Wheel-building

The rims and spokes came in. Well, one rim did not, but the store was kind enough to find the same back-ordered rim locally.  So I commenced the building of the wheels.  I have not built one for about 25 years.  This time it was much easier.  The rims appear to be truer and the spokes and nipples seem to work in tandem much better than the "old days."

BTW, Sheldon Brown's "Wheel Building" tutorial is great.  As a side note, if you do any work in bike design. Sheldon Brown gathered endless amounts of data on the various standards and dimensions of bike building.

The rims are Velocity Deep-V 700c.  The drive (front) wheel has 36 spokes and the non-drive (rear) wheel has 32 spokes.  I used a spoke calculator in order to determine the four different sizes of spokes required for the 3-cross pattern.  Left and right sides of both wheels require different lengths of spokes.

Why Velocity Deep-V rims?  Deep rims are better aerodynamically.  But these are not even close to deep enough to make a difference. About 80mm of depth is required.  I would say these may have 40mm of depth.  So, I like the name I guess...

What next?
Some of the parts I ordered for the hand grips that I am constructing will not arrive until next week.  After I have the hand grips (like a cyclist's pedals) completed, I will be able to test the bike.