Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer left me with a Powertap rear wheel to work on.
I noticed the non-freehub side had unusually high tension...
It was laced 24H half-comp 4-cross.
I'm rebuilding this with a carbon rim.
I have two since I'm building a front wheel as well. Carbon WO rims.
WO rims have a sticker that says "align brake shoes below this line."
While I'm at it, I'll overhaul the hub.
Going this far is acceptable work.
If the bearings are new or undamaged,
proper greasing can actually get them performing better than new,
so bearing replacement isn't always the best solution.
All cleaned up.
I made a dedicated tool to cleanly remove the bearing seals buried deep inside,
and a custom-tip syringe to inject grease back in there.
I've also switched to a gentler parts cleaner.
Before, I was only dealing with bare metal, so a more aggressive solvent worked,
but going forward I need something that won't attack the non-removable seals inside the hub.
Hub shell cleaned up nicely too.
Built up.
Same as before the rebuild—half-comp 4-cross lacing.
The ZTR Alpha 340's maximum tension limit is 100 kgf,
but this rim, despite being carbon, handles 130 kgf,
so it builds up way tighter.
That said, I still keep the freehub side below 130 kgf.
The front hub is a Powertap too.
It has no logos or branding on it at all, so I questioned for a moment whether it really was a Powertap,
but it's definitely the same front hub I've built with several times before.
Built up.
20H CX-RAY outpoke radial lacing.
A customer left me with a Powertap rear wheel to work on.
I noticed the non-freehub side had unusually high tension...
It was laced 24H half-comp 4-cross.
I'm rebuilding this with a carbon rim.
I have two since I'm building a front wheel as well. Carbon WO rims.
WO rims have a sticker that says "align brake shoes below this line."
While I'm at it, I'll overhaul the hub.
Going this far is acceptable work.
If the bearings are new or undamaged,
proper greasing can actually get them performing better than new,
so bearing replacement isn't always the best solution.
All cleaned up.
I made a dedicated tool to cleanly remove the bearing seals buried deep inside,
and a custom-tip syringe to inject grease back in there.
I've also switched to a gentler parts cleaner.
Before, I was only dealing with bare metal, so a more aggressive solvent worked,
but going forward I need something that won't attack the non-removable seals inside the hub.
Hub shell cleaned up nicely too.
Built up.
Same as before the rebuild—half-comp 4-cross lacing.
The ZTR Alpha 340's maximum tension limit is 100 kgf,
but this rim, despite being carbon, handles 130 kgf,
so it builds up way tighter.
That said, I still keep the freehub side below 130 kgf.
The front hub is a Powertap too.
It has no logos or branding on it at all, so I questioned for a moment whether it really was a Powertap,
but it's definitely the same front hub I've built with several times before.
Built up.
20H CX-RAY outpoke radial lacing.