days in our Professional Bicycle Mechanics course.  In this wheel building weekend, you will gain an understanding of how to select components for compatibility and specific usage, how to select spokes and calculate the lengths you’ll need, how to select and use purpose-designed wheel building tools. You’ll also be able to discuss the merits of different materials and lacing patterns, and the impact they have on performance, reliability and serviceability. Then it’s hands-on as you prepare the rim and spokes, lace up a wheel, take it through lateral and radial truing and dishing, and bring it up to balanced tension. The result? An incredibly satisfying experience!

Dates:

1. April 23 - 25, 2010
2. June 4 - 6, 2010
3. August 27 - 29, 2010

Registration:

To register online, see the Conestoga College website.