Another wheel day (etc.).
I received an 18-inch wheel from Outplay (a brand) from a customer.
While they do make road wheels, they mostly handle small-diameter wheels.
It's a 12H straight-spoke disk hub laced in a pattern equivalent to reverse Italian. The 12H designation comes from my spoke length calculation formula, but there are actually 24 spokes.
In common parlance, it's a 24H wheel.
I only need the rim.
The black aluminum nipples have a nice shape that can be gripped from the outer edge too, but they're somewhat rounded on both sides, so I won't be reusing them this time.
This hub flange has a slit cut across the spoke holes. If these were aerospokes, I could loosen the nipple until the flat part extends through the slit past the round neck section, effectively making it a "hook-on" design where spokes can be removed through the slit. But with these spokes, there's no part thin enough to pass through the slit no matter how far the nipple is loosened, so it's a true "through" lacing, making disassembly a bit tedious.
Now for the other wheel.
An 18-inch wheel laced with SRAM's Dual Drive, a 36H hub.
Dual Drive means that internal gearing is integrated into what is otherwise an external derailleur hub.
In addition to the sprocket teeth on the freewheel body, the hub shifts internally. The sprocket fitted here was 8-speed and the hub's internal shift is 3-speed, making this rear hub a 24-speed total.
(If the crankset were triple, you'd have 72-speed front and rear.
In most cases it's probably single.)
Looking at modern road bikes, the common combination of wide-ratio 11-28T 11-speed cassettes with a 50-34T compact crankset shows that 50×28T (big ring, smallest cog) is roughly equivalent to 34×19T (small ring). This means the unique climbing gears only available on the small ring are just the four larger cogs: 21, 23, 25, and 28T. To put it roughly, combinations with the small ring that use cogs smaller than or equal to 34×19T can achieve essentially the same gearing with the big ring. If we compare this to a 22-color pencil set, it's not really 22 distinct colors—once you account for near-duplicates, you really only have about 15 usable colors (the 11 combinations from the big ring plus 4 unique climbing gears from the small ring).
This isn't the only hub combining both internal and external gearing, but with any manufacturer's version, there's considerable overlap in the gear ratios.
I don't know exactly how many speeds it effectively is, but it's definitely more than 8-speed. And particularly if you want the lightest gearing available—internal lowest times external lowest—the added hub weight pays for itself in the benefits to the rider.
It says SRAM Dual Drive, but that's just a silicon band with embossed lettering wrapped around an unmarked hub shell. This means if the wheel's phase relative to the valve hole bothers you after building, you can adjust it later—a convenient design feature.
Of course, if you get careless and the silicon band snaps, it's a disaster, so it's best left alone.
The rim before rebuilding was an ALEXRIMS DV15, though the rim label being backwards bothers me.
I'll be stripping it anyway.
The lacing uses a combination of normal and reverse spokes in a 2-spoke, 1-cross Italian lacing with no crossing weave.
If I were doing this, I'd prefer all reverse spokes, through 1-cross.
(The non-drive side can be all normal spokes, through 1-cross too.)
The crossing weave is created by lacing the final cross. Some call it "ayatori" (cat's cradle), but I've taken to calling it "ayatori" myself.
Since the flange holes have substantial thickness and the spokes aren't flat, doing a crossing weave here causes serious spoke bending.
Built.
36H hub, 24H rim—a 3-spoke JIS lacing. The "3-spoke" name comes from counting flange holes, but it's actually a 2-spoke 1-cross equivalent. Since 36:24 = 3:2, you can match 2 out of every 3 flange holes to rim positions and make this work.Calculating spoke length adjustments is a pain
When I first posted just the summary of this article, I mistakenly wrote the previous wheel as 32H. Thanks for the correction in the comments.
By the way, if it were a 32H hub with a 24H rim, since 32:24 = 4:3, you could use a 2:1 lacing with a rest phase on the non-drive side ("drive-reverse-drive-rest"), something I've detailed here.
Since the final cross sits away from the flange, I went ahead and did a crossing weave. The reason was "I felt like it."
Without it, there's a possible risk of the drive-side normal spokes contacting the rear derailleur... though that's pretty unlikely with a small-diameter wheel.
(Actually, with the right flange sitting inward, there's no contact anyway.)
Whether due to hub design or wheel lacing, the previous wheels had no crossing weave either.
The spokes are Sapim Leader 14-gauge plain, but the customer only specified black spokes and black nipples. I had 15-gauge available but ended up using 14-gauge.
A crossing weave would be easier with 15-gauge, but considering 24 spokes, 14-gauge made sense.
(For 32H, I'd use 15-gauge.)
↑Valve hole phase.
I didn't move the silicon band at all.
Now, about the subtle pitfalls of this wheel.
Both rims before and after rebuilding are "18-inch."
In ETRTO standards, the rim inner diameter is 355mm. But the previous rim is HE and the new one is WO (probably).
The inch designation refers to the approximate overall tire diameter. A 622mm rim with road tires becomes 700C, or 29 inches with MTB tires.
Incidentally, 700C = 700mm ≈ 27.5 inches, but it's customarily called 28 inches when measured in inches.
Only when 28C tires are mounted does a 700C rim's actual diameter approach 700mm.
Conversely, when the inch name is the same, WO and HE have different rim inner diameters.
26-inch WO is 571mm while HE is 559mm; 20-inch WO is 451mm while HE is 406mm.
But for 18-inch, both WO and HE are 355mm.
So a tire marked 355 doesn't necessarily fit a rim marked 355. The bead hook diameter might match, but the width is completely different, so they're incompatible in practice.
Shimano's lockring tightening tool now comes with a guide shaft as standard.
Originally, a pro team mechanic modified an existing tool with a shaft, and Shimano later released one in that form.
For hubs with solid (non-hollow) shafts, you obviously need one without a guide shaft.
But just tightening the lockring this way isn't enough, because it can freewheel in the rotational direction too.
Because this is an internal hub, when I spin the freewheel forward, the hub shaft rotates backward.
If the flat section of the hub shaft is locked against the frame, the freewheel won't freewheel forward.
So I should hold the shaft's flat section and tighten the lockring, but I'm worried about marring the shaft, so instead I reversed a freewheel removal tool and used it to hold the lockring while tightening.
Whether or how this relates I'm not sure, but the previous wheel had a lockring that was barely tightened at all—it came loose by hand.
Installed the tire.
Both Schwalbe tires and this wheel have logos where text drops downward (one-directional), so I needed to align that.
↑This is how it works.
Fulcrum wheels also have text pulled downward by gravity, so the label reads correctly as shown. Continental tires, however, have text gravity pointing wheel-inward, so at the bottom, the rim and tire text orientation reverses.
Just to clarify, even if Continental text is upside-down, it doesn't become "LatinennoC."
On Reynolds wheels, text drops outward,
while on Shimano wheels, text drops inward.
With this Outplay rim and Schwalbe tire, both have text dropping downward, so I aligned them that way.
This tire has a slick center tread, but the side checkered flag pattern has a water-drainage direction, so there's a definite mounting orientation.
That said, you'd never lean the wheel far enough for that pattern to touch the ground (it'd never be the contact patch), so it's mostly meaningless.
Installed the disc rotor too.
That's why I went with JIS lacing.
↑Installed the rotor that came with the original wheel.
The other one is an unrelated personal item.
I received an 18-inch wheel from Outplay (a brand) from a customer.
While they do make road wheels, they mostly handle small-diameter wheels.
It's a 12H straight-spoke disk hub laced in a pattern equivalent to reverse Italian. The 12H designation comes from my spoke length calculation formula, but there are actually 24 spokes.
In common parlance, it's a 24H wheel.
I only need the rim.
The black aluminum nipples have a nice shape that can be gripped from the outer edge too, but they're somewhat rounded on both sides, so I won't be reusing them this time.
This hub flange has a slit cut across the spoke holes. If these were aerospokes, I could loosen the nipple until the flat part extends through the slit past the round neck section, effectively making it a "hook-on" design where spokes can be removed through the slit. But with these spokes, there's no part thin enough to pass through the slit no matter how far the nipple is loosened, so it's a true "through" lacing, making disassembly a bit tedious.
Now for the other wheel.
An 18-inch wheel laced with SRAM's Dual Drive, a 36H hub.
Dual Drive means that internal gearing is integrated into what is otherwise an external derailleur hub.
In addition to the sprocket teeth on the freewheel body, the hub shifts internally. The sprocket fitted here was 8-speed and the hub's internal shift is 3-speed, making this rear hub a 24-speed total.
(If the crankset were triple, you'd have 72-speed front and rear.
In most cases it's probably single.)
Looking at modern road bikes, the common combination of wide-ratio 11-28T 11-speed cassettes with a 50-34T compact crankset shows that 50×28T (big ring, smallest cog) is roughly equivalent to 34×19T (small ring). This means the unique climbing gears only available on the small ring are just the four larger cogs: 21, 23, 25, and 28T. To put it roughly, combinations with the small ring that use cogs smaller than or equal to 34×19T can achieve essentially the same gearing with the big ring. If we compare this to a 22-color pencil set, it's not really 22 distinct colors—once you account for near-duplicates, you really only have about 15 usable colors (the 11 combinations from the big ring plus 4 unique climbing gears from the small ring).
This isn't the only hub combining both internal and external gearing, but with any manufacturer's version, there's considerable overlap in the gear ratios.
I don't know exactly how many speeds it effectively is, but it's definitely more than 8-speed. And particularly if you want the lightest gearing available—internal lowest times external lowest—the added hub weight pays for itself in the benefits to the rider.
It says SRAM Dual Drive, but that's just a silicon band with embossed lettering wrapped around an unmarked hub shell. This means if the wheel's phase relative to the valve hole bothers you after building, you can adjust it later—a convenient design feature.
Of course, if you get careless and the silicon band snaps, it's a disaster, so it's best left alone.
The rim before rebuilding was an ALEXRIMS DV15, though the rim label being backwards bothers me.
I'll be stripping it anyway.
The lacing uses a combination of normal and reverse spokes in a 2-spoke, 1-cross Italian lacing with no crossing weave.
If I were doing this, I'd prefer all reverse spokes, through 1-cross.
(The non-drive side can be all normal spokes, through 1-cross too.)
The crossing weave is created by lacing the final cross. Some call it "ayatori" (cat's cradle), but I've taken to calling it "ayatori" myself.
Since the flange holes have substantial thickness and the spokes aren't flat, doing a crossing weave here causes serious spoke bending.
Built.
36H hub, 24H rim—a 3-spoke JIS lacing. The "3-spoke" name comes from counting flange holes, but it's actually a 2-spoke 1-cross equivalent. Since 36:24 = 3:2, you can match 2 out of every 3 flange holes to rim positions and make this work.
When I first posted just the summary of this article, I mistakenly wrote the previous wheel as 32H. Thanks for the correction in the comments.
By the way, if it were a 32H hub with a 24H rim, since 32:24 = 4:3, you could use a 2:1 lacing with a rest phase on the non-drive side ("drive-reverse-drive-rest"), something I've detailed here.
Since the final cross sits away from the flange, I went ahead and did a crossing weave. The reason was "I felt like it."
Without it, there's a possible risk of the drive-side normal spokes contacting the rear derailleur... though that's pretty unlikely with a small-diameter wheel.
(Actually, with the right flange sitting inward, there's no contact anyway.)
Whether due to hub design or wheel lacing, the previous wheels had no crossing weave either.
The spokes are Sapim Leader 14-gauge plain, but the customer only specified black spokes and black nipples. I had 15-gauge available but ended up using 14-gauge.
A crossing weave would be easier with 15-gauge, but considering 24 spokes, 14-gauge made sense.
(For 32H, I'd use 15-gauge.)
↑Valve hole phase.
I didn't move the silicon band at all.
Now, about the subtle pitfalls of this wheel.
Both rims before and after rebuilding are "18-inch."
In ETRTO standards, the rim inner diameter is 355mm. But the previous rim is HE and the new one is WO (probably).
The inch designation refers to the approximate overall tire diameter. A 622mm rim with road tires becomes 700C, or 29 inches with MTB tires.
Incidentally, 700C = 700mm ≈ 27.5 inches, but it's customarily called 28 inches when measured in inches.
Only when 28C tires are mounted does a 700C rim's actual diameter approach 700mm.
Conversely, when the inch name is the same, WO and HE have different rim inner diameters.
26-inch WO is 571mm while HE is 559mm; 20-inch WO is 451mm while HE is 406mm.
But for 18-inch, both WO and HE are 355mm.
So a tire marked 355 doesn't necessarily fit a rim marked 355. The bead hook diameter might match, but the width is completely different, so they're incompatible in practice.
Shimano's lockring tightening tool now comes with a guide shaft as standard.
Originally, a pro team mechanic modified an existing tool with a shaft, and Shimano later released one in that form.
For hubs with solid (non-hollow) shafts, you obviously need one without a guide shaft.
But just tightening the lockring this way isn't enough, because it can freewheel in the rotational direction too.
Because this is an internal hub, when I spin the freewheel forward, the hub shaft rotates backward.
If the flat section of the hub shaft is locked against the frame, the freewheel won't freewheel forward.
So I should hold the shaft's flat section and tighten the lockring, but I'm worried about marring the shaft, so instead I reversed a freewheel removal tool and used it to hold the lockring while tightening.
Whether or how this relates I'm not sure, but the previous wheel had a lockring that was barely tightened at all—it came loose by hand.
Installed the tire.
Both Schwalbe tires and this wheel have logos where text drops downward (one-directional), so I needed to align that.
↑This is how it works.
Fulcrum wheels also have text pulled downward by gravity, so the label reads correctly as shown. Continental tires, however, have text gravity pointing wheel-inward, so at the bottom, the rim and tire text orientation reverses.
On Reynolds wheels, text drops outward,
while on Shimano wheels, text drops inward.
With this Outplay rim and Schwalbe tire, both have text dropping downward, so I aligned them that way.
This tire has a slick center tread, but the side checkered flag pattern has a water-drainage direction, so there's a definite mounting orientation.
That said, you'd never lean the wheel far enough for that pattern to touch the ground (it'd never be the contact patch), so it's mostly meaningless.
Installed the disc rotor too.
That's why I went with JIS lacing.
↑Installed the rotor that came with the original wheel.
The other one is an unrelated personal item.