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the bicycle wheel 3rd edition jobst brandt. isola press hardback 160pp illus. £27

on wednesday afternoon, a visiting cyclist dropped by the office to enquire whether i might be of some service regarding a damaged rear bicycle wheel. it seem the hapless fellow had arrived off the evening ferry at port askaig and, in the process of making his way to the campsite at port mòr near port charlotte village, he had hit a pothole in the dark, unsettling the rear wheel. according to him, the slight buckle induced by said pothole had resulted in the wheel rim hitting off the brake shoe at every revolution. he had, therefore, loosened the brake cable to make his journey somewhat less irritable.

in the bright light of daytime, the following morning, he had attempted to true the wheel and remove the wobble, but had apparently only succeeded in making matters worse. as he admitted, "i didn't really know what i was doing." as far as that's concerned, he can count himself amongst the large majority of cyclists, who know what wheels are for, but remain uninformed as to how it is they carry out their trade.

in the early nineties, in a forlorn attempt to demonstrate my technical ability as a mechanic to the good folks of the hebrides, i not only acquired a lugged steel frame, but the necessary components to transform it into a road-going bicycle. in for a penny and in for a pound, i opted to purchase two campagnolo hubs, 64 stainless steel spokes, and a pair of appropriately eyeleted mavic rims, convinced that i had the necessary skills to build and true a suitable pair of wheels, using one of the flimsiest (and cheapest) truing stands that money could buy, along with probably the clumsiest spoke-key on the market.

surprisingly, the resulting wheels were not only remarkably true, but until a few years ago, were still to be found attached to the bicycle for which they were constructed.

wheel-building was, at one time, presented as one of the dark arts probably taught by professor severus snape in the depths of hogwarts castle, and approved by he who must not be named. if you take a look at the component parts necessary to construct a wheel laid out on the floor of the bicycle shed, it's often hard to comprehend just how they can be laced into a pattern that will suffer the slings and arrows of argyll & bute roads department, without caving at the sight of the first pothole, as befell the unfortunate fellow mentioned above.

but there is a logical science to the so-called art of wheelbuilding, that the spokes on one side balance out the lateral load placed on the rim and hub flange by the spokes on the opposite side, while simultaneously maintaining a vertical tension that prevents the rim from straying out of the round. as with pretty much any task, the more often you undertake it, the easier it becomes, as was the case with my own wheelbuilding activities. however, when you see the way real masters of the craft approach the situation, it rather undermines the smug sense of satisfaction to be gained from what appears to be a perfectly acceptable pair of wheels.

individuals such as wheelsmith's derek mclay, or former owner of portland's sugar wheelworks, jude gerace, are able to tune a wheelset to suit the customer's weight, style of riding and the use to which any wheelset is to be employed. i can only build wheels, invariably having to relace on discovering that i had inadvertently placed the valve hole beneath a pair of crossed spokes.

however, in an attempt to quantify the explicable science of the bicycle wheel to those eager to explore the nooks and crannies of the art or craft, new york born engineer, jobst brandt, (who passed away in 2015 at the age of 80) wrote the acknowledged bible on the subject, tautologically entitled the bicycle wheel. first published in 1981, the book has been reprinted several times, with this third edition originally released in 1993. until this limited edition reprint from isola press, it last saw the light of day in 2003.

there are no doubt several reviews of the original available on the interwebs, and it's unlikely that i will be able to add much to what has already been said. however, amongst those of us who will secretly admit to being wheelaholics, this is manna from heaven. the majority of wheels fitted to any genre of contemporary bicycle you care to mention, are nowadays likely to be factory built, frequently with straight-pull spokes because that's a lot simpler for the machines employed in their construction. it's also true that many of those spokes are proprietary, costing almost as much for one as for an entire box of dt swiss double-butted stainless steel spokes.

but despite the apparent lack of spokes in some of the factory builds, they are still bound by the scientific principles as laid out by mr brandt.

"guided by engineering principles, I learned to build true and durable wheels."

to outline those principles, part one of 'the bicycle wheel' covers the theory of the spoked wheel, describing tension and compression, explaining how the wheel stands on its spokes ("...the wheel is not supported by the bottom spokes only. Without the rest of the spokes, the bottom ones would have no tension."). even if you have absolutely no intention of building your own set of bicycle wheels, understanding how they work, might well have allowed the chap mentioned in my opening paragraphs to repair his own wheel by knowing which spokes to tweak.

for two distinct reasons, you should probably acquire a copy of mr brandt's the bicycle wheel; for one, it is an almost mythical part of cycling's rich heritage: buy a copy to sit on the book shelf, even if its contents remain incomprehensible. but the second, more pragmatic approach, is akin to forcing a drummer into learning to read music. we all laugh at motorists who have no idea where the oil dipstick resides in their engine, or where to fill the screenwash, so don't be the cycling equivalent. read and understand the principles behind the wheels on your bicycle(s) to provide a better understanding of how they affect performance, comfort and motion.

it has often been said that men in particular will only read the manual as a last resort. sat on the shores of the north atlantic in howling wind and horizontal freezing rain with a buckled wheel on a loaded bicycle is not the time to wish otherwise.

as essential as a saddle.

purchase a copy of 'the bicycle wheel'

saturday 23 september 2023