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Macbike is an Amsterdam bike hire company that includes e-bikes in their hire fleet, no doubt many other general bike hire places do the same. Search 'fietsverhuur' for bike hire might be more effective - 'elektrische fiet' is e-bike:) Alan

Good find Jerry, a really nice little video:) I've been told about similar characters in this country, but never been able to track them down as the references are usually third hand - or more:confused: Alan

Everything except a battery:p (Click on image to see full size) Courtesy of Wheel Fanatyk and an unknown photographer in Brussels. Alan

catsnapperspokes@gmail.com is the best way to contact me for now. I'm in the middle of setting up new separate sites for wheels and spokes. The European boom in e-bikes has created a massive increase in the demand for custom spokes:cool: Alan

The quality of Chinese supplied e-wheels is variable - poor quality spokes, thin rim walls and inconsistent wheel building standards can give problems. These can be minimised by checking a new wheel to see if it has a reasonable level of even tension. Also check on the 'dishing' of the wheel to...

Hi Ronnie, I know of a few suppliers of 32h front motor hubs, but rear ones seem to be a rarity - apart from an occasional supplier that will do custom drilling, I've only seen them available a couple of times from German e-bike suppliers. They weren't a familiar make or design and at the low...

Hi, I'm based at Maldon, with a well equipped small workshop for building bikes, although I specialise in wheels. Most of my work is for e-bikes so I'm familiar with the problems of tyres and wheels:) If I can be any help contact me either via PM on the forum, or alan[at]catsnapper.co.uk...

Again, apologies to Alex:) Hi James, box fixed - yet again:rolleyes: Alan

The outers are lined, so the bit of thin tubing you saw might be a piece of loose liner, or a bit of tubing put on to protect the inner:confused: Alan

I run both 8 and 11spd Alfines, the 8 seems the sturdier, less fussy unit. With horizontal dropouts I use a chaintug on the drive side to stop horizontal movement. It involves some minor modding, but works well. With vertical dropouts I use an eccentric BB to replace the standard BB, so I can...

The chain needs to be long enough to engage bottom gear on the cassette, while on the biggest chainring(in theory!) with enough slack to make the change smooth. Any longer is too long:) As always, there is plenty on the SB site and elswhere on the best way of doing it. Re open cables....Frame...

Well spoken Dave:p Alan

Yes, any length of 13g, 14g, single butted 14/15g, single butted 13/14g and double butted in various sizes. For the power enthusiasts 12g will be added in the next few weeks. Min length is around 40-45mm, max is the longest length I can get the spokes:) Cutting and rethreading is a viable...

Hi Alex, A simple dishing tool can be made from plywood, corrugated cardboard or almost any moderately rigid flat material that you can cut:) In the most basic form the only extra you need is a ruler. Alan

Hi Wurly, Some builders do make wheels with heads in(inside the flange) on the drive side and heads out on the non-drive side to try and improve triangulation, so getting the tension a bit more even. It's less than ideal as it introduces other problems, plus you still need different length...

Hi Alex, Tried to send you a PM, but your Inbox is full:eek: Alan

Hi Alex, Dishing is needed when the flanges are not equidistant from the centre of the hub. With all derailleur hubs the right flange sits closer to the centre of the hub than the left flange. It doesn't matter if it's disc or not, that makes little or no difference. To get the rim centred...

Yes, that's quite a good technique to unwind spokes, but maybe less effective at removing stress, I often do it at the last stages of truing. Whatever technique, it's harder to do on small wheels as I'm sure you know! On the subject of tension meters, I've owned all 3 types including both...

I use a couple of techniques - the first helps 'fit' the spoke to the hub, the second one is the well known squeezing pairs of spokes - a good pair of leather gardening glove helps doing this, because if you're doing it hard enough to be effective, it HURTS! This short article sums it all up...

A nicely pointed cocktail stick, a sharpened match and a Q-tip with the head cut off at a steep angle are frequently used 'tools' to seat nipples in the rim. If you plan on doing lots of wheels there are proper tools available for about £10 upwards, but they're often slower to use than the...