Can you see your hub label through your valve hole though because that's the most important thing about building a wheel. Naaaaaaaaa just kidding, nice wheels. That 24 hole lacing is interesting did you have to tension the spokes more than a traditional wheel lacing. I assume you wouldn't due to the spoke length but I don't know about the cross. Anyway nice job on the bike keep up the good work.

I don't think so; I simply tensioned them until they rung around A440 when plucked. The spokes are pretty twisty-turny because I decided to cross all of the spokes very near to where they exit the hub.

Conventional wisdom says to lay new spokes over all spokes that you cross on the way to the rim, except for the last one which you duck under. On a 3 cross, this means going over-over-under. On a 2 cross, over-under. Thing is, when you're doing 2-leading 2-trailing wheel, that rule doesn't apply for half of the spokes. Half of the spokes go over-under like you would expect, and half of them go over-NOTHING. Not being confident with having half the spokes interleaved, and half non-interleaved, I simply interleaved them all.

I'll leave the study of this photograph as an exercise for the reader.

Step six: Truing the wheels
 

Even if you don't own a truing stand or a dishing tool you can still take a good first crack at truing a wheel so that the rims run straight.

I flipped the frame of my bike upside down, installed the wheel in the front fork, and then attached a ruler (metric, natch) to the fork with elastic bands.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8083/8...a42e2e6869.jpg
(Click to enlarge)

Get the ruler as close to the rim as you can without touching it, then give the wheel a spin. The ruler acts as a fixed reference point against which you can evaluate warps in the rim.

Watch a video of the DIY truing stand in action:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveluscher/8338976590/ Using the markings on the ruler and the width of the rim, I was able to roughly calculate where the rim should sit. Wherever the spinning rim would "cross the line" I would tighten the group of spokes opposite that point. Sometimes, instead, I would loosen the group of spokes on the same side as that point, in an effort to maintain the overall A440 tuning of the spokes.

After the rough home-true, I went down to Our Community Bikes to finish the job on their more precise truing stands and dishing tools.

Fin
 

The final step, was to componentize the bike, ride it to vet the build, then to strip the frame down completely for painting.

I sent the frame to the venerable Toxik Harald in Richmond, BC. Harald was Brodie's in-house paint guru in the 90s, and now runs his own shop where he does custom paint jobs. He uses single-stage aircraft paints (color and finish in one), and a custom low-pressure, high-volume gun.

Harald's standard service includes frame stripping, rust removal, and minor frame filling. I asked him to shoot my frame in gloss black. The joint where the frame coupler meets the frame completely disappeared.

And that's the end of the project! I've been riding this bike for a few months now. It's light, it's smooth, it's clean, and it's quiet.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8074/8...70933cc5bf.jpg
(Click to enlarge)

Amazing workmanship and attention to detail.

Bike looks great, thanks for taking the time to document everything so well.

If you are lazy.

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Cyclin...cle-unisex.jsp

EDIT: FYI, you really need to know what ratio cogs you want to use. Changing them will cost you a lot of $$$.

This is pretty damn awesome. I skimmed the thread, but what did the total cost come out to?

Thanks for sharing! Looks great!

You should sell that seat stay splitter doodad.

I didn't realize this thread had been updated and concluded. Awesome effort and amazing result.

It's a delightful mix of junk bin components and splurges. I certainly did it for the experience, and not to save money. :)

Thanks Leukybear!

Yeah… I don't get the sense that you could turn a good profit. My bike, for example, had a tapered seatstay, so it's unlikely that an off-the-shelf splitter would have fit.

Thanks Dan!

Nice project and write up! Good job researching the breakaway design - it looks smooth and stiff.

Hipster question - how well does it skid? I'm curious about the belt's response to high shock loads.

Well enough to need two brakes, I'd guess.

OPs choice of a cassette hub makes me think he's not into sweet skidz.

that was cool, good work

Firstly, it is possible to buy a 21t thread-on cog from Gates, even in the new CenterTrack belt system, so you could build one of these fixed. To find a 24h, 126mm OLD, black, threaded hub, and have everything perfectly match up in terms of my target gain ratio and beltline, would have been next to impossible though. You can shorten a chain by popping out links, but belts come in a fixed array of lengths, so if your trifecta of wheel size, cog/belt choice, and crank length don't add up to your desired gain ratio and position your wheel perfectly in the rear dropouts, you're hooped.

Secondly, with respect to whether the belt system could handle it: hell yes. As Dan noted, they use belts to drive these things. Carbon fibre doesn't like to stretch.

Hmm... I obviously not did not pay enough attention to the hub used. :innocent:

The belt drive concept is really cool, it just doesn't seem "intuitive" for it to behave more like a chain than a rubber band (even knowing quite well how belts behave in other applications). I'd like to ride one. Fixed would be very nice...

wow that build really came out nicely congrats!
the black and blue is a nice touch with the belt drive to.

You noticed!

Sick

Hey, what a coincidence. I did exactly the same with my bike, the cutting and welding process, the rear freehub with the spacers, the 55 teeth front sprocket, also the black and blue color, and obviously the centertrack gates carbon drive.
I have a problem though, I am riding my bike without the belt drive system (with a chain), because I can't find a crank. Can you tell me which one did you use?

Really cool documentation of your build! Its pretty cool to see the step by step process. Thanks for sharing. I just put a belt drive on my own bike, but you can get one from veer that is spliced to fit around your frame. I didn't feel comfortable enough to cut and weld my bike myself. I would recommend it to anybody feeling similarly. I just got it from them and it works great. https://www.veercycle.com/products/s...ed-bike-frames

I thought I'd necrobump this thread 9 years later to share that I did this again! This time, I really built one – right from scratch – as part of Paul Brodie's framebuilding class.

Read all about it: https://medium.com/@steveluscher/han...e-7bad73bfe710

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d816b6df4.jpeg