A Brief Discussion of The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt

There comes a time in any fledgling wheel crafter's early research when Jobst Brandt's The Bicycle Wheel surfaces as an indisputably necessary read. I committed to its entirety prior even to attempting my first wheel truing--a wholly unnecessary and worthwhile imposition. I keep it handy during many projects and recommend it highly.

To be sure, Brandt's classic and its loyal endorsers aren't without their shortcomings. Promises of well-established science are delivered as a myriad of engineering results to be taken at face value. Coupled with Brandt's occasionally flippant take on less-than-conventional techniques, I finished the first half of the book ("Theory of the Spoked Wheel") with the impression that it is best to take him at his word. One can hardly be blamed in doing so--Brandt is an esteemed industry man who speaks with more clout on the subject than perhaps anyone. Still, the intellectually curious reader is left hungry for more rigorous explanation and less appeal to authority. Whatever thorough academic work exists on the subject, The Bicycle Wheel can't promise much more than footnotes. Its saving grace is perhaps that many people desire just that, though I found it quite mundane in this regard.

That's not true, actually--its saving grace is the second half of the book ("Building and Repairing Wheels"). Here, Brandt takes the reader through every step of your standard wheel-building effort, from selecting components to lacing, tensioning, truing, and stress relieving. All the YouTube videos you can tolerate aren't as helpful as this little guide when your hands are covered in oil and dirt.

Brandt concludes his treatise with an appendix of sorts that might be mistaken at first blush as the in-depth engineering pedagogy I admonished him for omitting earlier. A discussion of spoke-strength experiments does quell the reader a bit in this regard, but from there on lies a barrage of equations and computational analysis that again leaves the reader with nothing earned in the way of understanding. We are reminded once again that Brandt knows best, and while only a fool would bet against his conclusions, this fool wants to know more.

-WGM

"To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge."