No, the spokes aren't damaged when your wheel gets bent. When you replace a broken spoke, you often have to bend it to get it in. The replacement spoke gets bent worse than spokes in a tacoed wheel. Trust me. They are steel, ok to flex. If the wheel you are rebuilding is a hundred years old, yes, get new spokes.

its not the bending, but hte stretching that will have me worried,. and as you might notice a fixed gear wheel does not die as rapidly as a wheel that gets ground down by a brake.. so pls use the hub. ditch the rest, you know you can afford it, you spend next to nada on maintenance.. if youre fixed..

His wheel was new when he crashed, but yeah, change the spokes if you want, they probably all stretched out!?

Lord Jobst sayeth that used spokes are cool. I guess Thylacine questions his wisdom, but knowing no better, ok. It's really just that every time I kill a wheel it's been sort of unexpected. Funny how that works, right? So off to the LBS I must go (actually in the latest case, I was already on my way there for other stuff...convenient, no?) to get a wheel to keep on the road.

I have yet to time my destruction to coincide with the opportunity to build up the wheel I really want.

One day I'll get all my bits together and *preemptively* build a new front wheel.

are there any other sites with videos as good as this?

No. Those vidoes are the best they get.

There may be another site, but I don't really know.

I printed off Sheldon's instructions. I first tried it on a Friday night. I got frustrated after an hour because I could not get it right, so as he advised, I walked away. Saturday morning I came back, undid what I had done and reread the pages. Half hour later I was laced (no I mean the wheel) and was trueing. Motto of the story is approach it with an open mind and clear head and it is a piece of cake.

You mean pie

Today I was mistaken for a messenger twice! Ha, beat that!

The first time was at a fast food joint while I was waiting for my burrito. An older fellow came up to me and asked me how many miles I rode, I told him at least 11 a day, and he said, "Thats it, I thought you were a courier." and seemed a little disappointed. The second time was later in the night at a party, some dude came up and asked me, "are you one of those bike messenger guys?"

Oh and on a semi related note I met an ex olympic track cyclist on the train this evening. He was a little crazy, warned me about my suicide hub and proceed to mock me for my front brake and rear fender until I explained to him that this bike is my commuter and he saw that its a lugged steel frame. Thats right beeoch!

I'm only ever mistaken for a messenger by civilians; during the RNC, a bunch of the anarchist kids I was working with decided I had to be a cop because my hair was too clean - so I definitely understand where you're coming from!

Edit: Where the hell are all these old threads coming from? Everything I've responded to all week has been a month-old corpse revived!

Easy as cake.

ha ha.
When you where at the party, how did they think you where a msgngr?
Did you bring your bike inside?

I got asked if I was a messenger one time, I was in downtown Jersey city leaning on my bike drinking coffee before heading over to school. In retrospect I should have said yes the girl asking was pretty cute. I don't even know if they have messengers in Jersey City? I should look into that as I have all night classes this semester and the sporatic nature of subsitute teaching is getting annoying.

My bike is my life, I'm not going to keep her outside! I was also wearing a cycling cap, t-shirt with arm warmers, cycling gloves, my shimano cleats, and shorts in 45 degree weather. It screams, "I'm part of the LA bike culture".

no one ever mistakes me for a messenger, but people often point at me and/or my ride and laugh.

you and me both, friend. i get beeped at a lot too...