paul, phil, bill, john

PAIN IN THE BUTT WHEELSET

I have been building road and mtn wheels for some 

time now.  Feels like my skills are refined enough to

offer a guy a wheel that 'stands up' to hard licks and i

back up the build with a handshake guarantee that if

it doesn't perform ill fix it.

Enter the carbon rim.  This dt xrc330 is sexy and light

but i'm having issues.   Ive become so used to how a

extruded alum rim behaves and reacts to the spoke 

tensioning and now the carbon hoop is weirding me 

out.  Carbon fiber is resin and sheets of woven carbon 

strands molded into a shape using heat and pressure.

Touted for its stiffness and damping qualities and  able

to be engineered  stiff in one direction  elastic in another.

All this equals me not getting the wheels into a good lateral

and vertical true.  My pal Gilles has ponied up the big heads

weeks and weeks ago for the wheels he plans to race 4x on

and im floundering.    My blog career starts out on a low note.

Think ill pour a tall one.