A customer brought in a Rolf Prima TDF6 for service.
There's a handlebar parts manufacturer called 3T, which back in the day had its headquarters in Turin, Italy.
The official name was Tecno Tubo Torino
(meaning something like "Turin Technical Steel Tubing"),
and that's where the acronym TTT came from.
The current so-called "new generation" 3T is apparently a different company called Tecno Tubo Taiwan.
Back when 3T made handlebars, they had a drop bar shape called the "TDF,"
and in the road bike world, TDF is pretty much universally understood as
the acronym for Tour de France.
This one's a 6cm rise rim bar, so it's called the TDF6.
Rolf Prima's predecessor, "Rolf Wheels," was
a specialty manufacturer focused on wheel designs that were rare at the time—
pair-spoke lacing—but they chose to enter the Trek group
as a means of promoting their wheels.
Trek's original parts brand was actually called "icon,"
and icon stems, handlebars, and front forks
came equipped on Trek complete bikes.
These days, a lot of people think Trek's parts brand is Bontrager
(and technically they're right),
but Bontrager is the brand founded by Keith Bontrager—a frame and parts line.
It's the same as Ritchey being Tom Ritchey's brand.
As Trek switched its house parts brand to Bontrager,
wheels that were unmistakably Rolf in design appeared under the Bontrager label.
If someone saw their first pair-spoke wheel and it was Bontrager,
they might think "Rolf copied Bontrager"—
but the timeline makes it crystal clear that it's the other way around.
Rolf Wheels didn't so much leave the Trek umbrella as the company itself
essentially disappeared, but when they started fresh on their own,
they created this brand: "Rolf Prima."
That's why on their website they explicitly state that regarding spare parts and service
for the old Rolf wheels: "Trek can help you; we cannot,"
but nowadays the statement reads
Rolf Prima cannot provide parts or service for "Rolf Wheels"-branded wheels.
in bold emphasis.
A while back, only "cannot" was bolded—
they made it stand out intensely—
and seeing that made me think, "Ah, so new Rolf really doesn't have fond memories
of the Trek era."
So I was thinking of writing that the name TDF might actually not mean Tour de France at all,
but rather contain a hidden acronym meaning something like "Trek Deprived Formation"
or similar, but I couldn't come up with an appropriate verb starting with D.
Rolf Prima has White Industries manufacture their hubs,
and the front hub flanges are so thick and angular that
inpoke lacing is impossible through them.
(With flanges this wide, there's really no need to inpoke anyway.)
The thick flanges probably have design reasons behind them, and
one of them is probably to provide a pocket for the hex key
that tightens the set screw securing the hub end.
On the rear hub, the spoke lacing pattern is
inpoke 1-cross on the freewheel side,
and outpoke 1-cross on the non-freewheel side.
If you went full inpoke on the freewheel side,
the low cog on the sprocket would interfere with the spokes
in unavoidable cases, but
they avoid it by moving the right flange inboard.
I'm concerned about the loss of flange width,
but what really bothers me more is how much larger the dish becomes.
On the rim decal, the "Rolf" part is white while "Prima" is just a gray outline,
so at first glance you can only read "Rolf."
I suspect this is intentional—just another one of my paranoid readings.
Oh right, the inspection results.
The rear wheel's center was slightly off.
For a wheel with so few spokes in pair-spoke lacing,
the lateral runout cleaned up beautifully—impressive work.
Since I only needed to adjust the rim slightly, the job was straightforward.
There's a handlebar parts manufacturer called 3T, which back in the day had its headquarters in Turin, Italy.
The official name was Tecno Tubo Torino
(meaning something like "Turin Technical Steel Tubing"),
and that's where the acronym TTT came from.
The current so-called "new generation" 3T is apparently a different company called Tecno Tubo Taiwan.
Back when 3T made handlebars, they had a drop bar shape called the "TDF,"
and in the road bike world, TDF is pretty much universally understood as
the acronym for Tour de France.
This one's a 6cm rise rim bar, so it's called the TDF6.
Rolf Prima's predecessor, "Rolf Wheels," was
a specialty manufacturer focused on wheel designs that were rare at the time—
pair-spoke lacing—but they chose to enter the Trek group
as a means of promoting their wheels.
Trek's original parts brand was actually called "icon,"
and icon stems, handlebars, and front forks
came equipped on Trek complete bikes.
These days, a lot of people think Trek's parts brand is Bontrager
(and technically they're right),
but Bontrager is the brand founded by Keith Bontrager—a frame and parts line.
It's the same as Ritchey being Tom Ritchey's brand.
As Trek switched its house parts brand to Bontrager,
wheels that were unmistakably Rolf in design appeared under the Bontrager label.
If someone saw their first pair-spoke wheel and it was Bontrager,
they might think "Rolf copied Bontrager"—
but the timeline makes it crystal clear that it's the other way around.
Rolf Wheels didn't so much leave the Trek umbrella as the company itself
essentially disappeared, but when they started fresh on their own,
they created this brand: "Rolf Prima."
That's why on their website they explicitly state that regarding spare parts and service
for the old Rolf wheels: "Trek can help you; we cannot,"
but nowadays the statement reads
Rolf Prima cannot provide parts or service for "Rolf Wheels"-branded wheels.
in bold emphasis.
A while back, only "cannot" was bolded—
they made it stand out intensely—
and seeing that made me think, "Ah, so new Rolf really doesn't have fond memories
of the Trek era."
So I was thinking of writing that the name TDF might actually not mean Tour de France at all,
but rather contain a hidden acronym meaning something like "Trek Deprived Formation"
or similar, but I couldn't come up with an appropriate verb starting with D.
Rolf Prima has White Industries manufacture their hubs,
and the front hub flanges are so thick and angular that
inpoke lacing is impossible through them.
(With flanges this wide, there's really no need to inpoke anyway.)
The thick flanges probably have design reasons behind them, and
one of them is probably to provide a pocket for the hex key
that tightens the set screw securing the hub end.
On the rear hub, the spoke lacing pattern is
inpoke 1-cross on the freewheel side,
and outpoke 1-cross on the non-freewheel side.
If you went full inpoke on the freewheel side,
the low cog on the sprocket would interfere with the spokes
in unavoidable cases, but
they avoid it by moving the right flange inboard.
I'm concerned about the loss of flange width,
but what really bothers me more is how much larger the dish becomes.
On the rim decal, the "Rolf" part is white while "Prima" is just a gray outline,
so at first glance you can only read "Rolf."
I suspect this is intentional—just another one of my paranoid readings.
Oh right, the inspection results.
The rear wheel's center was slightly off.
For a wheel with so few spokes in pair-spoke lacing,
the lateral runout cleaned up beautifully—impressive work.
Since I only needed to adjust the rim slightly, the job was straightforward.