I received a Fulcrum Racing 5 EVO from a customer.


Among Fulcrum's initial lineup of Racing 1, 3, and 5
the steel spoke wheels are the 3 and 5, but
the 3 had a rim that didn't need rim tape plus straight spokes,
while the 5 had a rim requiring rim tape plus butted spokes.
This second-generation Racing 5 is the one with straight spokes.

The Racing 7 came out later as the entry-level model
with specs similar to the original Racing 5.


The 2:1 spoke pattern with 8 pairs of 24H instead of 7 pairs of 21H is nice—gives you room to play with.
This has straight spokes on both sides, but
the original Racing 5 and original Racing 7
had 2:1 laced 24H hubs for butted spokes, so
you could use a 24H rim without offset holes and have fun with all kinds of things.

Anyway, moving on to the inspection—the wheel had been sitting around for a while
and was pretty grimy with dust mixed in old oil, so I gave it a good cleaning.
Both wheels had center issues; the rear wheel was offset toward the freewheel side,
so either it was bent from the start or there's a history of truing without a center gauge.