February is officially wheel building month at the Bike Kitchen. Come learn how to build a set of bicycle wheels with master wheel builder, Mike Larmer. The class, a series of four, will be held every Saturday in February (4th, 11th, 18th, 25th) from 10am-12pm. Suggested donation: $5 at the door/$20 for the series. Limited seats available; e-mail register@sacbikekitchen.org to preregister.

From Master Mike:
“Amaze your friends, attract members of the opposite sex, put
people to sleep at parties, finally get to be one of the cool kids.

The possibilities for both nerdiness and Fredness are limited
only by your imagination.

Each participant will be expected to purchase the hubs and rims
to complete one standard, old school, 32 or 36 spoke wheelset
(i.e. front and back wheels). You can use a rear hub with internal
gearing if you want to, but at least 32 spokes. We will also spend
some time singing “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round”

If you miss a Saturday, or come in too late for that Saturday’s lecture,
you’re pretty much expected to dig out that information for yourself
from books or the internet. There are some handouts with a lot
of the pertinent information on measuring hubs, rims, and calculating
spoke lengths using an online Spoke calculating program.

This is not a cheaper way to get wheels. It is the way you get the
best quality, strongest, and most durable wheels for your bike.

It is also the only way you can get some specific hub and rim combinations.”

The new year’s heading our way, and we’re going to get it rolling in style with a new batch of training classes, including a retread of our hub class for those that missed it last time and a class on wheel truing.  With all this focus on wheels, there should be no excuse for rough riding!

Wheel truing: The True Is Out There

Saturday, January 21, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

Suggested donation: $5 at the door.

10 seats available; e-mail register@sacbikekitchen.org to preregister.

Instructor: Michael Larmer.

Amaze your friends, entertain at parties, be one of the kewl kids!  At last, the secrets of wheel truing are revealed by one of the initiate. Your instructor has trued (and built and rebuilt) more wheels than he can recall (but at his age, he honestly recalls very little), having been forced by poverty and circumstance to spend the earliest years of his biking life riding around on other people’s cast off junk wheels.

This will be a one session class, and if you have a portable truing stand, it would be nice if you brought it with you.  Also, bring your own wheel or wheels as a practicum, otherwise you will be working on one of the many crappy wheels we have lying around in the shop.

Overhauling your hub

Saturday, January 28, 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM.

Suggested donation: $15 at the door.

4 seats available; e-mail register@sacbikekitchen.org to preregister.

Instructor: Mel Melvin.

Don’t be frightened of the inner workings of your bicycle.  Open that thing up and get greasy!  In this two-hour class you will take apart, clean, and re-pack your front hub.  This simple maintenance procedure will keep your wheels rollin’ smooth and fast.

---

We’re still working on nailing down another Basic Maintenance class, and possibly working with some local League of American Bicyclist Certified Instructors to teach Traffic Skills 101 in our humble little space, so keep your eyes peeled.