Hi Rich,

Why not do both, depending on what the student can afford?

We did a couple of a free wheel building classes for our volunteers using parts that were lying around. One way to avoid problems that might crop up with used parts is to have the students deconstruct a wheel prior to the class. That way they will be working with all the parts from the same wheel thereby reducing any potential problems.

Good luck with the class!

--sam

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Rich Points <rich@communitycycles.org> wrote:

Hey All,
We're developing a wheel building class here at Community Cycles. We have a rough idea of what we'd like to do but we could use some help smoothing it out.

We're thinking the class would be three 2 hour sessions at a cost of $X to 6 - 8 students.

We've thought of two ways to go about supplies for the class. One would be to use recycled rims, hubs, nipples and maybe spokes. Another way would be to buy the parts from our wholesalers. The latter option means we could have control of what the class is working with. The former option could mean a lot more on the fly problem solving for the instructor and class but it'd be a lot cheaper for us and our students. I'm leaning towards the new parts option because I think it'll provide the highest quality of instruction. What do you guys think?

Another question we're trying to figure out is what happens to the wheels that get built in the class. At our shop we're always in dire need of 700cc wheels. So we're thinking the class could build 700 wheels and they'd be used by the shop. However people taking the class may want to build wheels that they'd keep as their own. If we structure the class to just build 700 fronts we have more consistency and control. If we let folks build wheels for their own projects the class might have more general appeal but presents logistical and supplies hurdles.

Please let us know how your shop is teaching wheel building.

Ride On!

--
Rich Points
Community Cycles Director
http://CommunityCycles.org
Rich@CommunityCycles.org
720-565-6019 (W)
303-589-0597 (C)
Donate your old car to Community Cycles
http://communitycycles.org/get-involved/donatecar.html
Make your ride count! Register for Bike to Work Day June 24, 2009 http://www.drcog.org/btwd2009/index.cfm?page=Register

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