Originally Posted by 79pmooney

Welcome! I've been building wheels for decades. Never got too analytical about it and the book I've owned nearly forever is the far simpler "Building Bicycle Wheels" by Robert Wright from the same neck of the woods. I was introduced to him, by of all things, a wheel that did not taco. A story with a happy ending. Santa Cruz Cycling Club Saturday morning ride with its town line sprint. Less than a year after I hung up my race wheels. I went early and got passed by the local hotshot with a strong newbie on his wheel. Hotshot snapped over to my line as soon as he was past me to shed this newbie into the wind but the newbie came over also. Suddenly I had a rear wheel where my front belonged. It was crash or make contact. I elected contact and leaned my bike into his. Long crunching sound. We separated and I rode the wobbly bike to a standstill.

Another rider also stopped, introduced himself and thanked me for keeping it up. He was on my wheel and would have been the next to go down. Wrote off the rest of his ride, went home for his truck and drove me home.

That wheel had 8 consecutive right-side spokes cut (out of 36). It was a Weinmann Concave laced with light, not so tight spokes. No lasting damage, just needed new spokes. Fork had paint removed at the top of the inside left blade from the tire. I feel I owe a lot to a super stiff rim and the advice of the racing bible of the day, the Italian C.O.N.I. manual which recommended the not-so-tight spokes so you could finish a race missing one or two (in the days when quick wheel changes were not to be counted on). In this case I would have been at the bottom of a pile of, oh, half a dozen bikes and riders after a quick deceleration from close to 30 mph.

Ben