A clever commemoration of the Tour's official 50th anniversary—1903 to 1953. 1903 rider on the left, looks across at the 1953 rider on the right. Time for a reissue, yes?
Hail to the spoke stash!
Every bike shop's stash of spokes is a holy place—large, small, orderly, or messy...an unavoidable and necessary part of bike repair and wheel building.
The spoke stash is a life saver in any shop. Note the neatly labeled boxes. It takes focus and commitment for spokes to get the chance to help wheels in the future. An estimate of the value of this stash, at 50¢ per spoke? Over $19k! Spokes can be deceptive.
The stash below is only blanks because the builder uses a spoke machine. Looks like a bank to me!
Got to love a spoke box with built in ruler! From the historic US Torrington brand.
Our first patent was for a consumer spoke tensiometer. 15,000 individually calibrated tools were sold from 1987 to 2004 , heralding a new era of custom wheel building. Here's one that's seen its share of use!
It was sent back for recalibration, a service still offered.
Poblenou
We visited Ricardo Campos' Barcelona bike business in January. He has since received a spoke machine and gave us this nice still life of the tool and its various accessories.
Not showing: manual, black microfiber cloth, 6 Wera allen keys, and a black satin pillowcase—perfect for covering the machine when not in use. Hope he shows us its eventual home in the workshop.
Cleverness
Not seen this trailer in person but making and using one is on my bucket list.
Shuffler
Ten years ago we began the nipple shuffler modern trend with a wood model. These are the fifteen component parts. No CNC here, just old school woodworking and lots of sandpaper.
Nine pics = 9K words...? What new things are you up to this Spring?
I recently and finally started organising my spokes. Good to have this overview and now sometimes can just grab the ones needed instead of just ordering them which I did the past years as it was easier. But with my spoke machine pretty near a bank of blanks would be the next step.
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Jorrit
mars 22, 2026
I recently and finally started organising my spokes. Good to have this overview and now sometimes can just grab the ones needed instead of just ordering them which I did the past years as it was easier. But with my spoke machine pretty near a bank of blanks would be the next step.