The Bicycle Wheel

When I first proposed the Tour of the Alps in 2005, my friend Mike Samuel was running 16 spoke wheels, which I thought was unacceptable for a 200 pound guy. After all, I was the guy who would be stuck fixing if it broke. Hence started the Google tradition of organizing a wheel building workshop before a major bicycle tour (1000 miles or so). The workshop became popular and somewhat of a Google tradition.

Things took a turn for the better when Pardo, the guy who taught me how to build wheels (and easily one of the best mechanics I've ever met), joined Google last year, just before the 2007 Tour of the Alps. When Google organized the G2G (Googlers teaching Googlers) series of classes in November, we proposed this class for the series and was accepted.

Google has been kind enough to post the videos from the lecture section of this class on YouTube for all to enjoy and learn. The comment thread on this blog post can be used for questions, but the usual disclaimers apply.

• The Bicycle Wheel (Video: Part I)
• The Bicycle Wheel (Video: Part II)
• Pardo's Lecture Notes
• The Bicycle Wheel (The textbook for the class)
  

Other resources:

• Sheldon Brown's Wheel Building Page