Extralite custom front wheel = Extra good! from Troy @ Fair Wheel Bikes

I'm always a fan of custom wheelsets. With custom wheelsets you can always choose exactly what you want. Whether it be color, weight, price, size, lacing pattern, brands, you name it, it's selectable. The only exception is for industry9 wheelsets where you can really pretty anodized aluminum spokes.

I don't know about you, but I find a lot of joy in selecting components for wheel builds. So unless you or I are a sponsored rider and told to use brand X and model Y. I feel we should ride exactly what we want to ride.

Troy Watson may have been a name you've heard of before. Especially if you frequent Road Bike Review or Weight Weenies. Troy is also behind Ligero Wheelworks, where he had his own custom hubs made to his specifications. They were really cool because both the front and rear hubs were optimized to have wide flanges to increase stiffness of the wheel by bracing angle. He also used Phil Wood bearings for both front and rear hubs. In the rear hub he used White Industries rear hub internals and was optimized for triplet lacing. To say he knows his stuff is an understatement.

In 2011 he joined Fair Wheel Bikes, a top end shop in USA specializing in the best of the best of cycling goods and all the wheels coming out of there are now hand built by Troy.

In the build I asked Troy to make for me I took into several considerations:

1. Weight
2. Durability/Reliability
3. Cost

The specification of the front wheel I dreamed of was:

• Extralite HyperFront QR15 configuration, 32h
• Stan's NoTubes Alpine 32h rim
• Sapim CX ray spokes
• Alloy nipples
• Stan's Yellow Tape

The reason why I chose these parts was to fully optimize for a QR15 setup on my 2011 Rocky Mountain Team RSL build up. QR15 forks and wheelsets typically cost the rider a weight penalty to get the extra stiffness. Normally I would skip on going QR15 as you need to optimize your headtube and fork steerer interface before you can take advantage of QR15. In the case of my 2011 Rocky Mountain Team RSL frame it sports a tapered head tube for which I matched it with a 2011 Fox F100 RLC tapered fork.

The extralite front hub I believe is the lightest front hub available to the mass market. With 32 holes the durability and reliability of the overall wheel should not be a concern. Especially for cross country application. Sapim CX-Rays in my opinion offer the best performance for the money. You can go lighter with Sapim SuperSpoke or even Pillar Titanium spokes, but the cost and performance of the Sapim can't be matched. The DTswiss aerolite spoke offers the same level of performance as the Sapim CX-ray but at an extra cost above the Sapim.

Giving Troy these build spec and some dialogue via email he said it would be an ideal build. So the go ahead of was given to build the wheel.

Troy optimized the spoke weights by customizing their length. Troy explains it,

"The spokes are not really much lighter but technically they are. What I do is take a cx-ray that has 9mm of thread and 10mm of 2mm round section above it and recut the threads up higher. I normally do about 6mm so you are loosing 6mm of thickest part of the spoke. It doesn't add up to much but it is a little. It will take a cx-ray from being about 4.7g each to 4.3-4.4g each. It is mainly a neat thing to tell other weight weenies that you had done."

Fair Wheel Bikes has the Phil Wood Spoke and threading machine. Which is the only way to cut a spoke. If someone is telling you that they took a dremel and used a die to cut new threads walk away immediately. The only way someone should cut a spoke and rethread it is by rolling the threads.

Rolling the threads means the threads are cold worked which increases thread strength. This is done by rolling the threads on two flat dies rather than using a cylindrical die and shearing away material.

This video that Troy made demonstrates how the Phil Wood Spoke Cutting and Threading Machine works.

This ladies and gentlemen is one of the reasons why you go to a top end wheel builder rather than your lcoal bike store. How many of you can tell me that your local bike store has a $3900 USD spoke cutting and threading machine?

Troy first uses a jig to define the lacing pattern of the wheel he is going to build with the hub mounted. For the Extralite Hyperfront hub you are limited as the non-braking side of the hub is designed to be radially laced to increase lateral stiffness and the braking side must be in a cross pattern to counter the load from the disc brake rotor. The lacing pattern was set by Troy Watson to be radial non drive (aka non brake side) side and 3 cross x 16 on the brake side.

I wish I had a jig like this because it allows you to carefully place the rim and work from above. Final truing of the wheel is then done on a Park Master Truing stand (I missed the chance to buy one a few years back when Troy was selling a spare he had), it is the best truing stand ever made commercially and is no longer offered by Park Tools.

The final weight of the front wheel:

In the past I have gone through many different wheel builders in the USA. Each time I had a very pleasant experience. This time I chose Fair Wheel Bikes because I have had Troy build for me in the past and he is now at Fair Wheel Bikes. Fair Wheel Bikes has all parts on hand which means zero wait time. Labour is included in the total price of the build, which is the sum of all the individual parts of the wheel I chose. There is no way I could replicate the skill and knowledge that Troy has. His attention to detail is truly amazing. Emails and phone calls are always promptly responded.

Once the trails here are opened up I will follow up with a review on what it is like to ride a work of art.

Fair Wheel Bikes custom wheel program


Example of what Troy can do.

New Old Stock - 1995 Clark Kent Pineapple Front hub made into a Front road wheel

Whatever you dream of, Troy and Fair Wheel Bikes can build it.

indepth review: Delta Michelangelo Gravity Bike Storage Rack

Wall Art: How to decorate your condo...

available to purchase from Mountain Equipment Co-op. Cost is $79.

This all started with my girlfriend complaining about my bikes being scattered in our loft. While I think the Den (which is never used) is the perfect place to store my bikes she did not. I was reminded of this everyday for 1 year... The original solution was to hang my bikes from the ceiling, see how our ceiling is 14' high. A fellow neighbor on the first floor had done this with his carbon fibre Giant mountain bike and road bike.

This particular "bike lift" I think cost $12.99 @ Winners. It would have done the trick Except my girlfriend somehow convinced me that the ceiling was made out of wood. It does look like painted wood... So I went and grabbed the ladder and proceeded to try to install this thing. Fail.

The ceiling is solid concrete. The pattern in the concrete is from the floors being framed/molded using wood 2x6s nearly 70 years ago and the wood removed once the concrete sets. We live in a loft conversion from an old factory. This would have worked if I had a masonry bit, but living with limited tools proves difficult. It's not like I didn't have enough power from my drill to do it.

Bosch made in Germany 36V hammer drill...

One of the walls was lacking some art anyways so I went with Delta Michelangelo Gravity Bike Storage Rack.

This beautifully made piece of bent tubes perfectly portrays your rolling works of art. I still can not understand how a bunch of bent tubes is worth $79 bucks. But whatever, the time required for me to buy metal tubes, bend them, do some welding and paint them is something I don't have.

The plus side of this stand is that no holes need to be drilled into the walls. Meaning it can be easily relocated. I put the heavier bike on the bottom and lighter one on the top for stability. Regardless of how your orient the bikes the stand is very stable with no concerns with it falling. There is no left to right wobble and the stand leans against the wall with a rubber knob near the top. The rubber knobs at the legs prevent the stand from sliding out. It will take a bit of trial and error to get the optimal placement and balance.

As for the contact with your expensive works of art (who really cares about the wall) the hooks are rubber coated to prevent your bike's frame from being marred or scratched. The hooks can be positioned at any height you please.

Small hooks allow you to hang your bicycle helmet or other gear for you to keep stashed. I found them hard to get to so I don't really use them.

If you are crammed for space and will not allow your prized pieces of art be relegated to the storage locker or worse the bike room for thieves to pillage; this is your solution. It even got a compliment by my girlfriend that my bikes look nice. This coming from a person who despises my bikes and hobby..

9/10 - would be a 10/10 if the price was under $50 CDN

Retul FIT - In depth review

So you have been serious about cycling for many years. You own many high end bikes. Perhaps you are even part of the "My pedal bike is worth more than my car club" and you are looking for maximum performance. Or you are suffering from ergononmic fatigue on your bike... RETUL is your answer. This is where the pros go. So why not experience the "pro" level goodies?

For me it was a combination of all the above mentioned. What I really wanted to do was figure out exactly why my lower back screams in pain on a tough ride or a hard race. It hurts quite a bit once the kilometres pile up on the road bike. I would say around 65 to 75 kms it starts to nag with pain. Once 90 rolls around it hurts bad, enough that you make a couple of pedal strokes, coast for a bit while trying to stretch out your back. It also kills me on the 3rd lap of the Ontario cup races. It basically cries mercy.

In the very early beginning of biking I remember people telling me all sorts of various ways of setting up a bike. "if you have a high seat post you pedal more efficiently," "You should tilt the nose of the saddle forward for clearance." "You need a big saddle to bar drop to maximize aerodynamics." I think from these comments is what made me try to keep on increasing the height when I didn't need to.

So I decided to seek professional help to improve my performance. I felt that this single sore back problem was holding me back in terms of performance and results.

I researched the internet trying to figure out who were the good fitters in the Greater Toronto Area. A friend suggested a guy based out of Guelph university who specializes in the Serrota fit system. I contacted him, but he was only doing fits for people wanting to buy a serotta bike.

So then with more searching I found Ian MacLean who runs http://www.imfit.ca/ and is certified on the RETUL system.

The RETUL system measures your body movements under load to determine you fit. It doesn't use static position or employ the KOP system (Knee over pedal).

 
It is the truest form of measurement on how your body interacts with your machinery. This is the 21st century now. We have technology and a lot of it.

Here is a youtube video on how RETUL works:

http://youtu.be/Sm-Q4BYN-i8

For the technical geeks out there. The Retul system uses IR LEDs that are placed on the pivot locations of your body. The locations are:

• Widest spot on your shoe just outside of your little toe
• One spot near your heal just aft of the buckle for shoe
• The bump on your ankle
• The bump on the outside of your knee to the side
• Your hip right at the pivot spot is for your leg
• Shoulder
• Elbow
• Wrist

I didn't have the luxury of an assistant with my camera and I was paying money for Ian's time so there were no photos of me during the fit session. So I'm going to steal photos from around the internet.

The IR LEDs are all in a chain on a USB cable that plugs into a laptop running Retul Software (back in 2008). The new RETUL fit systems have moved onto the IR LEDs plugged into a wireless transmitter you clip to your back pocket. The actual little IR LEDs are secured inside a little 25 cent sized plastic housing that has a velco backing. The opposite velco is what gets placed on your body with a sticky backing. Then there is a camera head mounted on a tri pod about 7 to 8 feet away. This camera head is similar to the 3D scene cameras used for many robotic vision systems. This one is about 30 to 35 inches long and I believe it has 4 or 5 IR sensors in it. I forget.

The camera/tripod is placed so that it views you from the side. From what I can gather, the 4 or 5 IR sensors are able to triangulate the IR LEDs in 3D space to map out the motions of your body as you pedal your bike. (Basically how XBOX 360 kinetic works) Your bike is placed on a trainer and you are instructed to pedal as you would trying to follow a fast group ride on the flats. So about 250 to 300 watts at 100 rpms average.

So before all this, an assessment is made on your flexibility after you have warmed up on the bike. Apparently I have very good hamstring flexibility as Ian was able push my leg beyond 90 degrees with the table I was lying on with the other leg flat on the table. However my hip flexibility was below average. Imagine using both your hands to hug your knee into your chest. I was not able to bring my knee close to my chest. This raised some concern for him for fitting the road bike as hip flexibility is quite important. He taught me some after ride stretches to help increase my mobility/flexibility. Over time he said it should improve a little. Since doing this RETUL fit session back in 2008, I did 1 full year of yoga 2 times a week. Out of all the stretching and other exercise. I can honestly say YOGA is the way to go for flexibility improvement. More on that another day.

Ian looks over your bikes to see the general setup. He remarked at my slightly tilted back saddle (nose pointing up slightly). He said that was very very good. Any saddle that needs to be tilted nose down to be comfortable is the wrong saddle for the rider and he/she needs to find a different model or make. I asked him to go in more detail. He said the saddle serves to support your weight just like the pedals, and the handle bars. If you nose down the saddle you are constantly fighting your body not to slide off your saddle. You fatigue your body by using more of your legs to hold you up (pressure on pedal) and your hands/arms to hold you up. It is wasted energy. To all the male riders out there, a saddle pointed up at the nose will not cause you to go numb or make you sterile. That is a bunch of BS!

So back to the bike. Once you get to quick pace (100 rpm, 250 watts), the program records the IR LED movements. Real time it displaces a stick figure on the computer screen animated your body with the pivot locations. Then once the recording stops (about 20 to 30 seconds), a table is presented with the various metrics. Metrics such as knee angles at X degree of crank, knee angle flexion, ankle angle range, etc... Ian looks at these and starts assessing what should be adjusted on the bike to correct these values. I believe he works from both experience, and what Retul recommends.

Not so good Knee trace, notice the doughnuts

 

1st adjustment - saddle. My saddle is too high on the road bike. So high that I was adjusting saddle forward to try to reduce the strain on my hamstrings. Ian lowered the saddle, and took another data run. He still was not happy. Too high. We must have lowered it 1 to 1.5 inches. He studied the knee tracing which is similar to a hysteresis plot of how your knee is moving  through 3D space. My 1st run showed a big doughnut as my saddle was too high. It made my knee move in and out of the frame to try to compensate at the top and bottom end of the stroke. My knee also traced out at an angle. Very bad according to Ian. He believes this is a major contributing factor to my lower back pain as I was over stretching my hamstring. This then causes the hamstring to pull down on the hip flexor muscles which tie into your lower back.

2nd adjustment - saddle fore and aft. Looking at the knee plots, knee angle, hip angle, he said my saddle was now way too far forward at the new saddle height. He moved it back roughly 1.5 cm.

3rd adjustment - Cleat position. He moved my cleats slightly closer to the ankle to help the foot angle with respect to the ground. When my seat was too high my toes were always pointed to the ground. He said I had adjusted my cleat based on this incorrect pedal motion and changed it to what it should be

Much better knee trace - notice not much "doughnut"

Couple of more tweaks and we played with raising the handle bar to the max my steerer tube had to offer (which was a lot) to slamming it down. He studied something like 8 runs of data and said my inital position of just the conical spacer was perfect. Moving the handlebar up the max didn't change my hip angle. But slamming it down to the bottom closed my hips even more, and I was suffering from poor hip flexibility. So he put it back to the original as it was more aerodynamic.

Then we turned the whole setup around 180 degree to work out if I had an inconsistency between my left and right side. The only thing needed was a slightly different cleat position as my left side of my hip was even worse than my right side.

So with the adjustments made today and what I've been doing since the beginning of the season, I figure I've dropped the seatpost about 3" in total prior to the fit session..

Then measurements of my bike was recorded down. But not by a ruler. By a handheld IR remote. It is the size of a TV remote. Has 4 IR LED on the corners of the device with a cable for USB power and menu control of software. The device then has a stylus / pointer with a ball tip. This ball tip is used to locate features on the bike, with the bike placed 45 degrees to the camera about 12 feet away this time. The IR

LEDs emit to the camera which then triangulate the 4 LEDs. It is like measuring your bicycle with a Coordinate-measuring machine (CMM).

• Point for axial line going through head set is determined by placing pointer into the stem cap bolt
• Highest point on saddle is then taken to determine the plane in which the frame exists in 3d space
• Then rear wheel rim is traced out with the stylus while the camera records to determine the rear axle location 
• A chain ring bolt is used to follow the rotation of the cranks through 360 degrees, this determines Bottom bracket location of bike 
• stylus is placed near centerline of pedal axle to determine pedal spindle location and crank length
• the circumference of the handle bar is traced out at the stem connection to determine the length of stem (with respect to the stem cap datum).
• stylus is ran along the brake/shift lever to determine their mounting locations and contour
• saddle contour is also traced out along full length to determine installed aft/fore location and saddle angle
• high points on hoods is taken to determine mounting width 
• the upper edge of the frame's headtube is traced out so that the total stem stack height can be calculated
• front wheel circumference is traced out to determine front axle location, rake of fork, trail of fork.

Pretty cool to have your bike CMM'd within +/- 1mm accuracy.

 http://youtu.be/Qs6dRUlCgX4

Most of the session was spent on my road bike. I good 2 hours worth, and about 20 or so data runs.

Then mountain bikes... (you will need slick mountain bike tire for your rear wheel)

The same thing happened, except I did not need to put down 300 watts I only did around 150 watts. My Kona I had to lower the seat. Fore/aft was perfect. Cleat placement was perfect. Bar to saddle drop was

perfect too, and I can go lower if I wish without impact based on the data runs.

For the Lynskey I had to raise the seatpost. Push the saddle back. a bit. It was noted that on the mountain bike my hip angle is perfect.

The mountain bikes took about 30 mins each to adjust as they were pretty bang on and the fit was very similar even though one is a hardtail and one is a full suspension. I would say the value in the mountain bike fitting is not as great as the road bike. Because you shift your weight and your body position a lot to compensate for the terrain anyways.

So what I learened. My seatposts were all too high except for the Lynskey. (I've dropped every single bikes seatposts over the months since january). My fore and aft generally was too far forward. Also to help the lower back out, Ian suggested trying to spin up a hill on the mountain bike rather than trying to hammer up it mashing on the pedals. This results in fatigue on the hip flexor muscles which are directly linked the lower back.

On the road fit. I managed to increase my pedal cadence 10 rpm, and add 60 watts of power on the particular cog I was using based on the new adjustments. I also feel better on the bike and I'm not rocking

side to side as much.

The mountain bikes... With the adjustments fore/aft and slight tweaking of the saddle angle I'm not actually sitting properly on the saddle.

Also my posture on my bikes are poor. As I need to rotate my hips in by sucking in my abs and pushing my butt out. Rather than just sitting down on the saddle and bending my torso to reach the handle bar.

Here are examples of what report comes with your session. Back in 2008 the report is not as detailed as they are now.

Money well spent? YES. It cost me $380 CDN to do 3 bikes. I occupied maybe 4.5 hours of Ian's time. As each bike had to be setup on the trainer and then flipped 180 degrees to view both left and right.

I did the Retul Fit analysis back in 2008. 2 years later I can honestly say my performance is better. My lower back is not as sore. I feel more comfortable on the bike and my riding friends tell me that I can hold a straight line perfectly line on the road bike in a draft. No rocking side to side.

We spend a lot of time on our bikes. Especially if you are dedicated to racing and/or your passion. Would you drive your car barely able see over the dash board? Would you sit in front of your computer awkwardly? Some do. Those who do ruin their backs, wrists, necks... you name it.

$250 CDN for one session for 1 bike is worth it. Especially if you one of those who has a stem on their bike worth that.