The road to ECMC 3: Stay True - the zen of wheel building

I built my first wheel about 5 years ago.

When I went in the bicycle shop (La stazione delle biciclette) I did not really know what I was doing: I needed a rear wheel to convert my current city/road bike frame into a fixed gear bike, as the whole drive train was failing miserably. I asked for the most basic hub, a Novatec flip flop, the most basic rim that they had, 32 spokes and nipples and I headed back home. That same night I started building my wheel following a YouTube tutorial.

Everybody can build a wheel, it is a relatively simple process. The only "professional help" that you need is to calculate the right length of spokes, as it is the "conditio sine qua non" for the whole process to work smoothly. Then you need patience, loads of it. Especially if you are using an old, slightly bent rim, you should not expect a perfect result but you will succeed.

Repeat the mantra: I am True, my soul is True, my body is True, my aim is True, my wheel will be True. Only slight adjustments, fractions of turns on the nipples, like when balancing on a slack-line, or when avoiding an annoying argument. Just like when you are looking for the smoothest route between A and B. You pull a bit here, you let out a bit there, and everything falls into place.

What just minutes ago was a pile of metal pieces without purpose, is now a coherent race machine, a sword ready to cut the air and roll over every surface. Is your soul that has found its path.

Once a man said: "be water". You are now your wheel, and your wheel is you.

Stay True - ECMC is just behind the corner.

The road to ECMC 2: Back on Track

We are back on track.

After a month without Gelatina, she is now all built and running smoothly. I had decided to take it all apart and give it a good wash and overall check to get her ready for the ECMC in Milan. Nevertheless this took longer than expected: it was hard to find the spokes of the right length, and the time to rebuild everything.
A more detailed post will follow, regarding wheel building.

One more reason

Why do your ride a track bike outside a velodrome? Is a question that many of us have received many times, and many times we had to come up with all sorts of different answers.
There is the esoteric/philosophical answer: on a track bike you are directly linked to your bike, your speed, your cadence, the road, the traffic. Your mind is sharpened, it is zen...this answer can actually go on for a while.
There is the utilitarian answer: a track bike, on the long run, is mostly cheaper and easier to maintain than a road bike or MTB of comparable quality, mostly thanks to the lack of components that can break down.
There is the playful answer: track bikes are fun to ride, no one can deny this.

I think all of these answers are generally relevant and partly true. All together they give a pretty good picture of the whole urban-track biking experience. Nevertheless there is one more, of which I only thought yesterday: less bike parts also translate in less chances of being forced to walk home...As you can see in the picture, someone had the brilliant idea of locking his/her bike to the bike rack...and to the brake cable of my CX bike.

Now, I am sure that he/she did it without realizing. He/she surely was in a rush and did not really see what he/she was doing. No harm done, it was just a bit annoying to walk home. Yes, I could have easily undone the brake cable, but I was in a rush myself and I did not have the right allen key with me. I maybe would have liked him/her to realize his/her mistake and leave an apologetic message on my bike...it did not happen and I am not going to complain. I only wanted to share this new good reason for riding a simple bike to work.

Now you will ask: "so, why were you riding your CX bike and not your track bike?". Gelatina, is stuck at home without wheels as I am rebuilding them. But this will be the topic for another post...

Stay tuned