I received a wheel from a customer.
↑There was an illustration like this on the box they sent,
Do they think that if they draw something like this they'll get their bike featured in a blog post?
That's exactly right!
Anyway, another wheel today (and so on).
I received a rear wheel with a GEL280 32H rim.
Regarding the voltage for the anodizing process, it's marked as 650V,
↑but rims from the same era also have rims marked 650W.
Before the rebuild, the spokes on both sides are DT Competition in a 66 JIS lacing pattern,
but their first choice is to have it redone with Italian lacing,
and otherwise to build it however I see fit(hehehehe).
Before the rebuild it had brass nipples, but I'm changing those to aluminum nipples.
The hub is a 9-speed Record with titanium axle specification.
Initially I was planning to rebuild it without disassembling the freehub side,
so I took measurements from the same hub that I own.
As I've written about several times before, the spoke dish (ochoko) on this hub is the worst.
The back of the freehub body is thick like a spacer,
and the spoke angle becomes a vertical cliff.
Moreover, the flange width on the non-freehub side is fairly wide,
making the dish quite severe.
Compared to typical hubs from other manufacturers of that era, the flange width is about the same,
but the flange itself is offset to the left as part of the design.
However, modern 11-speed hubs have ended up with measurements similar to this,
so you could say this was a hub that was ahead of its time—in a bad way.
I recently built a rear wheel with a Suntour boss hub, and the balance difference between
its symmetrical left-right lacing and this Record hub's asymmetrical lacing
is probably similar in the end.
As far as I know, this might be the world's first hub where
"asymmetrical lacing with different spoke counts and diameters is strongly desirable."
All built.
Half-competition, 46-spoke Italian lacing with tension truing.
46-spoke lacing wasn't possible because I couldn't get spokes of the required length.
The competition spokes on the freehub side can presumably be recut and reused,
but I happily replaced them with new ones for peace of mind.
When reusing spokes and removing them from the hub, I make a point of separating
the J-spokes from the reverse spokes and keeping them distinct,
then when reassembling, the J-spokes go back as J-spokes and
the reverse spokes as reverse spokes. But given all that care,
I don't want spokes flying off immediately, so I use new ones instead.
I built this using spoke selection, lacing pattern, and tension
that I would use if I were building a wheel for myself with this hub and rim.
I'll be honest about the tension though—
if I didn't care about longevity, I would have tensioned it a bit higher,
but there was no such agreement this time, so I held back.
The GEL280 is truly a delicate rim.
The rebuild achieved about 50 grams of weight savings,
but the truly important point that I really want them to appreciate is
"what's happening between the hub and rim."
It would be nice if they reported that it feels snappier or pedals through smoother,
but that can't be quantified and isn't visible in photos, so
the only way to know is to actually ride it.
For rim protection, a tire from a certain manufacturer (made by Lion tire)
was applied without adhesive,
and the blue lettering turned out to be a P, not an X.
It might differ depending on the era.
↑There was an illustration like this on the box they sent,
Do they think that if they draw something like this they'll get their bike featured in a blog post?
That's exactly right!
Anyway, another wheel today (and so on).
I received a rear wheel with a GEL280 32H rim.
Regarding the voltage for the anodizing process, it's marked as 650V,
↑but rims from the same era also have rims marked 650W.
Before the rebuild, the spokes on both sides are DT Competition in a 66 JIS lacing pattern,
but their first choice is to have it redone with Italian lacing,
and otherwise to build it however I see fit
Before the rebuild it had brass nipples, but I'm changing those to aluminum nipples.
The hub is a 9-speed Record with titanium axle specification.
Initially I was planning to rebuild it without disassembling the freehub side,
so I took measurements from the same hub that I own.
As I've written about several times before, the spoke dish (ochoko) on this hub is the worst.
The back of the freehub body is thick like a spacer,
and the spoke angle becomes a vertical cliff.
Moreover, the flange width on the non-freehub side is fairly wide,
making the dish quite severe.
Compared to typical hubs from other manufacturers of that era, the flange width is about the same,
but the flange itself is offset to the left as part of the design.
However, modern 11-speed hubs have ended up with measurements similar to this,
so you could say this was a hub that was ahead of its time—in a bad way.
I recently built a rear wheel with a Suntour boss hub, and the balance difference between
its symmetrical left-right lacing and this Record hub's asymmetrical lacing
is probably similar in the end.
As far as I know, this might be the world's first hub where
"asymmetrical lacing with different spoke counts and diameters is strongly desirable."
All built.
Half-competition, 46-spoke Italian lacing with tension truing.
46-spoke lacing wasn't possible because I couldn't get spokes of the required length.
The competition spokes on the freehub side can presumably be recut and reused,
but I happily replaced them with new ones for peace of mind.
When reusing spokes and removing them from the hub, I make a point of separating
the J-spokes from the reverse spokes and keeping them distinct,
then when reassembling, the J-spokes go back as J-spokes and
the reverse spokes as reverse spokes. But given all that care,
I don't want spokes flying off immediately, so I use new ones instead.
I built this using spoke selection, lacing pattern, and tension
that I would use if I were building a wheel for myself with this hub and rim.
I'll be honest about the tension though—
if I didn't care about longevity, I would have tensioned it a bit higher,
but there was no such agreement this time, so I held back.
The GEL280 is truly a delicate rim.
The rebuild achieved about 50 grams of weight savings,
but the truly important point that I really want them to appreciate is
"what's happening between the hub and rim."
It would be nice if they reported that it feels snappier or pedals through smoother,
but that can't be quantified and isn't visible in photos, so
the only way to know is to actually ride it.
For rim protection, a tire from a certain manufacturer (made by Lion tire)
was applied without adhesive,
and the blue lettering turned out to be a P, not an X.
It might differ depending on the era.