How to drill your rims.

We've all seen the "holes in the rim" look seen all those expensive fat bikes. Well, You can do that yourself, on the cheap, and save some weight. Here's how to do it:
1. Take the wheel off the bike.
2. Take the tire, tube, and rimstrip off the rim.
3. Mark out your center holes. They should be equally spaced between each spoke, like so

I kept away from the tubes valve hole. the 1.5" just seemed too close. I heard you could use a 1'' one but, I didn't have one on me.
I set my wheels on my workbench, pressed up against the wall, on two 2x4s to give me a flat and steady surface to work with. This kept me from bending the brake rotor or putting unstable pressure on the axle.

4. Take a small drill bit and drill out a pilot hole. You do this to ensure accuracy of the hole saw

5. Take a bit larger than the one you just used but, smaller than the hole saw drill bit, and drill your pilot holes bigger. You do this to make sure the hole saw bit doesn't catch, bind up, and break.

6. Get an 1.5" hole saw and a drill. I used an electric drill. I knew it'd be a lot of drilling and the batteries on my drill aren't the best, anymore. The benefit of a battery drill would be instant stop when you let go of the trigger. While the electric one keeps spinning for a while. I use these things all the time at work and have the feel for it so, I knew I'd be safe.

7. It's going to get messy. Put a sheet down to catch all the metal shavings.
[Not the one off your bed. That'll pis your wife or mom off}
8. Drill, baby, Drill! I kept the rim secure by having it on the floor between my legs. Worked fine. Make sure as soon as the hole saw goes through you pull it back up. It'll mangle your spokes if you don't. You also want to drill straight down. Not like it looks in the picture. That was for illustration purposes only. Also, spray some oil on the rim where you are drilling. It'll save your bit and it'll cut quicker.

9. Once you're done drilling, go back onto your 2x4 platform and take a rounded file and get rid of all the extra metal hangnails. Smooth out the edges of your holes. I picked up this file at a home improvement store for 8 bucks.

10. Give the rims a good wipe down from all the metal shavings. Inside and out.
11. Now you need to cover the holes with something. Some people use gift wrapping ribbon for special colors. I thought about white but, it would get really dirty and I didn't want to have to take them apart all the time. I stuck with a black waterproof gorilla duct tape. I wrapped around the rim twice with the black side facing the holes. I put the rimstrip then over the duct tape.

12. Replace tube and tire and you're ready to roll!

Now everyone will want to ride your fattie!

The Beast...errr... Dolomite has arrived!

And it's sweet! Sweet looking at least. I only got to ride it from the back to the front of my shed, so far.
I was busy the first night tearing things apart and regreasing everything. I swapped out the handlebars, pedals, brake levers, and stem for stuff I had laying around. The fact that I can do this is one of the reasons this bike is better than your other Walmart bikes. The BB5's I was planning on using didn't work with the brake mounts. So This morning before work I quickly swapped the stock ones back on. They work pretty well. I've been planning on upgrading my SS's rotors to something higher; at that point I'll use those mounts and put the BB5's on. I need to get some seat post shims so I can use the one I have laying around. I'll probably wake up early again tomorrow and work on it for a few minutes before work.

The frame had some skuffs on it from packaging I imagine. Stickers are a little bubbly. I'm probably going to rip those off and have a "Walgoose" sticker made or something to make it look like it was an expensive bike.

I planned on getting starting on drilling out the wheels tonight but, our sink drain started leaking so I had to attend to that. Of course I had everything but, the one little washer that makes all the difference in the world. Such is life.