heavy-duty school pencil sharpener, it mounts in a bench vise, you clamp the spoke in, then turn a handle, which rolls 3 screws down the thread, effectively squashing the thread into the spoke..... no material is removed, unlike a normal die nut which would "cut" a thread in. This maintains strength in the spoke, and doesn't damage the plating too much, to fend off rust. After a bit of practice, and plenty of oil on the cutters, I was ready.
I put electrical tape round where each spoke crosses another, to hold the pattern, then I removed all the nipples. Then I pushed the axle down hard, about 4 inches for the front wheel. This pushed half the spokes down thru their holes in the rim, and pulled the top half away from the rim. Then I got a marker pen, and one spoke at a time, cut them to length and threaded them. This took forever, I used the 24 in. wheel's spokes ( cut to length) for the top half. At no time did I remove a spoke except to change it, one at a time, that way I kept the pattern, sometimes I had to bend the spokes to " weave" them on and out of other spokes, to get them into place.I fitted a niple loosely to each spoke as I fitted it. At the end, the axle was pulled pretty straight by the twist in all the spokes. I fitted the wheel into the forks and trued it up, first by tightening each nipple to about the same tension, then tightening individuals to true the wheel. The wheel is so offset, it doesn't have to be dead true.... it's never going to do any speed is it?
The rear wheel was offset about 2 1/2 inches, any more and it wouldn't fit the rear downtubes, the chainstays narrow towards the cranks, so there wasn't much space, the rear wheel had to be trued-up fairly well to clear the inside edges of the chainstays.
The front wheel was about 4" offset This wheel ,of course wouldn't fit the b.m.x.`s 20-inch front forks, so a pair of 24" chrome forks were bought for the front, my local bike shop just happened to have some which they`d had in stock for ages, and sold cheap!
Finally, any spokes that stuck thru the nipple into the inner tube area, were ground off. Then I fitted new tube protectors and inner tubes. Mike had already bought new tyres. The carrier was re-drilled to fit the front wheel, to accentuate the offset when the bike moves, also to take a basket to keep clown tools in.
Coaster hubs are real rare over here, so, as a result of the offset wheels, the bike has no brakes. I fitted a solid rear cog, no freewheel, off a circuit racer, so Mike could stop the pedals to stop the bike, but lets face it, it's never going to go very fast. Finally, the hard plastic seat was binned (trashed), and a softer item fitted.
The fact that someone gave Mike the bike, and all the labour was as a favour, meant the whole cost was that of tyres, innertubes and seat, oh, and the forks, and the fact that the b.m.x. was plated, means it looks very professional in use. Would I do it again?? well it was hard and long-winded doing the spoking, but the end result was worth it. If asked I probably would do it again, but they`d have to pay the going hourly rate!!!! No more favours!!!!!!!! |