bro. you're wrong. just build a bicycle wheel some time. it becomes very obvious how they work as you take it through the various stages of tensioning.
Why do you think someone would talk about Brandt’s work if they hadn’t used it?
I’ve built more than half a dozen bicycle wheels. My set, my spare that my brother road (into the ground - my first set and practically the only problematic ones, but he road over bumps without getting out of the saddle), a set my dad commissioned from me, and a pair that he had me build for a friend. All by age 17.
I then worked as a mechanic for two summers of college. I was never the fastest, but if we had a customer we could not afford to disappoint, I or the senior mechanic got the job because my repairs did not come back.
I saved three or four wheels that would have been scrap by unwinding the spokes halfway and building it back up again like a wheel build. Only added an extra ten or fifteen minutes but it works a charm. When a good customer comes in on Wednesday before an out of town bike ride you can’t afford to fuck it up. I think I only built a couple professionally, and usually singles. That’s a lot of labor and few will pay.
I’ve built more than half a dozen bicycle wheels. My set, my spare that my brother road (into the ground - my first set and practically the only problematic ones, but he road over bumps without getting out of the saddle), a set my dad commissioned from me, and a pair that he had me build for a friend. All by age 17.
I then worked as a mechanic for two summers of college. I was never the fastest, but if we had a customer we could not afford to disappoint, I or the senior mechanic got the job because my repairs did not come back.
I saved three or four wheels that would have been scrap by unwinding the spokes halfway and building it back up again like a wheel build. Only added an extra ten or fifteen minutes but it works a charm. When a good customer comes in on Wednesday before an out of town bike ride you can’t afford to fuck it up. I think I only built a couple professionally, and usually singles. That’s a lot of labor and few will pay.