Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer left me a FiR Speedlight—a carbon tubular rim wheel—for work.
Among carbon rims from that era, European brands like Campagnolo, Ambrosio, and Zipp were pretty much all manufactured by Colima,
but FiR was a rare exception with their own in-house carbon rims.
They're also one of the few manufacturers capable of making their own batten wheels and disc wheels.
Back then, the only other carbon rim manufacturers (not just brands) were ZIPP and Niseki.
During the Speedlight's heyday, there was a model called "GALAXIUM" (ガラキシウム) with the Galaxius+Xirium designation,
but I actually preferred that one more.
It was an aluminum rim wheel built with carbon blades and steel spokes running through them—
what you might call carbon spokes, if you want to call them that.
The hub had slots cut for super-wide spokes, originally designed for broken-spoke spokes.
When I looked it up just now, I found that there's also a wheel with the same name
built with ordinary spokes in the ordinary way, showing up in search results.
From a period catalog: the Speedlight
And the Galaxium
Hmm... there's something beautiful about these
Anyway, rebuilding the Speedlight.
Its original condition was a FiR 24H carbon body hub
all black Campagnolo 4/4 Italian lacing.
It had been sitting unused for quite a while—
dust had accumulated and the spoke tension had gone completely slack.
Built it.
Tubular tire handling is such a pain,
so it became Noma Lab Wheel Number 1.
Reusing only the hub, I laced it CX-RAY reverse spokes radial,
with red aluminum nipples.
There's a Cannondale that won't work unless you build it this way.
I want to rebuild the rear wheel too, but I need to do some experimentation first
for an article I'll be writing later (let's just say it'll be an unsettling one),
so this wheel is perfect for that. Sorry about that.
A customer left me a FiR Speedlight—a carbon tubular rim wheel—for work.
Among carbon rims from that era, European brands like Campagnolo, Ambrosio, and Zipp were pretty much all manufactured by Colima,
but FiR was a rare exception with their own in-house carbon rims.
They're also one of the few manufacturers capable of making their own batten wheels and disc wheels.
Back then, the only other carbon rim manufacturers (not just brands) were ZIPP and Niseki.
During the Speedlight's heyday, there was a model called "GALAXIUM" (ガラキシウム) with the Galaxius+Xirium designation,
but I actually preferred that one more.
It was an aluminum rim wheel built with carbon blades and steel spokes running through them—
what you might call carbon spokes, if you want to call them that.
The hub had slots cut for super-wide spokes, originally designed for broken-spoke spokes.
When I looked it up just now, I found that there's also a wheel with the same name
built with ordinary spokes in the ordinary way, showing up in search results.
From a period catalog: the Speedlight
And the Galaxium
Hmm... there's something beautiful about these
Anyway, rebuilding the Speedlight.
Its original condition was a FiR 24H carbon body hub
all black Campagnolo 4/4 Italian lacing.
It had been sitting unused for quite a while—
dust had accumulated and the spoke tension had gone completely slack.
Built it.
Tubular tire handling is such a pain,
so it became Noma Lab Wheel Number 1.
Reusing only the hub, I laced it CX-RAY reverse spokes radial,
with red aluminum nipples.
There's a Cannondale that won't work unless you build it this way.
I want to rebuild the rear wheel too, but I need to do some experimentation first
for an article I'll be writing later (let's just say it'll be an unsettling one),
so this wheel is perfect for that. Sorry about that.