[hinkley]

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.