Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer brought in the rear wheel from a ZED TECH 303.
It's the matching wheel to the front wheel where I previously replaced the cracked hub (→here).
ZED TECH is a series built with specially-spec hubs that have dimple-hole machining,
so in this current state with a Power Tap hub, there's no ZED TECH character left.
Apart from the stickers, it's just a regular 303 rim.
The customer wanted it rebuilt with a standard rear hub.
It's a 24-hole CX-RAY 4-cross JIS laced wheel, but whether from age or original design,
the spoke tension is extremely loose, so building it with tighter tension is straightforward.
All built up.
Black hub, 24-hole, semi-CX 4-cross Italian lacing with spoke crossing pattern.
I went with the black hub because they wanted CX spokes on the freewheel side.
It's quite a specific request, but it didn't come from me as a suggestion.
As I've written before when discussing black inc wheels,
spokes with 100% spoke weight ratio don't appeal to people who judge wheels by catalog weight "alone,"
but if the extra rigidity is worth the inevitable weight penalty on the scale,
then I think it's a valid choice.
If there's a 303 stiffer than this, I'd like to know about it—it's become quite rigid.
By the way, the rear wheel on my EDGE rim is also semi-CX (CX/CX-RAY).
The valve hole is stretched in the direction of rotation,
which happened because the tubular tire shifted on the rim
and the valve tilted at an angle.
From the orientation of the freewheel body after rebuilding,
the hole's direction is now reversed from before.
This isn't actually due to the valve hole—the rim has a sticker that was
starting to peel up a bit, so I flipped the rim to the side where the sticker was in better condition
for the freewheel side. As a result, it just happened that the rim's left and right
switched compared to before the rebuild.
A customer brought in the rear wheel from a ZED TECH 303.
It's the matching wheel to the front wheel where I previously replaced the cracked hub (→here).
ZED TECH is a series built with specially-spec hubs that have dimple-hole machining,
so in this current state with a Power Tap hub, there's no ZED TECH character left.
Apart from the stickers, it's just a regular 303 rim.
The customer wanted it rebuilt with a standard rear hub.
It's a 24-hole CX-RAY 4-cross JIS laced wheel, but whether from age or original design,
the spoke tension is extremely loose, so building it with tighter tension is straightforward.
All built up.
Black hub, 24-hole, semi-CX 4-cross Italian lacing with spoke crossing pattern.
I went with the black hub because they wanted CX spokes on the freewheel side.
It's quite a specific request, but it didn't come from me as a suggestion.
As I've written before when discussing black inc wheels,
spokes with 100% spoke weight ratio don't appeal to people who judge wheels by catalog weight "alone,"
but if the extra rigidity is worth the inevitable weight penalty on the scale,
then I think it's a valid choice.
By the way, the rear wheel on my EDGE rim is also semi-CX (CX/CX-RAY).
The valve hole is stretched in the direction of rotation,
which happened because the tubular tire shifted on the rim
and the valve tilted at an angle.
From the orientation of the freewheel body after rebuilding,
the hole's direction is now reversed from before.
This isn't actually due to the valve hole—the rim has a sticker that was
starting to peel up a bit, so I flipped the rim to the side where the sticker was in better condition
for the freewheel side. As a result, it just happened that the rim's left and right
switched compared to before the rebuild.