Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer dropped off a rear wheel with me.
Well, "dropped off" is putting it mildly—they left it whether I wanted to take it or not.
It's laced with an ENVE1-45 rim on a Chris King R45 hub,
and the customer mentioned the other day that the rear wheel felt loose.
24H black CX-RAY, laced 4-cross Italian.
Yeah, I definitely thought "that's pretty loose," but
because I didn't feel like rebuilding it I made excuses about how
it probably rides smoothly anyway, and sent them home with it.
But later, when they actually used it in a race, the handling was poor
and apparently it even spoke-touched under hard pedaling.
So they brought it back.
The spoke-touching was a surprise, but I knew it was loose.
I tried various ways to avoid rebuilding it—"maybe try it for casual cycling?"—
but in the end I had no choice but to take it on.
The front wheel was built with the same Chris King hub,
20H black CX-RAY outpoke radial lace, and it was properly tensioned.
But the rear wheel—starting from the freewheel side—wasn't even tensioned near the upper limit of the ENVE spec,
so the non-freewheel side was floppy.
Just tightening it up a bit might've helped slightly,
but I ended up having to completely rebuild it with new spokes and a different lacing pattern.
It's rebuilt.
If you're reading this, please come pick it up soon.
Black half-Comp, 4-cross Italian with tie-and-solder.
Even at the preliminary-build stage—not much past that point—
the non-freewheel side spoke tension already exceeded what was on the old wheel.
It's a shame this hub isn't hi-lo flange,
but other than that it's got no weaknesses.
I think the spoke selection and lacing pattern are the optimal solution for this material.
A customer dropped off a rear wheel with me.
Well, "dropped off" is putting it mildly—they left it whether I wanted to take it or not.
It's laced with an ENVE1-45 rim on a Chris King R45 hub,
and the customer mentioned the other day that the rear wheel felt loose.
24H black CX-RAY, laced 4-cross Italian.
Yeah, I definitely thought "that's pretty loose," but
it probably rides smoothly anyway, and sent them home with it.
But later, when they actually used it in a race, the handling was poor
and apparently it even spoke-touched under hard pedaling.
So they brought it back.
I tried various ways to avoid rebuilding it—"maybe try it for casual cycling?"—
but in the end I had no choice but to take it on.
The front wheel was built with the same Chris King hub,
20H black CX-RAY outpoke radial lace, and it was properly tensioned.
But the rear wheel—starting from the freewheel side—wasn't even tensioned near the upper limit of the ENVE spec,
so the non-freewheel side was floppy.
Just tightening it up a bit might've helped slightly,
but I ended up having to completely rebuild it with new spokes and a different lacing pattern.
It's rebuilt.
If you're reading this, please come pick it up soon.
Black half-Comp, 4-cross Italian with tie-and-solder.
Even at the preliminary-build stage—not much past that point—
the non-freewheel side spoke tension already exceeded what was on the old wheel.
It's a shame this hub isn't hi-lo flange,
but other than that it's got no weaknesses.
I think the spoke selection and lacing pattern are the optimal solution for this material.