The Bicycle Wheel – a review.
I don’t know what the others say, but I think the author is an anti-technological stick-in-the-mud. If you are looking for tips & info on how to build your dream lightweight wheelset, then look elsewhere because you won’t find it in this book.
I read the whole book in one sitting. The diagrams are much bigger than neccessary, for example one per page, and you get the idea they’re just added as «filler». Some of the diagrams are repeated throughout the book, further giving that impression.
All you are going to find here is the standard way to make 36 spoke 3-cross wheels with double butted spokes. That is it.
The man doesn’t even agree with radially lacing a fron wheel. Let alone anything like bladed or titanium spokes, low-spoke numbers, ceramic bearings and carbon fiber rims. Let’s face it: carbon fiber rims are here to stay, and he’s just going to be seen as to conservative if he doesn’t agree with anything but the way wheels were made fifty years ago.
A lot of what you will find in this book, you will already be aware of. If you’ve ever really «researched» (for want of a better word) before buying a nice wheelset, you’ll already know more «tricks» than this book will tell you.
I give it 2 stars, and the only reason I didn’t give it one star was because it is entitled: «The bicycle Wheel» not «The ultimate bicycle wheel». Actually I’ve changed my mind – I’m giving it one star, because it should cover ALL aspects of the bicycle wheel and it certainly doesn’t cover lightweight wheels.
When was the book last updated? Using this book, I learned how to build my own wheels when I was in high school 20 years ago. Either the book hasn’t been updated or he hasn’t updated.