Twisting Nipples

The act of building a bicycle wheel (or any spoked wheel, for that matter) is somewhat spiritual, somewhat zen. There is a symbiosis between the parts and the builder; a hoop of fragile aluminum, a machined heart, a bundle of bent wires with threaded ends, and a crusty human of questionable morals. With care and attention these parts suddenly transform into a solid, lightweight (relatively speaking) balance point for the rest of the assembly. And if building a wheel seems sublime, riding that wheel adds exponentially to the feeling.
To ride, to comprehend the physics that keep you aloft, to have had a direct hand in the physics involved. The only thing better is to build a set of wheels, sign them, and then see them again, years later, when they come through the shop for a tube or minor truing.
If I knew I could pay the bills, I would willingly take a year off to do nothing but build wheels.

"Light, strong, cheap; pick any two." - Keith Bontrager

The Snowball Effect

It's a good thing I like building wheels...
When I got the Wester Ross collection, there was a spare set of wheels for 035; Record hubs on some bad-weld Weinmann rims. I clipped them immediately for use on 321. Then I put my brain in gear. The spare hubs are 40-hole.
Frame 321 was designed for a 26 x 1-3/8 wheel (hard to find a decent rim these days). Some research uncovered that the newly-popularized 650b rim will work. The ERD is only 5mm smaller, and the only readily available rim has an 11mm brake surface. Yeah...
Of course, it doesn't come in a 40-hole version. But it does come 36. The wheels on 035 are 36. I can get rims for 035 in 40-hole.
Anyone else realize the snowball's rolling down the hill?
So on top of the wheelset I'm getting ready to lace for the "sports car" project, I have two '70s Campy-based wheelsets to build.
Good thing I have three built sets in storage in case another project rears it's ugly head.

like a certain road bike frame...