A customer brought in a Rolf Prima TDF6 for service.
There's a component maker called 3T that makes handlebar parts,
but back in the day they were headquartered in Turin, Italy.
Their official name was Tecno Tubo Torino
(which roughly means Turin Technical Steel Tubing)
and the acronym TTT came from that.
The current so-called new 3T is a different company, probably Tecno Tubo Taiwan.
3T used to make a drop-shaped handlebar called the "TDF,"
and in the road bike world, TDF is pretty much universally accepted
as the acronym for Tour de France.
The "6" in TDF6 presumably refers to the 6cm rim depth.
Rolf Wheels, the predecessor to Rolf Prima,
was an emerging manufacturer that specialized in
pair-spoke wheel configurations, which were uncommon at the time.
To promote their own wheels, they chose to come under the Trek Group umbrella.
Trek's parts brand was originally called icon,
and icon stems, handlebars, and front forks
came equipped on Trek complete bikes.
These days most people think Trek's parts brand is Bontrager
(and that's actually become the case),
but Bontrager is a frame and parts brand founded by Keith Bontrager.
It's the same as how Ritchey is Tom Ritchey's brand.
As Trek switched their in-house parts brand to Bontrager,
wheels that looked unmistakably like Rolf started coming out under the Bontrager brand.
If someone saw a pair-spoke wheel for the first time and it was a Bontrager,
they might think "Rolf is copying Bontrager,"
but the chronology makes it clear the opposite is true.
Rolf Wheels essentially ceased to exist as a manufacturer when it left Trek,
and the brand they started again on their own is this "Rolf Prima."
So regarding spare parts and service for the old Rolf wheels,
they explicitly state on their site "Trek should be contacted; we cannot supply them,"
but currently the part that reads
Rolf Prima cannot provide parts or service for "Rolf Wheels"-branded wheels.
is bolded for emphasis.
There was a period, quite some time back, when only the word "cannot" was bolded
with unusual emphasis,
and seeing that made me think, "Ah, so the new Rolf doesn't look back fondly on the Trek era."
So I was thinking maybe the name TDF doesn't actually stand for Tour de France
but rather hides an acronym meaning something like "Trek's Deprived Format"
or something along those lines,
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 thick and angular enough that
they can't accommodate radial spokes.
(With flanges this wide there's no need for radial lacing anyway.)
The thick flange likely has design reasons behind it, and
I suspect it's also to accommodate a hex socket hole
for the Allen key that tightens the setscrew fixing the hub end.
The rear hub spoke lacing is
one cross with radial on the freewheel side,
and one cross with reverse radial on the non-freewheel side.
If the freewheel side were fully radial,
interference between the sprocket low gear and spokes
would be unavoidable in some cases, but
they avoid this by moving the right flange inward.
While the loss of flange width is a concern,
the increase in dish bothers me more.
On the rim sticker, the "Rolf" part is white while the "Prima" part has only a gray outline,
so at first glance it just reads "Rolf."
I suspect this is intentional, though that's just my speculation.
But to the service results:
the rear wheel's center was slightly off.
For a wheel with so few pair-spokes,
it was in impressively good lateral alignment.
Since all I needed to do was adjust the rim slightly, the work was easy.
There's a component maker called 3T that makes handlebar parts,
but back in the day they were headquartered in Turin, Italy.
Their official name was Tecno Tubo Torino
(which roughly means Turin Technical Steel Tubing)
and the acronym TTT came from that.
The current so-called new 3T is a different company, probably Tecno Tubo Taiwan.
3T used to make a drop-shaped handlebar called the "TDF,"
and in the road bike world, TDF is pretty much universally accepted
as the acronym for Tour de France.
The "6" in TDF6 presumably refers to the 6cm rim depth.
Rolf Wheels, the predecessor to Rolf Prima,
was an emerging manufacturer that specialized in
pair-spoke wheel configurations, which were uncommon at the time.
To promote their own wheels, they chose to come under the Trek Group umbrella.
Trek's parts brand was originally called icon,
and icon stems, handlebars, and front forks
came equipped on Trek complete bikes.
These days most people think Trek's parts brand is Bontrager
(and that's actually become the case),
but Bontrager is a frame and parts brand founded by Keith Bontrager.
It's the same as how Ritchey is Tom Ritchey's brand.
As Trek switched their in-house parts brand to Bontrager,
wheels that looked unmistakably like Rolf started coming out under the Bontrager brand.
If someone saw a pair-spoke wheel for the first time and it was a Bontrager,
they might think "Rolf is copying Bontrager,"
but the chronology makes it clear the opposite is true.
Rolf Wheels essentially ceased to exist as a manufacturer when it left Trek,
and the brand they started again on their own is this "Rolf Prima."
So regarding spare parts and service for the old Rolf wheels,
they explicitly state on their site "Trek should be contacted; we cannot supply them,"
but currently the part that reads
Rolf Prima cannot provide parts or service for "Rolf Wheels"-branded wheels.
is bolded for emphasis.
There was a period, quite some time back, when only the word "cannot" was bolded
with unusual emphasis,
and seeing that made me think, "Ah, so the new Rolf doesn't look back fondly on the Trek era."
So I was thinking maybe the name TDF doesn't actually stand for Tour de France
but rather hides an acronym meaning something like "Trek's Deprived Format"
or something along those lines,
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 thick and angular enough that
they can't accommodate radial spokes.
(With flanges this wide there's no need for radial lacing anyway.)
The thick flange likely has design reasons behind it, and
I suspect it's also to accommodate a hex socket hole
for the Allen key that tightens the setscrew fixing the hub end.
The rear hub spoke lacing is
one cross with radial on the freewheel side,
and one cross with reverse radial on the non-freewheel side.
If the freewheel side were fully radial,
interference between the sprocket low gear and spokes
would be unavoidable in some cases, but
they avoid this by moving the right flange inward.
While the loss of flange width is a concern,
the increase in dish bothers me more.
On the rim sticker, the "Rolf" part is white while the "Prima" part has only a gray outline,
so at first glance it just reads "Rolf."
I suspect this is intentional, though that's just my speculation.
But to the service results:
the rear wheel's center was slightly off.
For a wheel with so few pair-spokes,
it was in impressively good lateral alignment.
Since all I needed to do was adjust the rim slightly, the work was easy.