The title sounds a bit like that of a charismatic instructor at a famous cram school.
Believe it or not, I actually once aimed to become a teacher, but that path closed on me quite easily after I made a mistake with my university course registration—but that’s just between us. JUS here.
Anyway, hand-built wheels allow you to assemble the perfect wheel for yourself from an infinite number of combinations.
For our “GORILLA SPUN Order Made Wheel” offering, please check out the blog post Makoto-san wrote previously.
“What it Means to Build a Wheel”
Today, I want to talk about the things—both tangible and intangible—that I consider most important in wheel building.
When people hear "wheel building," they tend to think it's all about "intuition" or "experience" in the old-school artisan sense. While it’s true that intuition and experience are necessary to build wheels quickly and accurately as a professional, the most important thing in wheel building isn't intuition or experience—it’s precise "data."
Unless every piece of data is calculated correctly—from rim diameter to the spoke lengths derived from hub measurements—you cannot build a proper wheel. Wheel building is math with a formula.
And when it comes to absolute essential data in wheel building, we’re talking about spoke tension (the tightness of the spokes).
Spoke tension is finely adjusted based on the material and shape of the rim and spokes, manufacturer recommendations, the rider's weight, and intended use. The tool used to measure the tension of each individual spoke is called a tension meter.
Some of you may have seen us mechanics at the pit counter, gripping this tool and glancing at it back and forth while building a wheel.
This tool allows us to measure the tension of each individual spoke, ensuring that the tension for all spokes on both the drive side and non-drive side is uniform at the correct levels. By doing this, we create a strong, well-balanced wheel with no vertical, lateral, or centering distortions.
The mechanism of this spoke tension meter is quite simple. It converts the tension of the clamped spoke into a value based on the pressure of the spring installed inside. However, these tension meters are used day in and day out; just like bicycles, they are tools, and the springs will naturally degrade over time.
You can't build a high-precision wheel without high-precision tools and equipment. We send our tension meters back to the manufacturer once a year for calibration to ensure they are set up to measure tension correctly and to have any degraded springs replaced.
Please enjoy the “GORILLA SPUN Order Made Wheel,” which we carefully assemble for you alone, while keeping our tools in tip-top shape.
