The Bicycle Wheel (Hardcover)

The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt is considered to be THE standard reference on bicycle wheel 
building.

This book discusses how the wheel works, forces on the wheel, materials and designs of rims, 
spokes and hubs, truing, repair, and wheel building.

The book itself is nicely bound and printed, with extremely clear diagrams. Space is left on 
pages when necessary to ensure that the text doesn't get ahead of the figures, which can be 
rather annoying in something like a repair book.

For the most part, I am glad to have purchased this book, but was disappointed to find that a lot
 of the information in the book, such as wheel truing, materials, component design, and wheel 
building of a conventional 3-cross wheel, can be gleaned from the internet from such sites as 
those of Sheldon Brown. Some of the chapters in this book, such as the results of a finite 
element model analysis of the forces in a wheel, seem to be more unique to this book. Moroever, 
it is difficult to lay the computer down on the floor next to the wheel that you're building to 
guide you step-by-step, and the book had better illustrations than those I've seen on the web. 
Also, the information I mention above seems scattered around the internet, and this book brings 
them together in one reference.

For those who are expecting that The Bicycle Wheel will lead them to build exotic designs with 
the latest materials and lacing patterns, you will be disappointed. The author is a staunch 
believer that the bicycle wheel has been nearly perfected in the 3-cross lacing pattern with 
steel, cylindrical spokes, and that any "improvements" result in very minimal performance 
increase at the expense of stength. Brandt states, "In most cases [sic] it is best to build 
standard wheels - standard wheels, but good ones - and not yield to fashion, folklore, or 
advertising." (Oh yeah - there are missing commas - but that seems to be par for most editing 
these days.) Later, he states, "They [24-spoke, radially-laced, small-flange-hub, lightweight 
rimmed wheels - like the Mavic Cosmoses on my bike] lack the long-term durability of road wheels
..., " and in the section on Wheel Design, "Cyclists who choose to build wheels often want 
something more than ordinary,...It may be disappointing to discover that [sic] 'it's all been 
done before' [sic] and that conventional wheels are a result of a hundred years of refinement. 
The true contribution for the new wheel builder is to build conventional wheels exceptionally 
well."

Even though this book does have good figures, there are a few places where there are none, and 
where I wish one were included to help illustrate what's being discussed. One such place is the 
section on static loads in the tire and rim (pp. 14, 15).

In the final chapter, Brandt discusses the finite element computer analysis used to calculate 
forces in the wheel under different conditions. (Techniques with which I am familiar in 
electromagnetic applications). The discussion is in-depth enough that reader without experience 
in numerical methods will be completely lost (it even mentions details such as the method used to
 solve the matrix equation), but would leave someone with such knowledge (such as me) wanting. 
Little is lost by the one who does not have the math background, but this book could be more 
useful to mathematicians among readers if it had another page or two with a diagram, and the 
equations used to fill the matrix and vectors.

It may seem that I have a lot of complaints, but overall, I thought this was a very good book, 
and believe that a complete library on cycling should include it. The only other book that I've 
seen on wheelbuilding that seems to be gaining popularity is Shraner's The Art of Wheelbuilding: 
A Bench Reference for Neophytes, Pros and Wheelaholics. This book is cleverly spiral-bound to 
allow it to lay flat as you build your wheels. I have not seen this book in person, but plan to 
review it in the future.

Product Details

    * Hardcover: 150 pages
    * Publisher: Not Avail; 3rd edition (June 1, 1993)
    * Language: English
    * ISBN: 0960723668
    * Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 7.0 x 5.0 inches
    * Author: Jobst Brandt

• thebicyclewheel.pdf