With the Grey Surly Karate Monkey frame set now sold and posted to its new owner i did a bit more work to the Green Pugsley today with the weather being awful outside-baltic cold wind and rain.
This Fatbike frame is replacing that ridged 29er bike, and the Purple Pug and be a 29+ KramPug instead of building a Krampus this year due to funds ...
For these 3 roles this bike will be sporting 3 wheel set options: 4" `Larry` tyres for sand, 4" `Nate` tyres for mud, and `KramPug` 29+ wheels that for now will have 2.5 Maxxis Minion tyres-with loads of mud clearance, later some 29+ Dirt Wizards when they are available,
I made the most of the warmth inside and while waiting on work to finish by friends on the Living room made use of the old carpet and done some inside spannering!...
With Al Murray on Planet Rock on digital radio i took advantage of the daylight and fresh from a day off work and i offset the Surly Krampus 29+ wheels i bought second hand a few months a go.
I am not a bike mechanic, and i am not a wheel builder, but have alinged my own wheels for years when they needed truing. I could read up on all this but typical me i just do what people show me. I find it easier to do things showed by someone than read about it, Friend Colin built some wheels last year for me and explained a few tips which i have since used to build a pair of Pugsley fatbike wheels a month or so ago- and they are still straight!.
Wheel building, easy?, like laying turf right?...
Some friends have been bike mechanics and built hundreds of wheels, and can prob do them with their eyes shut. That`s easy to them, but a bit confusing to those attempting it at home!,
Just like if you imagine i sent you to build an 8ft high Revetted Turf Bunker face on a Links Golf Course, could you do that?, know where to start?, how to cut it in?, well of course you could do it in time with confidence and experience, It just takes experience, and patience...
Offset wheels; what`s that?
For non Fatbike cyclists reading, early Fatbikes and a few still yet use regular 135mm MTB rear hubs for offset rear wheels to allow a good chain line with that fat tyre in there. The Pugsley originally used an offset fork and front wheel too allowing to swap the wheels in the case of a mechanical issue with rear Mech, or swap gear ratios if riding the bike as a single speed.
Here you can see the offset of the Surly Pugsley frame with a regular 135mm rear wheel fitted, not much good- and how the offset rims holes shift the rim across to aline with the frame centre...
So for the rear it was an easy job of going round slackening the spokes on both sides, and then moving the disc side spokes across to the right hand holes...
So the rim looks like this-this is the old LM rims that can only be built offset with same lenght spokes...
I have not looked at Spoke calculators or anything like that yet, and just been swapping hubs and re using old spokes from the same size wheels so far, Hope hubs and Shimano seem to share the same spoke lenghts on my Large Marge rim wheels- around 262mm, and i am just using the frame and forks to true the wheels...
Time to go round each side of the wheel and start to tension the spokes...
To run 29+ wheels (with 3" wide tyres) on the Pugsley you need to add Surly`s `Monkey Nuts` to the horizontal drop outs if like me you run a front mech so it does not contact the tyre.
If you use a Narrow-Wide front ring, 42 rear 1x9 or 1xx10 set up you can keep the rear chainstay shorter...
With the wheel tensioned i removed it and put it on the floor and pressed down on it to help seat it, then a final true up...
And not too bad an attempt!...
The front needed dismantled to re build with a rear 135mm hub...
After dismantled i noticed each side had different lenght spokes;
296mm Disc side,
298mm Drive side
An expert will be along shortly to explain why this is-i guess is it do with it being a disc hub?...
When i moved the rear wheel to offset it one spoke side was longer then the other once tensioned as you can see inside the spoke nipples...
Seeing this i decided to fit the shorter spokes on the disc side on the front wheel. I had already measured the spokes on my existing offset KramPug wheel and they were approx 296mm-ish also so this hub swap would work!...
Two versions of the newer Surly Ultra 135 rear hub can be used on the front of offset Pugsleys-
the far hub in pic; Screw on BMX style single speed sprocket,
And the closer hub; track cog screw on fixed sprocket...
I started left of the valve hole as friend Colin had said. Disc side with the shorter spokes-laced to drive side on the rim to offset...
And here is a fixed track hub i had from the fixie build i added...
So waiting on;
A square taper 100mm Bottom bracket to fit some Middleburn RS7 crank arms and this bike will be rolling!
Also ordered some Gorilla Tape as i want to go tubeless on these rims as the Maxxis Minion 29 x 2.5" tyres are Tubeless ready, be the first tubeless tyres i try,
Also need some BB7 disc rotors, oh and pedals... but nearly there...
Oh yeah, Revetting Turf bunkers?
Been 18 years since i left Gullane for Whitekirk- to an Inland Coastal Parkland Golf Course with landscaped bunkers!, and so i have not built a Links Golf Revetted Bunker since!, but an Elephant never forgets... :)
More soon...
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