Another day with wheels (and so on).
I received a rear wheel from a customer's MUUR (ミュール) bike.
The rim isKinlin XR300 MUUR original,
The hub is alsoChinhaur (CHINHAUR/Chinguo Industrial Limited) R-220R
MUUR original.
It resembles an American Classic hub.
Which makes sense—American Classic hubs are currently made by Chinhaur too,
and have the same structure: the ratchet on the freewheel body side (reversed from usual),
with teeth (six of them) on the hub shell side.
The customer wanted the freewheel body converted to 11-speed, so
even though we could have reused an American Classic freewheel body
without needing to rebuild the whole wheel,
we ended up rebuilding with an 11-speed hub.
Before the rebuild, it was 24H with a 4-4 JIS lacing pattern,
and the spokes were round-butted Starbrite (the old star logo version).
Not the disappointing current product with the same name—
the older version that sticks to magnets like crazy.
You could actually lift the wheel off the ground using just a wheel magnet.
I could have reused them, but there were differences in length, so I gave up.
All built up.
Evolite hub, 24H, half-competition 4-6 lacing with connecting spoke.
The non-freewheel side felt a bit loose before the rebuild,
but even compared to the unlaced condition after rebuilding,
the tightness has transformed dramatically.
Needless to say, I snuck in Italian lacing too.
Bonus
Shimano freewheel bodies have splines arranged with eight wide teeth and one narrow tooth.
This ensures the sprocket sits in only one phase.
However, some Chinhaur-type rear hubs have nine narrow teeth instead,
which causes a problem: the sprocket can fit in any phase.
In fact, I've seen American Classic hubs from certain years where
customers installed sprockets with misaligned phases,
resulting in visible shifting problems.
This only happens with this type of spline, so watch out.
↑I painted the shift ramps on the sprocket teeth red to see them better.
When you install sprockets on a freewheel body with splines
that allow only one phase...
↑...the shift ramps line up nicely in a staggered pattern like this.
If this position is scattered all over the place, shifting becomes extremely poor.
(Though normally you can't scatter them, so you can't normally verify this.)
↑On larger sprockets (in this case the four low cogs),
a second shift ramp is positioned roughly 180° opposite.
Earlier I wrote "with nine narrow teeth, the sprocket fits anywhere,"
but the hub from before this rebuild did have some distinction.
↑Narrow (one spot)
↑Somewhat wider (eight spots)
However, the sprockets also had dimensional differences:
The single-piece steel cogs had tight tolerances
and fit in only one position,
but the aluminum spider arm bundling the three low cogs
had loose tolerances and could fit anywhere.
↑OK
↑Not OK
So the low cog alone can be installed wrong.
I've developed a habit of being wary whenever I see splines
with only narrow teeth, but
I sometimes find that sprockets customers have installed
are indeed wrong,
so American Classic users should be careful.
↑This is my ultra-close-ratio 10-speed sprocket set:
"16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16T".
It's made up of nine 16T cogs and one top-gear 16T cog.
Going by the nicknames "Death Beauty Device" and "Corn of Death,"
its shifting performance is absolutely terrible.
(I myself don't understand the need for shifting.
I said "shifting," but when the speed doesn't actually change,
calling it "shifting" is a bit odd.)
↑Whether it's because the sprocket tooth tips are aligned in phase,
or because there are no gaps between teeth (no shift ramps),
or because the rear derailleur's slant angle isn't horizontal,
there are various possible reasons for the poor shifting.
I received a rear wheel from a customer's MUUR (ミュール) bike.
The rim is
The hub is also
MUUR original.
Which makes sense—American Classic hubs are currently made by Chinhaur too,
and have the same structure: the ratchet on the freewheel body side (reversed from usual),
with teeth (six of them) on the hub shell side.
The customer wanted the freewheel body converted to 11-speed, so
without needing to rebuild the whole wheel,
we ended up rebuilding with an 11-speed hub.
Before the rebuild, it was 24H with a 4-4 JIS lacing pattern,
and the spokes were round-butted Starbrite (the old star logo version).
Not the disappointing current product with the same name—
the older version that sticks to magnets like crazy.
You could actually lift the wheel off the ground using just a wheel magnet.
I could have reused them, but there were differences in length, so I gave up.
All built up.
Evolite hub, 24H, half-competition 4-6 lacing with connecting spoke.
The non-freewheel side felt a bit loose before the rebuild,
but even compared to the unlaced condition after rebuilding,
the tightness has transformed dramatically.
Needless to say, I snuck in Italian lacing too.
Bonus
Shimano freewheel bodies have splines arranged with eight wide teeth and one narrow tooth.
This ensures the sprocket sits in only one phase.
However, some Chinhaur-type rear hubs have nine narrow teeth instead,
which causes a problem: the sprocket can fit in any phase.
In fact, I've seen American Classic hubs from certain years where
customers installed sprockets with misaligned phases,
resulting in visible shifting problems.
This only happens with this type of spline, so watch out.
↑I painted the shift ramps on the sprocket teeth red to see them better.
When you install sprockets on a freewheel body with splines
that allow only one phase...
↑...the shift ramps line up nicely in a staggered pattern like this.
If this position is scattered all over the place, shifting becomes extremely poor.
(Though normally you can't scatter them, so you can't normally verify this.)
↑On larger sprockets (in this case the four low cogs),
a second shift ramp is positioned roughly 180° opposite.
Earlier I wrote "with nine narrow teeth, the sprocket fits anywhere,"
but the hub from before this rebuild did have some distinction.
↑Narrow (one spot)
↑Somewhat wider (eight spots)
However, the sprockets also had dimensional differences:
The single-piece steel cogs had tight tolerances
and fit in only one position,
but the aluminum spider arm bundling the three low cogs
had loose tolerances and could fit anywhere.
↑OK
↑Not OK
So the low cog alone can be installed wrong.
I've developed a habit of being wary whenever I see splines
with only narrow teeth, but
I sometimes find that sprockets customers have installed
are indeed wrong,
so American Classic users should be careful.
↑This is my ultra-close-ratio 10-speed sprocket set:
"16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16T".
It's made up of nine 16T cogs and one top-gear 16T cog.
Going by the nicknames "Death Beauty Device" and "Corn of Death,"
its shifting performance is absolutely terrible.
(I myself don't understand the need for shifting.
I said "shifting," but when the speed doesn't actually change,
calling it "shifting" is a bit odd.)
↑Whether it's because the sprocket tooth tips are aligned in phase,
or because there are no gaps between teeth (no shift ramps),
or because the rear derailleur's slant angle isn't horizontal,
there are various possible reasons for the poor shifting.