Another day with wheels (et cetera).
I received a customer's carbon WO rims—both front and rear wheels.
The front wheel just needs inspection, but they wanted the rear wheel rebuilt with a PowerTap hub.
Not sure if it's a BITEX or POWER WAY hub,
but it's in the same family as Leef hubs.
Since it was built with black CX-RAY in a 4-cross pattern,
you'd think the radial lacing on the non-freewheel side would be weak... but
the spoke tension is cranked up so tight that
compared to another rear wheel built with better lacing technique plus moderate tension (no bracing),
the wheel's stiffness might not differ much at all.
The nipple thread-lock compound was so strong that it hindered readjustment,
and it took time carefully loosening and disassembling everything.
Built it up.
G3 hub, 24-hole, black half-comp in a 4-cross pattern with bracing.
Same black spokes and red aluminum nipples as before the rebuild, but
neither are hand-me-downs—they're all new.
(The red aluminum nipples were changed from Sapim's 14mm to DT's 12mm)
Since spoke selection was left to my discretion,
the customer wanted to match the front wheel color if I chose silver spokes,
so I went with the same color as before the rebuild.
It had a 16mm wide Bike Ribbon rim tape on it, but
it was shifted to the edge with a dangerously tight spot right at the rim holes, so
I replaced it with an 18mm wide Vittoria one.
I received a customer's carbon WO rims—both front and rear wheels.
The front wheel just needs inspection, but they wanted the rear wheel rebuilt with a PowerTap hub.
Not sure if it's a BITEX or POWER WAY hub,
but it's in the same family as Leef hubs.
Since it was built with black CX-RAY in a 4-cross pattern,
you'd think the radial lacing on the non-freewheel side would be weak... but
the spoke tension is cranked up so tight that
compared to another rear wheel built with better lacing technique plus moderate tension (no bracing),
the wheel's stiffness might not differ much at all.
The nipple thread-lock compound was so strong that it hindered readjustment,
and it took time carefully loosening and disassembling everything.
Built it up.
G3 hub, 24-hole, black half-comp in a 4-cross pattern with bracing.
Same black spokes and red aluminum nipples as before the rebuild, but
neither are hand-me-downs—they're all new.
(The red aluminum nipples were changed from Sapim's 14mm to DT's 12mm)
Since spoke selection was left to my discretion,
the customer wanted to match the front wheel color if I chose silver spokes,
so I went with the same color as before the rebuild.
It had a 16mm wide Bike Ribbon rim tape on it, but
it was shifted to the edge with a dangerously tight spot right at the rim holes, so
I replaced it with an 18mm wide Vittoria one.