Originally Posted by ethet

Thank you for that, truly

The hidden story is that I moved from one city to another city last week and discovered upon arrival that the rear wheel of this bike was severely bent by the movers (the bike was in pieces when I moved: it was a future project). I discovered the damaged wheel last Friday when starting to build and then went about repairing it... This is when things got crazy: On automatic mode, I spent all Saturday trying to rebuild the wheel 3X and nothing was working out right, I even broke a spoke (I love that I now have an LBS literally across the street who was able to make me replacement spokes—this new reality is amazing and I love that place)...

I know how to build a wheel, but these spoke lengths were confounding me, things were short and long, after literally six times lacing—I was so frustrated (and bit my tongue when it came to posting here, though pored over thread-upon-thread for hope of solution...). Although, on Sunday, I closely examined the front wheel and discovered: 4X!!! I started rebuilding the rear wheel 4-cross and everything just fell into place and I was able to finally put everything into a single gear after two years of planning this project

I was riding around yesterday so joyful, my exuberance profound: This bike means so much more to me now after having taught me so much...