Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer brought in a Reynolds R2 front wheel for me to work on.
It's a wheel built with a 32mm-high ultra-lightweight carbon rim.
↑When I realized this reads as "R2" I had a moment of realization.
Looks like this logo was a stylized design of the letter R.
I never noticed it until now.
The spokes are Competition, but
they want me to rebuild it with CX-RAY instead.
Rebuilding from Competition would mean weight savings,
and switching from Revolution would keep the same weight but allow higher tension.
The wheel has 20 spokes, but I completely unwound 16 of them.
I haven't touched the remaining 4 at all.
↑The spokes are clearly too long.
Since nipples have flat dimension on the inner side,
it's technically OK that you can't see the threads from the side, but they're still long.
I cut the CX-RAY 1mm shorter than that.
Built it up.
CX-RAY outpoke radial laced.
↑The rim's measured weight.
Compared to what I'll write about in the next post,
this is nothing to keep quiet about (ominous atmosphere).
Separately, another customer brought in
a Reynolds 32mm rim for me to work on.
Probably the successor model to the R2.
The brake zone finish has changed and braking performance is better.
How can I say that with such certainty? Because I know these things.
There's another change too—there's something like a rib on the inner diameter of the rim,
This is Reynolds' patent called the Swirl Lip.
According to my English teacher, since we read Sword as "sword," we can read it similarly,
so let's call it the Swirl Lip.
Swirl means "whirlpool," and
they say this increases streamlining effect and provides aerodynamic advantage, but
I suspect that's just the official story.
ZIPP's Firecrest and ENVE's Smart Envoy
also claim their designs are for aerodynamics,
but I actually think it's about buckling resistance and structural rigidity.
In the case of Swirl Lip, I'd say it's reinforcement on the inner side
with spoke tension durability in mind.
Whether it's because of the Swirl Lip or just individual variation, it's a bit heavier than the R2.
That said, it's still ultra-lightweight, so you can't judge by absolute weight difference.
In percentage terms, it's 106.66...% compared to the R2.
Built it up.
The hub is a Reynolds 20H hub with some decent use on it.
My guess is it was originally a 32-front wheel, the rim got damaged,
so they bought a replacement rim as a single component.
However, this rim was apparently discontinued a while back and should be hard to get now.
How they found it, I don't know.
Black CX-RAY spokes, laced outpoke radial style.
A customer brought in a Reynolds R2 front wheel for me to work on.
It's a wheel built with a 32mm-high ultra-lightweight carbon rim.
↑When I realized this reads as "R2" I had a moment of realization.
Looks like this logo was a stylized design of the letter R.
I never noticed it until now.
The spokes are Competition, but
they want me to rebuild it with CX-RAY instead.
Rebuilding from Competition would mean weight savings,
and switching from Revolution would keep the same weight but allow higher tension.
The wheel has 20 spokes, but I completely unwound 16 of them.
I haven't touched the remaining 4 at all.
↑The spokes are clearly too long.
Since nipples have flat dimension on the inner side,
it's technically OK that you can't see the threads from the side, but they're still long.
I cut the CX-RAY 1mm shorter than that.
Built it up.
CX-RAY outpoke radial laced.
↑The rim's measured weight.
Compared to what I'll write about in the next post,
this is nothing to keep quiet about (ominous atmosphere).
Separately, another customer brought in
a Reynolds 32mm rim for me to work on.
Probably the successor model to the R2.
The brake zone finish has changed and braking performance is better.
How can I say that with such certainty? Because I know these things.
There's another change too—there's something like a rib on the inner diameter of the rim,
This is Reynolds' patent called the Swirl Lip.
According to my English teacher, since we read Sword as "sword," we can read it similarly,
so let's call it the Swirl Lip.
Swirl means "whirlpool," and
they say this increases streamlining effect and provides aerodynamic advantage, but
I suspect that's just the official story.
ZIPP's Firecrest and ENVE's Smart Envoy
also claim their designs are for aerodynamics,
but I actually think it's about buckling resistance and structural rigidity.
In the case of Swirl Lip, I'd say it's reinforcement on the inner side
with spoke tension durability in mind.
Whether it's because of the Swirl Lip or just individual variation, it's a bit heavier than the R2.
That said, it's still ultra-lightweight, so you can't judge by absolute weight difference.
In percentage terms, it's 106.66...% compared to the R2.
Built it up.
The hub is a Reynolds 20H hub with some decent use on it.
My guess is it was originally a 32-front wheel, the rim got damaged,
so they bought a replacement rim as a single component.
However, this rim was apparently discontinued a while back and should be hard to get now.
How they found it, I don't know.
Black CX-RAY spokes, laced outpoke radial style.