How to build bike wheels

Wheel building has always been a mystery to me. In fact, one of the most dangerous sights for any bike wheel is me with a spoke key in my hand.
However, I've recently become obsessed with the art of building wheels to the extent where I think i'm going to buy myself a jig, some lovely Hope hubs, Mavic rims and some spokes; put the kettle on and see what happens.

There's something quite cathartic about building and truing wheels - at least watching other people do it - something calming about the fact that putting the spokes in is called lacing and making it straight is called truing - it's just nice!

Of course, there is only one place to start with this challenge - youtube. The series of films from this chap from the US of A is really good and makes it look dead easy.

There are loads of others out there too, so spoke key in hand, I'm going to give it a whirl. It can't be that difficult can it?

We have the technology

News that the French track cycling team at the London Olympics are suspicious as to whether Team GB is using stock Mavic wheels on their bikes is not just sour grapes.
Technology lies at the heart of modern cycling and those marginal gains which the whole of British pro cycling is built around, leave no stone unturned in the pursuit for 1000th of a second advantages.
Of course, all bikes, no matter how old, are technology but the development of new materials and new ways of thinking has ballooned over the past couple of decades.
Competitive cyclists have always used the very best machinery available to them.  Reading about Merckx recently, it's striking the lengths he went to to ensure he had the best kit available.  Outside of the infamous saddle tinkering, his bikes and other kit were all top of the range.
Take one of his bikes from 30-odd years ago out now - 10 speed, gear shifters brazed on to the down tubes, none of the benefits of hyper-glide cassettes and it's like travelling back in time - exactly like it in fact, because it is!  The image is of Merckx's hour record bike which is on display in a train station in Belgium I think.

But for the French, and everybody else, they must be racking their brains as to how the British team manage to peak in the correct week every four years.  The finger pointing at the technology must be out of sheer exasperation rather than bitterness.

Ride safe