Wheels again today (and so on).
I built the Nomu Lab Wheel 2.6.
Though I have to say, I've never built a wheel called "2.6" before.
It's not a limited model like Nomu Lab Wheel No. 33, or 1-3-3-7, or 4.1.
Building with the Tni "ROAD 38 rim" makes it the 2,
and building with the "ROAD 50 rim" makes it the 2.5,
but this time it's a "ROAD 60" rim.
True to its name, it's a 60mm deep rim,
and a 26-inch tubular rim — quite an unusual spec.
Since it's similar to the 2.5 rim
and it's 26-inch, I just decided to call it 2.6 right now.
Regardless of demand, this rim is in stable supply,
so it's not a limited model.
As I'll explain later, unlike the ROAD 38 and 50,
instead of three stickers at 120° phase,
it has two stickers at 180° phase, and there's a reason for that.
The lineup only has 16H rim for the front and 24H rim for the rear.
Even for a front wheel, 16H seems sparse,
but if the spokes are short enough, you can build it with butted spokes.
Since the spoke length of the 2.6 is shorter than Nomu Lab Wheel No. 3 (a 700C 80mm deep rim),
the smaller rim diameter helps in achieving wheel stiffness.
In other words, a low-profile rim with few spokes is a completely dumb idea.
I won't say which manufacturer, but.
Just because 16H spokes perform well in wind tunnel tests,
obsessing over using 16 spokes regardless of rim depth
shows you don't understand wheels at all.
Spoke air resistance does exist, but it's not important enough
to sacrifice wheel rigidity for.
Just to be clear,
"16H low-profile front wheel is sketchy" applies to
steel spokes.
With aluminum or carbon spokes,
the resistance to deformation from their material and cross-section is far beyond steel,
so there's no problem — in fact, for most people it's overly stiff.
About why the stickers are on two spots (180° apart).
The rim side has aerodynamic(?) recessed features
at two locations 180° apart.
They probably didn't want stickers on top of those.
On the ROAD 38 rim, recent batches had minor spec changes
with reinforcement added at the valve hole.
This ROAD 60 rim has similar reinforcement,
so I thought it was a recent rim, but
Eklnox rims can be dated almost certainly from their part number.
According to that, this rim is from 2013.
That makes sense since it's not something that sells frequently.
26-inch tubulars were heavily used in triathlon ages ago anyway.
↑The aerodynamic(?) recess looks like this.
↑On the opposite side, 90° offset, there's the same recess shape,
but if the relationship is as shown above, while there's no front/back distinction,
aerodynamically it doesn't make sense.
If the blue-side recess deflects air smoothly,
the red side would trap it.
The reason I dislike JIS-built rear wheels is
that from the spoke tension direction, I sense
the same kind of twist as this.
↑Actually this is how it works.
So there's a clear left-right distinction.
The rear rim has a freewheel-side direction specification,
and that tells you the manufacturer's intended recess direction
(same as the diagram above).
For the rear wheel, customers won't reverse it as long as I don't build it wrong,
but the front wheel could potentially be mounted backwards.
Front wheel is done.
Evolite hub 16H, CX-RAY non-radial laced.
For a moment I thought if stock was available, I should have used an Evohub 16H instead.
Evohub has slitted flange holes, allowing CX spokes.
If this were a heavy person's TT bike front wheel,
I wouldn't build it with CX-RAY, but the customer is
quite light (and not just light — super fast on climbs) and
the purpose is hill-climb racing, so I think this was the better choice.
It helped that the hub shell has a logo.
I built it so that when this faces forward
and the hub is mounted to the fork in a direction readable from above,
the rim's recess features align properly.
Rear wheel is done too.
Evolite hub 24H with semi-comp lacing.
The spoke tension isn't cranked super tight,
but because the spoke length is short, it came out feeling quite stiff.
I built the Nomu Lab Wheel 2.6.
Though I have to say, I've never built a wheel called "2.6" before.
It's not a limited model like Nomu Lab Wheel No. 33, or 1-3-3-7, or 4.1.
Building with the Tni "ROAD 38 rim" makes it the 2,
and building with the "ROAD 50 rim" makes it the 2.5,
but this time it's a "ROAD 60" rim.
True to its name, it's a 60mm deep rim,
and a 26-inch tubular rim — quite an unusual spec.
Since it's similar to the 2.5 rim
and it's 26-inch, I just decided to call it 2.6 right now.
Regardless of demand, this rim is in stable supply,
so it's not a limited model.
As I'll explain later, unlike the ROAD 38 and 50,
instead of three stickers at 120° phase,
it has two stickers at 180° phase, and there's a reason for that.
The lineup only has 16H rim for the front and 24H rim for the rear.
Even for a front wheel, 16H seems sparse,
but if the spokes are short enough, you can build it with butted spokes.
Since the spoke length of the 2.6 is shorter than Nomu Lab Wheel No. 3 (a 700C 80mm deep rim),
the smaller rim diameter helps in achieving wheel stiffness.
In other words, a low-profile rim with few spokes is a completely dumb idea.
I won't say which manufacturer, but.
Just because 16H spokes perform well in wind tunnel tests,
obsessing over using 16 spokes regardless of rim depth
shows you don't understand wheels at all.
Spoke air resistance does exist, but it's not important enough
to sacrifice wheel rigidity for.
Just to be clear,
"16H low-profile front wheel is sketchy" applies to
steel spokes.
With aluminum or carbon spokes,
the resistance to deformation from their material and cross-section is far beyond steel,
so there's no problem — in fact, for most people it's overly stiff.
About why the stickers are on two spots (180° apart).
The rim side has aerodynamic(?) recessed features
at two locations 180° apart.
They probably didn't want stickers on top of those.
On the ROAD 38 rim, recent batches had minor spec changes
with reinforcement added at the valve hole.
This ROAD 60 rim has similar reinforcement,
so I thought it was a recent rim, but
Eklnox rims can be dated almost certainly from their part number.
According to that, this rim is from 2013.
That makes sense since it's not something that sells frequently.
26-inch tubulars were heavily used in triathlon ages ago anyway.
↑The aerodynamic(?) recess looks like this.
↑On the opposite side, 90° offset, there's the same recess shape,
but if the relationship is as shown above, while there's no front/back distinction,
aerodynamically it doesn't make sense.
If the blue-side recess deflects air smoothly,
the red side would trap it.
The reason I dislike JIS-built rear wheels is
that from the spoke tension direction, I sense
the same kind of twist as this.
↑Actually this is how it works.
So there's a clear left-right distinction.
The rear rim has a freewheel-side direction specification,
and that tells you the manufacturer's intended recess direction
(same as the diagram above).
For the rear wheel, customers won't reverse it as long as I don't build it wrong,
but the front wheel could potentially be mounted backwards.
Front wheel is done.
Evolite hub 16H, CX-RAY non-radial laced.
For a moment I thought if stock was available, I should have used an Evohub 16H instead.
Evohub has slitted flange holes, allowing CX spokes.
If this were a heavy person's TT bike front wheel,
I wouldn't build it with CX-RAY, but the customer is
quite light (and not just light — super fast on climbs) and
the purpose is hill-climb racing, so I think this was the better choice.
It helped that the hub shell has a logo.
I built it so that when this faces forward
and the hub is mounted to the fork in a direction readable from above,
the rim's recess features align properly.
Rear wheel is done too.
Evolite hub 24H with semi-comp lacing.
The spoke tension isn't cranked super tight,
but because the spoke length is short, it came out feeling quite stiff.