I found an article in the Park Record recently regarding the Fort Collins Bicycle Library in Fort Collins, Colorado. I thought I’d fill you in a bit.

With an e mail address and an ID, you can get a Ft Collins Bicycle Library card. The cards enables locals and visitors to borrow bicycles for as little as 1 hour, and as long as 5 days. When you’re finished with the bike, lock it up at a designated drop spot, then return the key. Pretty simple.

The Ft. Collins bike library opened in April of 2008, and since then has rented bikes to over 500 people from all walks. They hope to soon increase their fleet of recycled bicycles to accommodate more users. Check out the website, www.fcbikelibrary.org.

Some other bicycle libraries I found online.

Arcata Bicycle Library, Iowa City Bike Library, New Brunswick Bike Library

My experiences at the Tour De France are some of the greatest in my life. Watching it on TV is OK, the commentators are pretty entertaining. But it could never compare to finding that perfect spectating spot, watching the peleton whiz by, then finding a cafe to watch the finish on TV. Trust me, the French coverage is way better than ours!

Of course, a flight to Europe right now is around $1000, and our dollar is exchanging at a near record low. Makes taking weeks to follow the Tour a bit tough for most of us. The Tour of Utah requires a bit less expenditure on the spectator’s part.

The Tour of Utah offers many of the elements that make the bigger race in France so awesome to be a part of. Seventeen top level cycling teams represented by 120 riders make for great racing with lots of colorful kits. The racers will ride for a $75,000 purse and a new car, over 5 days, 342 miles, and a lotta climbing.

The Utah bike race is a must see for everyone. The start and finish will offer a festival like atmosphere with music, food, drink and some of the nicest bicycles you can’t even buy. Out on the race course you can find a nice spot to watch and cheer. Watch your toes, the bike mechanics in the support vehicles drive kind of fast and aren’t really looking out for you. Take some snacks, water, libations, and something to sit on and the day is sure to be a treat.

The Tour of Utah is August 13-17.

Stage 1 Sanpete to Nephi.

Stage 2 Ogden to Salt Lake City.

Stage 3 Salt Lake Downtown Criterium

Stage 4 Park City to Snowbird

Stage 5 Miller Motorsports Park Time Trial (Tooele)

Tour of Utah Website

As I realized that CyclistVillage.com is a MySpace for bike people, I felt a sense of relief. Since I’ve already burned my social networking candle at both ends with MySpace, I couldn’t possibly waste a significant amount of time surfing CyclistVillage…………We’ll see how that goes.

The idea seems like a good one, a place to cyberly interact with people of similar interests. I hope the smaller platform will keep a sense of usefulness that MySpace loses in it’s exhausting amount of junk correspondence.

We’ll see if I can make any interfriends.

www.cyclistvillag.com/thepedalwrench

You have a rim, you have a hub, and now you need to decide what length spokes you’ll need to assemble a usable wheel with them. If you plan on buying spokes at the local bike shop, it may be easiest to have them come up with the appropriate spoke length. If you like to figure things out yourself, you can find help on the web in many forms.

Any spoke calculator you find on the internet will require you to enter some information. Just how much information depends on the web site’s spoke calculator and the popularity of the components of your wheel. Popular rims and hubs can often be chosen from a list. For these, the needed values will be provided with the exception of the number of spoke holes and the number of crosses your spokes will be laced with.

Having to measure for the needed values isn’t the end of the world. Some of the web sites will help you through the measurements but you will need a sliding caliper and a tape measure to get those measurements.

Here are some spoke calculators and information about wheel building you may find useful.

DT Swiss This happens to be my favorite, probably because it’s the easiest. Sign in as an anonymous user.

Sheldon Brown

spokelength.com

United Bicycle Institute

wheelpro.co.uk

appliedthought.com Great instructions!

Good luck building!