Saw something odd at a bike co-op in Austin last weekend

I stopped by the Yellow Bike Project in Austin last Saturday to grab some used parts. What caught my eye was a pile of about 30 wheels that all had the same spoke pattern, like someone built them all at once with a jig. The volunteer there said they came from a retired rental fleet, and every wheel had the exact same tension and even spoke count. Made me wonder if rental bikes get more consistent builds than what I see in shops. Has anyone else noticed fleet bikes being put together differently than customer bikes?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy_reed7915d ago

yeah that totally tracks honestly. I used to work at a shop that did fleet maintenance for a local rental company and the difference was night and day. those fleet bikes were all built on the same assembly jig with the same torques and tensions, like they were mass produced in a factory. every single wheel had the exact same spoke tension because they used a spoke tension meter on every one and adjusted them all to the same number. I remember we had a rental company drop off 40 wheels once and they were all perfectly identical, which is way more consistent than what you see with customer bikes that get built by different mechanics with different tolerances. it's kind of wild how much more consistent fleet work is compared to normal shop builds, like they actually care about that uniformity because it saves them money on maintenance down the line.

patricia_wright15d ago

I worked in a shop that did a bunch of fleet work for a hotel chain and it was insane how dialed in those bikes were. Every single one had the same cables, same brake pads, same everything. We had a list of exactly what torque to use on every bolt and we had to check it twice.