Reid Welch
1 MW
Tens of thousands of periodical-pages, all for free.
http://books.google.com/books?as_brr=1&q=League+of+American+Wheelman&btnG=Search+Books
Separate fact from friction;
learn that nothing much is really new in biking,
other than better batteries for ebikes, motors too.
__________
Public thanks to Google, who, pro bono, are swiftly putting all of the extant literature of the world
up to the 'net, free of all charge, that is: if the book is in the Public Domain (pre-1925 for USA materials).
Medicine, mechanics, motors, engines, horses, farming, framing, timber management, BIKING.
Select "full view only" to get the FREE old stuff, and best to download it as the PDF document,
and the best Adobe (PDF) reader is the free, open-source "Foxit" reader.
Enjoy. I may add some salient links to particular pages about biking of old, in the future.
Nothing is new, really, other than better alloys and the later wide-scale adoption of aluminum.
Even "carbon fiber" was anticipated by the use of bamboo for bike frames, and wood veneers for super-light and strong wheels.
Fact I can prove: stainless steel spokes are not steel. They are a mostly-nickel alloy. Therefore, they are nickel-steel spokes, not "stainless steel" ( a marketer's invention, that). And stainless steel, though better grades of it are quite sweetly rust resistant, is very much weaker and =entirely unpredictable= as opposed to alloyed carbon steel, such, even as was made into music wire in, say 1870.
The SAME alloy is used today for the world's best pianos. I know this to be fact because I know piano technology, being a retired pro in that field.
"Stainless steel" spokes BREAK at unpredictable times, eventually. "We" tried "stainless steel" piano wire many decades ago.
It was a miserable failure: not only would such a piano, strung with stainless (nickel steel) not hold a tuning, but the wire would eventually begin to POP, snap, in the night, or when tuning. The experiment was a costly and vexing lesson.
Yet, today, ALL bike spokes are made of "stainless steel" because it stays pretty looking. But it is shite for highly stressed spokes,
such as we must use for X series motors in 24" wheels: short spokes, weak metal, no elasticity to speak of, and a quick and certain death of the spoke due to normal, repeated strains of the rotating wheel. Jump curbs with a twenty pound hub motor laced with short spokes in small wheel?
GOOD LUCK. You won't have good luck at all. Engineering is about common sense. Nothing, at root, is complicated.
http://books.google.com/books?as_brr=1&q=League+of+American+Wheelman&btnG=Search+Books
Separate fact from friction;
learn that nothing much is really new in biking,
other than better batteries for ebikes, motors too.
__________
Public thanks to Google, who, pro bono, are swiftly putting all of the extant literature of the world
up to the 'net, free of all charge, that is: if the book is in the Public Domain (pre-1925 for USA materials).
Medicine, mechanics, motors, engines, horses, farming, framing, timber management, BIKING.
Select "full view only" to get the FREE old stuff, and best to download it as the PDF document,
and the best Adobe (PDF) reader is the free, open-source "Foxit" reader.
Enjoy. I may add some salient links to particular pages about biking of old, in the future.
Nothing is new, really, other than better alloys and the later wide-scale adoption of aluminum.
Even "carbon fiber" was anticipated by the use of bamboo for bike frames, and wood veneers for super-light and strong wheels.
Fact I can prove: stainless steel spokes are not steel. They are a mostly-nickel alloy. Therefore, they are nickel-steel spokes, not "stainless steel" ( a marketer's invention, that). And stainless steel, though better grades of it are quite sweetly rust resistant, is very much weaker and =entirely unpredictable= as opposed to alloyed carbon steel, such, even as was made into music wire in, say 1870.
The SAME alloy is used today for the world's best pianos. I know this to be fact because I know piano technology, being a retired pro in that field.
"Stainless steel" spokes BREAK at unpredictable times, eventually. "We" tried "stainless steel" piano wire many decades ago.
It was a miserable failure: not only would such a piano, strung with stainless (nickel steel) not hold a tuning, but the wire would eventually begin to POP, snap, in the night, or when tuning. The experiment was a costly and vexing lesson.
Yet, today, ALL bike spokes are made of "stainless steel" because it stays pretty looking. But it is shite for highly stressed spokes,
such as we must use for X series motors in 24" wheels: short spokes, weak metal, no elasticity to speak of, and a quick and certain death of the spoke due to normal, repeated strains of the rotating wheel. Jump curbs with a twenty pound hub motor laced with short spokes in small wheel?
GOOD LUCK. You won't have good luck at all. Engineering is about common sense. Nothing, at root, is complicated.
