The Runwell: Days 11 & 12

After one day spent badly bungling trying to re-lace my rear wheel, an evening carefully studying Sheldon Brown's guide, and another afternoon finally getting the stupid thing right, I can now say that I've built a wheel, or rather rebuilt a wheel. Once I actually pulled my head out of my...well...and thought about it for a minute, it all went pretty well, with the exception that I stripped a nipple (cue childish snickering) that's going to have to be replaced and the wheel trued.

I also greased and reassembled the rear hub, and now have a functional rear wheel that's in much better shape than when I found it. Here's the before picture for a comparison.

I've even tested the coaster brake by spinning the wheel in my hands, and it seems to work just fine. Like I said before, it's not quite as shiny as I would have liked, but there's only so much one can do after years of weather.

On a side note, after exchanging emails with a very nice gent and former mechanic in England (who remembered when Runwell was still around in the 1960s as a smallish parts distributor), I believe I'm dealing with what's left of the original nickel plating, rather than chrome, which does a little more to explain why it was so badly deteriorated. Chrome was apparently introduced in 1928, but nickel plating was still applied after that date, so it remains hard to pin down exactly when my bike was manufactured.

Rebuilding a Wheel

I've just rebuilt my second-ever bicycle wheel, and you know what? It wasn't that bad. On the Runwell, I dismantled and rebuilt the rear wheel because it needed such extensive cleaning and rust removal. That was my first try, and it took me literally an entire day to complete the job, with several false starts. This time, I've dismantled both wheels on the Huffeigh for the same reason. So far, I've only put the front one back together, but it only took me an evening, and it was much easier. It needs a final truing before I'll call it finished, but I've got a lot of other stuff that needs attending to before that can happen.

That being said, this is NOT a how-to post, because I'm not even going to try to say it any better than Sheldon Brown does. Basically, all I want to say about it is that I did it, and so can you. Speaking objectively, I would say that I possess sub-par spatial reasoning and logic skills, so if I can do it, anyone can. Some folks find Brownie's guide a bit confusing, but trust me, take some time, puzzle through it, and it will make perfect sense. Again, I'm speaking as not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to this kind of thing, so I'm certain you can figure it out, too!

Building Bicycle Wheels by Sheldon Brown