Jak budowane są koła w pracowni kół "Czarnego Kota"?

Koniec roku, święta, przerwa, czas z rodziną, chwila na odpoczynek... to ten czas aby trochę zwolnić tępo, podsumować mijający rok i zrobić plany na kolejny. Osobiście bardzo lubię ten moment.

Korzystając z okazji, chciałem się podzielić z Wami jak buduję koła. Uchylając nieco rąbka tajemnicy i warsztatu da Wam obraz dlaczego koła ręcznie składane są warte uwagi przy wyborze kół rowerowych.

DT Swiss wheels for Dawid from Triglav

It's been a pleasure and my honor to build new wheels for Dawid, the founder of Triglav company. 

Mountain wheels for Mark

Mark found me via google and contacted me regarding the wheels project. He was looking for light and price attractive wheels for his mountain bike. He is a beginner and rather rides on easy trails, without extreme jumping nor bombing down hills...

After few emails exchanges I decided to make him the wheels from the following components:

• BOR XMD 333 rims, 650 size with offset
• Shimano Deore XT hubs (15x100, 12x142)
• DT Swiss Competition black spokes
• Sapim silver brass 12mm nipples

Catrike wheel

From time to time I see those bikes on the street but I'd never think that I'll be building a wheel for such exotic bike.

Roval wheels rescue - mission accomplished ;-)

Some time ago I was writing about a project to replace rims and spokes in Roval wheels. 

This weekend mission has been accomplished and wheels got their new life. 

Valais - La Cyclosportive des Vins du Valais and road to nowhere

August was a month of Valais - windy but nice region with beautiful landscape.
 

Roval wheels rescue

Nic came to me recently with his nice Roval wheels. After closer look we found the following:

Obviously those wheels should not be ridden anymore, especially the front one.
Browsing the net and some forums I learned that this is not a single case. This was/is the common problem with Roval wheels and rims were cracking even during warranty period.

Now, fixing those after warranty is a challenge as the hubs are not standard, spokes have internal nipples and rear has triplet lacing. Due to that most of the people are trashing those wheels completely as wheel builders and shops are not willing to fix it.

Since the hubs are in a perfect shape and they have ceramic bearings it would be a pity to trash those so I took the challenge and accepted the job.

After measuring the hubs and doing some calculations I ordered the parts - new spokes, nipples and rims. Malcolm from https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/ was very helpful and advised the proper rims - BORG31 known as Kinlin XR31T.

Front is done. Wheel is properly build with right tension. Very stiff and only 30g heavier vs oryginal. Taking into consideration the wider and deeper rim I find that as satisfactory result.

 Small 'custom job' touch - two nipples next to valve are red in order to match the hub

Now, time to take the rear wheel on the workshop table - tbc.
blog-wheelbuilding

Wheels for Sandro

Sandro contacted me to build the every-day / occasional race wheels for him. Light, strong and price attractive - those were the main requirements for this project.

Classic steel city bike & wheels project

From time to time I'm getting unique and unusual request to build specific wheels. Each project like that is very exciting as it's breaking up the routine in similar/same wheels build

This time Alex came to me with the task to build the wheels which would match to his steel city bike project where the main objective is simplicity and minimalism in lack of cables & wires as much as possible.

Emosson - cold welcome

Lac d'Émosson - who've been there knows that's really beautiful place. It's one of the must on your to-do list when you're around Sion / Martigny. 

Le col du Grand-Saint-Bernard

Today's lesson learnt is: never underestimate Alps ;-)

Warmed up by yesterday's Brevet and having already bike packed in the car I decided to continue discovering of unknown passes yet.

After quick packing consisting of two bottles of water and one banana and followed by small breakfast I was ready for new adventure.

I always wanted to cycle up to St. Bernard's col as I was crossing this pass several times by car going to Italy. By car it seems to be very small mountain so I thought it will be perfect loop for bit tired legs.

I don't remember when last time I was so wrong...

The Saint Bernard is a beautiful pass connecting Switzerland and Italy however it's not so flat as I thought. It's about 25km of climbing to reach to finally reach 2473m altitude. 

Alpenbrevet Silver loop with Bulldogs crew

While there are many on-going wheel projects which I should share more info on my blog long time ago...

Rainy beginning of July

July came to Switzerland with lots of clouds and rain. 
Not so great beginning of cycling holidays but from other hand there was a great opportunity to test my carbon rims in real rainy conditions.

Saturday I went up to Col de la Croix and descended in a full rain. I must say it wasn't so bad, braking power is lower than on dry, but I was able to descend without stress. 
Worth to say that going down from the hill is not my favorite part. I prefer much more climbing up.

Col de Corbier & Abondance

Today during Saturday's loop I had a real pleasure to cycle with "Blonay Bulldogs" club members.

Carbon wheels for David

Since today David is enjoying his brand new, custom made wheels. 

Weekend as usual

Building wheels makes me relax, while testing them gives a lot of adrenaline and I think the second part is a more pleasant part of the job.

The carbon wheels I mentioned few posts back are doing very well. It's over 1k. km on them and LOT of climbing and descending in a hot days. 

I felt very so confident with them that I pulled the trigger and ordered a bigger batch from the manufacturer. 
Soon I shall have them back on stock and ready for build(s).

Meantime, enjoy some photos from last two rides

Best aero/wide aluminum rims in the market?

Most of us are looking for similar things in terms of road wheels - stiffness, aero benefits, weight and recently width - wide rims became popular recent days...

During that weekend I was able to build two sets of wheels based on newest Kinlin XR-31T rims.

Spontaneous loop

I'm struggling with the flu since almost two weeks now. I can't get rid of it, maybe because I have no time to lay in the bed and simply take some rest. 

This week was pretty busy, several wheel-sets were finished and of course daily job in the corporation... blah...

Today, since the weather was good, I decided to go for small spin on flat, just to stretch the legs... well, that was the plan. Obviously that plan didn't work at all: 

Back to the roots

From time to time it's good to step back and go back to the roots. Today I finished very traditional and beautiful wheelset composed from H plus Son Archetype rims and DT Swiss components.

Reliable carbon clinchers

It took me a while to finish research among many manufacturers for reliable carbon rims, which wouldn't break a bank.
While most of such manufacturers are located in China, I was also able to find and check few ones located in Europe, mainly Netherlands, Germany and France

Wheels without bullsh*t

Wheels which I'm building are ridden by me, on daily basis. 
They are tested hard on climbs, descends, bad surfaces, in sun, snow, rain and whatever else can happen you on the road.

This is the best and most true reassurance of my work I can give you

This weekend was pretty busy. Finally carbon clinchers are done.
Sneak peak preview here:

Affordable road wheels for mountain climbing and fast descends...part II

Few posts ago I was mentioning about the project of road light and stiff wheels for climbing

I did one set for my customer and loved wheels so much that I decided to build one for myself

Of course, I customized a bit the build by giving two white spokes to each wheel so all would match to my ritchey road logic which has white handlebar, stem and seatpost. 
Two blue nipples on each wheel are matching to my bartape which is light-blue colour

Weekend

Plan for the weekend was very ambitious... finish two sets of the wheels, cut & prep spokes for carbon build, update blog, cut & prep decals.. etc.

Saturday morning sun came out in Switzerland and so the sky became blue, really blue.
As a consequence workshop got closed and I spent two full days on the road ;-)

Wheels for Alex

Today, set of classy Kinlin wheels went to Alex. 
Clean build, semi-aero, light weight (1430g) laced radially on front and 2x on rear will be mounted on renovated steel road frame.

Pacenti Forza

One of the idea of this blog is to collect here a list of solid, good rims and sub components.

Talking about solid rims,  very recently Pacenti released their new rim called Forza. Forza is the successor of SL23 rim, which was very well perceived by builders and the end users.

Although Forza/SL23 are a bit on heavy side with low profile, they give unique ride feeling and are targeted for every day use.

Affordable road wheels for mountain climbing and fast descends...

One of my cycling buddies asked me to build a good pair of wheels for him which would be light, stiff, perfect for long climbing in the saddle and would not break the bank


Sounds familiar? ;-)

After some research we decided that the set will be build based from:

• Ryde sprint rims (20/24H), 
• Novatec x-light hubs (white), 
• CN aero 424 spokes and alu nipples

Set will be around 1300g and 450CHF price tag

Sneak peak preview of rear wheel:

Blackcat wheels - logo ;-)

First version of logo arrived ;-) feeling so proud!

This is the small one which will go on hubs and in some cases rims if they are labeled already


The other version, long which will go among the rim is still work in progress. Hopefully it will be ready by end of April. 

That should solve the often dilemma of the customers who don't really like OEM 'naked' rims

T.

New player in gravel world

Being Polish, I have to share a great news:

Kinlin rims

It's been more than few times when people are asking about Kinlin rims and why I'm using them in my wheels.

The brand is not so well known in the consumer world, however it's one of the most appreciated brands in wheel builders space

H plus Son 42mm wheels

Today one of my favorite wheels found a new owner. 

About me

So... since you came to this post it means that either you're looking for good pair of wheels or you simply enjoy my photos and scenery... anyhow it would be good if you'd know a bit about me ;-)

First of all I love riding my bikes, not a surprise hugh?. 
I use every single, little and big occasion to hop on my bike and enjoy the ride. 

The place where I live - Swiss Alps - is very tempting and  it's just perfect for cycling. 

 However it's not always easy to find a free moment as working @ one of the biggest corporation in the world and being father of two small and demanding kids is already an interesting challenge :-)

I'm using two steel bikes which I own and built by myself: 

Ritchey Logic

Cotic X

I love road cycling and adore gravel/adventure. 

I'm writing that so I want let you know that apart of 'normal' cycling I'm also testing and ridding wheels that I build. 
I really like and want to get familiar with all those new types of rims, hubs and spokes I introduce to my builds, so I have full confidence in my products. 

More about those things a bit later.

Cheers
Tomasz

Introduction...

Hello world ;-)

First of all, welcome to my 2in1 blog & page.

This will be my testimonial, the place where I'll be describing my cycling adventures including wheels builds.
I hope you will find here an inspiration for cycling, answer to your questions, mainly around wheels and much more than that.
 

So take a cup of good coffee and enjoy the reading

Cheers

T.