Regarding Campagnolo and Fulcrum aluminum spokes,
There are line markings engraved on the edge of the spoke head.
Treating the long direction as horizontal, I call them by the number and orientation—for example, "vertical 3 lines"—whether the lines run vertically or horizontally.
The diagram above shows an example of vertical 3.
With these markings, there is a rule that regardless of whether it's Campagnolo or Fulcrum,
the same marking means the same length,
and so far I've found no exceptions.
Also, depending on the era and model, front spokes
may sometimes be shared with the rear left spoke.
↑This is vertical 3, a rear left spoke.
Red is from Racing Zero red, silver is from Racing 1 silver,
but black could be either Racing Zero black or Shamal Ultra black—I can't tell the difference.
If it's vertical 3, the length is the same.
So if the Shamal Ultra rear left black spoke is vertical 3,
then you could do a "cosmetic swap" (おしゃれ泥棒) with a red or silver vertical 3 spoke.
↑This one is vertical 4.
In the image the silver spoke's vertical line length looks different, but it's exactly the same as all the other colors.
↑These are Shamal Ultra spokes from before the rear hub became Mega G3—
the original gold and the next generation gray.
At my shop, we sort these by color rather than by length,
so vertical 3, 4, and 5 are all mixed together.
Having three types means the front and rear left aren't the same length.
There's a dot marking on the gray vertical 4, but at least in terms of length there's no difference.
There are also cases where spokes are the same length but the threaded section starts at different points, which I'll mention later,
but that turned out to be identical as well.
I keep them in cases like this, but
the front spoke length
is less than the rear right but
more than the rear left, so I've put a paper on the case lid
showing the front spoke length as a reference.
By comparing against it, I can distinguish: same length = front, longer spoke = rear right, shorter spoke = rear left.
By the way, vertical 5 is the freehub side of the old G3 before Mega G3, so
there's no matching length in the current Mega G3 or 2:1 ratio.
When I do a cosmetic swap using front and rear left spokes,
it's partly because I want to increase the chances of the markings matching.
I did a cosmetic swap on Racing Zero Carbon recently,
and Racing Zero Carbon has the front and rear left spokes
at the same length (vertical 4 with the same marking),
so I was able to use conventional Racing Zero red spokes.
Now, about the Racing Zero Nite from the previous article,
it's horizontal 2.
This is the same length as the Shamal Mille front (image above).
This gets complicated, but I'll call this type "horizontally-aligned horizontal 2".
Due to the smaller front bearing, the hub flange also became smaller in diameter,
making the spokes slightly longer than before.
Now, Racing Zero Carbon also has a small-diameter front bearing, so why
are its spokes vertical 4 instead of horizontally-aligned horizontal 2?
That question probably comes up, so I'll explain.
Fulcrum's aluminum spoke and nipple supply comes in
four formats:
"Front spokes only, full set of 16"
"Rear spokes only, full set of 21"
"1 spoke and 1 nipple"
"Nipples only, 10 pieces"
Among these, the part number for "front spokes only full set"
is the same for Racing Zero (aluminum rim) and Racing Zero Carbon,
but when it becomes "1 spoke and 1 nipple," the part number changes.
The reason is:
the nipples are different.
The spokes are the same vertical 4, so the spoke-only part number is the same,
but when paired with a nipple, the part number differs.
In the image above, the one with a round head like a pan screw
is the Racing Zero Carbon nipple.
Because of this difference and the rim inner diameter being different from the aluminum rim,
the Racing Zero Carbon front spoke remains vertical 4
despite the small hub, rather than becoming horizontally-aligned horizontal 2.
Anyway, back to the topic: if I were to do a cosmetic swap on Racing Zero Nite,
I would need to prepare red horizontally-aligned horizontal 2 front spokes,
but no such thing exists.
Of course, conventional Racing Zero red spokes don't match the length either.
That's a problem.
So I investigated various things and noticed
that the part numbers for Racing Zero Competizione spokes
had been completely renewed.
Despite the hub and rim dimensions being the same, the spoke length is different.
I wondered what that was about, so I ordered samples.
Competizione front spokes only, full set of 16.
The marking is diagonal 3. There's one red cosmetic spoke, but
naturally it's the same length as the other 15, so the rule holds: "same marking, same length".
Competizione rear spokes only, full set of 21.
Diagonal 2 marking appears on 7 spokes for the left side (one is red),
and vertically-aligned horizontal 2 marking appears on 14 spokes for the right side.
↑Because of this one, I had to further distinguish the "horizontal 2" terminology.
This vertically-aligned horizontal 2 and the Racing Zero Nite front's horizontally-aligned horizontal 2
are completely different lengths.
Comparing old and new spokes for small-diameter front hubs.
Both have horizontally-aligned horizontal 2 at the top and diagonal 3 at the bottom in the image.
The overall spoke length is exactly the same, but
the threaded section length is different.
Actually, you can tell the new spokes have updated nipples when ordering
"1 spoke and 1 nipple" or "nipples only 10 pieces".
The nipples are new as well, and the threaded section length matches accordingly.
The new nipple has nylon embedded as a lock washer.
The foreign object coming out of the rim in two articles back—that's what it is.
This changes the depth where the nipple threads begin, and
when a new spoke is pushed into the nipple threads as far as it goes,
↑old nipple
↑new nipple
there's a difference in the pocket depth.
Based on these circumstances, I judged that combining the new diagonal 3 spoke
with the old nipple was possible,
so I used the diagonal 3 red spoke on the Racing Zero Nite front.
Similarly, I compared the rear left spokes.
The red one in the top image is the new spoke.
In this case, it turned out to be "spoke lengths are different,
but the threaded section starts at the same position".
I tried threading the new spoke onto the old nipple until the threads were fully engaged.
In practice, it's impossible to tension to that point.
When assembled, it would be about like this
(and I think this is already quite highly tensioned).
The new nipple is longer overall than the old one, so
the protruding part in the image above should catch on the lock washer.
I've never personally seen a Campagnolo or Fulcrum aluminum spoke symptom
where just one spoke gradually loosens,
so the lock washer is honestly unnecessary.
It just makes stuck nipples even harder to turn, I think.
Anyway, in this case the spoke's effective length is the same, so
although the situation differs from the front, I judged that combining new spoke with old nipple
was possible, and used the Competizione rear left spoke on the Nite.
↑Here's the rear left spoke I removed from Nite, and the new rear left red spoke.
"Front or rear spokes only full set"—you might think
it's risky to pull out a cosmetic spoke right away, but
it's fine.Though admittedly this article's premise is questionable.
↑Because I stock separate "red spoke + 1 nipple each" sets
for diagonal 3 (new front) and diagonal 2 (new rear left).
My parts distributor even said to me,
"You're probably not using these properly, are you?"
Only fitting for a Campy shop, I suppose.
There are line markings engraved on the edge of the spoke head.
Treating the long direction as horizontal, I call them by the number and orientation—for example, "vertical 3 lines"—whether the lines run vertically or horizontally.
The diagram above shows an example of vertical 3.
With these markings, there is a rule that regardless of whether it's Campagnolo or Fulcrum,
the same marking means the same length,
and so far I've found no exceptions.
Also, depending on the era and model, front spokes
may sometimes be shared with the rear left spoke.
↑This is vertical 3, a rear left spoke.
Red is from Racing Zero red, silver is from Racing 1 silver,
but black could be either Racing Zero black or Shamal Ultra black—I can't tell the difference.
If it's vertical 3, the length is the same.
So if the Shamal Ultra rear left black spoke is vertical 3,
then you could do a "cosmetic swap" (おしゃれ泥棒) with a red or silver vertical 3 spoke.
↑This one is vertical 4.
In the image the silver spoke's vertical line length looks different, but it's exactly the same as all the other colors.
↑These are Shamal Ultra spokes from before the rear hub became Mega G3—
the original gold and the next generation gray.
At my shop, we sort these by color rather than by length,
so vertical 3, 4, and 5 are all mixed together.
Having three types means the front and rear left aren't the same length.
There's a dot marking on the gray vertical 4, but at least in terms of length there's no difference.
There are also cases where spokes are the same length but the threaded section starts at different points, which I'll mention later,
but that turned out to be identical as well.
I keep them in cases like this, but
the front spoke length
is less than the rear right but
more than the rear left, so I've put a paper on the case lid
showing the front spoke length as a reference.
By comparing against it, I can distinguish: same length = front, longer spoke = rear right, shorter spoke = rear left.
By the way, vertical 5 is the freehub side of the old G3 before Mega G3, so
there's no matching length in the current Mega G3 or 2:1 ratio.
When I do a cosmetic swap using front and rear left spokes,
it's partly because I want to increase the chances of the markings matching.
I did a cosmetic swap on Racing Zero Carbon recently,
and Racing Zero Carbon has the front and rear left spokes
at the same length (vertical 4 with the same marking),
so I was able to use conventional Racing Zero red spokes.
Now, about the Racing Zero Nite from the previous article,
it's horizontal 2.
This is the same length as the Shamal Mille front (image above).
This gets complicated, but I'll call this type "horizontally-aligned horizontal 2".
Due to the smaller front bearing, the hub flange also became smaller in diameter,
making the spokes slightly longer than before.
Now, Racing Zero Carbon also has a small-diameter front bearing, so why
are its spokes vertical 4 instead of horizontally-aligned horizontal 2?
That question probably comes up, so I'll explain.
Fulcrum's aluminum spoke and nipple supply comes in
four formats:
"Front spokes only, full set of 16"
"Rear spokes only, full set of 21"
"1 spoke and 1 nipple"
"Nipples only, 10 pieces"
Among these, the part number for "front spokes only full set"
is the same for Racing Zero (aluminum rim) and Racing Zero Carbon,
but when it becomes "1 spoke and 1 nipple," the part number changes.
The reason is:
the nipples are different.
The spokes are the same vertical 4, so the spoke-only part number is the same,
but when paired with a nipple, the part number differs.
In the image above, the one with a round head like a pan screw
is the Racing Zero Carbon nipple.
Because of this difference and the rim inner diameter being different from the aluminum rim,
the Racing Zero Carbon front spoke remains vertical 4
despite the small hub, rather than becoming horizontally-aligned horizontal 2.
Anyway, back to the topic: if I were to do a cosmetic swap on Racing Zero Nite,
I would need to prepare red horizontally-aligned horizontal 2 front spokes,
but no such thing exists.
Of course, conventional Racing Zero red spokes don't match the length either.
That's a problem.
So I investigated various things and noticed
that the part numbers for Racing Zero Competizione spokes
had been completely renewed.
Despite the hub and rim dimensions being the same, the spoke length is different.
I wondered what that was about, so I ordered samples.
Competizione front spokes only, full set of 16.
The marking is diagonal 3. There's one red cosmetic spoke, but
naturally it's the same length as the other 15, so the rule holds: "same marking, same length".
Competizione rear spokes only, full set of 21.
Diagonal 2 marking appears on 7 spokes for the left side (one is red),
and vertically-aligned horizontal 2 marking appears on 14 spokes for the right side.
↑Because of this one, I had to further distinguish the "horizontal 2" terminology.
This vertically-aligned horizontal 2 and the Racing Zero Nite front's horizontally-aligned horizontal 2
are completely different lengths.
Comparing old and new spokes for small-diameter front hubs.
Both have horizontally-aligned horizontal 2 at the top and diagonal 3 at the bottom in the image.
The overall spoke length is exactly the same, but
the threaded section length is different.
Actually, you can tell the new spokes have updated nipples when ordering
"1 spoke and 1 nipple" or "nipples only 10 pieces".
The nipples are new as well, and the threaded section length matches accordingly.
The new nipple has nylon embedded as a lock washer.
The foreign object coming out of the rim in two articles back—that's what it is.
This changes the depth where the nipple threads begin, and
when a new spoke is pushed into the nipple threads as far as it goes,
↑old nipple
↑new nipple
there's a difference in the pocket depth.
Based on these circumstances, I judged that combining the new diagonal 3 spoke
with the old nipple was possible,
so I used the diagonal 3 red spoke on the Racing Zero Nite front.
Similarly, I compared the rear left spokes.
The red one in the top image is the new spoke.
In this case, it turned out to be "spoke lengths are different,
but the threaded section starts at the same position".
I tried threading the new spoke onto the old nipple until the threads were fully engaged.
In practice, it's impossible to tension to that point.
When assembled, it would be about like this
(and I think this is already quite highly tensioned).
The new nipple is longer overall than the old one, so
the protruding part in the image above should catch on the lock washer.
I've never personally seen a Campagnolo or Fulcrum aluminum spoke symptom
where just one spoke gradually loosens,
so the lock washer is honestly unnecessary.
It just makes stuck nipples even harder to turn, I think.
Anyway, in this case the spoke's effective length is the same, so
although the situation differs from the front, I judged that combining new spoke with old nipple
was possible, and used the Competizione rear left spoke on the Nite.
↑Here's the rear left spoke I removed from Nite, and the new rear left red spoke.
"Front or rear spokes only full set"—you might think
it's risky to pull out a cosmetic spoke right away, but
it's fine.
↑Because I stock separate "red spoke + 1 nipple each" sets
for diagonal 3 (new front) and diagonal 2 (new rear left).
My parts distributor even said to me,
"You're probably not using these properly, are you?"
Only fitting for a Campy shop, I suppose.