Another wheel day (and so on).
A customer left me their latest model 808 rear wheel.
They also left a PowerTap rear hub
and wanted me to rebuild the wheel with it.
Now, this wheel,
has no marks from having a tire installed
and no marks from braking either.
It appears to be brand new and unridden.
Even if you suppose someone used it a bit first
and then wore away these marks to an undetectable level,
there's no way you could avoid leaving marks from the sprocket on the freebody—
so it really is new.
The freebody is Campagnolo-compatible,
but the PowerTap hub they brought me is Shimano-compatible,
so I'm guessing the situation is something like
they bought the whole wheel from an overseas online retailer at a bargain price
as "materials for an 808 wheel with PowerTap hub,"
rather than just buying a rim by itself.
The wheel was packed nesting-doll style inside a box from some overseas retailer
that was just slightly larger than a ZIPP box
(think of a matchbox if that helps you picture it).
←←←wrong position to stand←←←
By the way, this hub is the new version,
vastly improved from the previous generation equivalent to zero-nee lacing.
To the eye it has left and right flanges of equal diameter,
and you might think they've achieved true high-low by making the spoke head position
on the non-drive side smaller than on the drive side—
but that's not it. They really do have flanges of equal diameter on both sides.
It's thanks to the 808's rim height (i.e., the shortness of the spokes)
that the spokes don't flex easily,
and even with left-right equal diameter and equal spoke count, the non-drive side doesn't feel loose.
The new hub's 303 should feel looser on the non-drive side than the new hub's 808,
but it should still be noticeably stiffer than the old hub's 303.
If rebuilding from an old hub I could almost guarantee it'd be stiffer than before,
but with this hub, maxing out the tension gives only a slight increase.
That said, that's if I use the same all CX-RAY as before.
By using the semi-comp trick, I can make the pickup better than before.
This time it seems the customer isn't using the wheel from before the rebuild,
so based on the customer's feedback, I won't be able to confirm whether we managed that or not.
Got it built.
G3 hub 24H black semi-comp 4-6 Italian lacing with radial ties.
The reason I specifically wrote "Italian lacing"
is because the customer's request included "Italian lacing."
Using black spokes was my call,
and at first they were thinking maybe silver spokes,
but in the end I went with black.
I reused the washers under the nipple heads,
but this time the nipple design was so good I reused the nipples too.
A customer left me their latest model 808 rear wheel.
They also left a PowerTap rear hub
and wanted me to rebuild the wheel with it.
Now, this wheel,
has no marks from having a tire installed
and no marks from braking either.
It appears to be brand new and unridden.
Even if you suppose someone used it a bit first
and then wore away these marks to an undetectable level,
there's no way you could avoid leaving marks from the sprocket on the freebody—
so it really is new.
The freebody is Campagnolo-compatible,
but the PowerTap hub they brought me is Shimano-compatible,
so I'm guessing the situation is something like
they bought the whole wheel from an overseas online retailer at a bargain price
as "materials for an 808 wheel with PowerTap hub,"
rather than just buying a rim by itself.
The wheel was packed nesting-doll style inside a box from some overseas retailer
that was just slightly larger than a ZIPP box
(think of a matchbox if that helps you picture it).
←←←wrong position to stand←←←
By the way, this hub is the new version,
vastly improved from the previous generation equivalent to zero-nee lacing.
To the eye it has left and right flanges of equal diameter,
and you might think they've achieved true high-low by making the spoke head position
on the non-drive side smaller than on the drive side—
but that's not it. They really do have flanges of equal diameter on both sides.
It's thanks to the 808's rim height (i.e., the shortness of the spokes)
that the spokes don't flex easily,
and even with left-right equal diameter and equal spoke count, the non-drive side doesn't feel loose.
The new hub's 303 should feel looser on the non-drive side than the new hub's 808,
but it should still be noticeably stiffer than the old hub's 303.
If rebuilding from an old hub I could almost guarantee it'd be stiffer than before,
but with this hub, maxing out the tension gives only a slight increase.
That said, that's if I use the same all CX-RAY as before.
By using the semi-comp trick, I can make the pickup better than before.
This time it seems the customer isn't using the wheel from before the rebuild,
so based on the customer's feedback, I won't be able to confirm whether we managed that or not.
Got it built.
G3 hub 24H black semi-comp 4-6 Italian lacing with radial ties.
The reason I specifically wrote "Italian lacing"
is because the customer's request included "Italian lacing."
Using black spokes was my call,
and at first they were thinking maybe silver spokes,
but in the end I went with black.
I reused the washers under the nipple heads,
but this time the nipple design was so good I reused the nipples too.