Today it's wheels again (and so on...).
I built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5.
This is the last front wheel to match the rear wheel I built five at a time the other day.
Since all the materials are ready, I contacted the customer saying
"I can build it today" before assembling the wheel.
While checking the backorders, I noticed—this is a separate matter—that
for a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5 that needs to be built soon,
I'm short one pair with black spokes and gold nipples, so
I hastily built one more pair.
I'll do the tensioning later.
There's still more to come.
I received an ENVE rear hub from a customer.
The freebody is DT made, but
the hub body all the way up to the flange is
carbon fiber—one wild (in a good way) hub.
A hub lighter than the Rié hub (188g) is pretty rare.
Built it.
ENVE hub 24H, all CX-RAY, 46-spoke pattern with radial lacing and tensioning.
I told the customer honestly, but
the rear hub dimensions aren't great.
It's about 1mm wider than a DT hub, but the flange width is narrow,
and the spoke tension on the freewheel side is dead while
the non-freewheel side is still loose—that's because
the right flange width is narrow (the ochoko cup is tight).
Also, considering the rider's body weight (early 40kg),
I went with all CX-RAY instead of half-competition spokes for the lightweight look,
but while building it I could feel the difference from my usual half-competition setup.
Because of the hub dimensions, I'm even starting to think the 46-spoke pattern isn't working.
With a rear wheel like this, tensioning is essential.
↑Actual measured weight. Before tensioning it was 670g.
Our shop currently has about 100 XR200 24H rims on hand,
and while 100 is impossible, I selected lighter rims from about 10,
so if I hadn't done that there could easily be an additional 15g.
For reference, an Evo-lite hub 24H half-competition 46-spoke pattern
rear wheel would come to around 760g.
I used turquoise aluminum nipples per the customer's request.
Turquoise isn't just something I call it myself—
it's the official color name for
DT's 12mm long, 14-gauge aluminum nipple
"30-008".
↑Turquoise
Separate from turquoise, there's also a blue color, but
the color can vary drastically depending on the production lot
↑Both are supposedly the same product.
You don't get a mix of two colors in one box,
but which of these two you get is random,
and while the light blue is more common,
you can also receive both dark blue and light blue in simultaneous orders.
When I ask customers "which blue do you prefer?"
most of the time they choose the lighter one, so
dark blue stock keeps accumulating.
This light blue,
is of course different from turquoise.
By using these three colors (definitely more than two when you look at them)
at one-third intervals around the wheel,
you'd get a blue gradient effect when it's spinning.
Gold nipples too come in distinctly different colors—
one that looks orangish and one that looks yellowish—
and they arrive randomly.
Red nipples also come in dark red and a pale reddish tone,
but for red nipples, I've only been seeing the paler red lately.
I built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5.
This is the last front wheel to match the rear wheel I built five at a time the other day.
Since all the materials are ready, I contacted the customer saying
"I can build it today" before assembling the wheel.
While checking the backorders, I noticed—this is a separate matter—that
for a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5 that needs to be built soon,
I'm short one pair with black spokes and gold nipples, so
I hastily built one more pair.
I'll do the tensioning later.
There's still more to come.
I received an ENVE rear hub from a customer.
The freebody is DT made, but
the hub body all the way up to the flange is
carbon fiber—one wild (in a good way) hub.
A hub lighter than the Rié hub (188g) is pretty rare.
Built it.
ENVE hub 24H, all CX-RAY, 46-spoke pattern with radial lacing and tensioning.
I told the customer honestly, but
the rear hub dimensions aren't great.
It's about 1mm wider than a DT hub, but the flange width is narrow,
and the spoke tension on the freewheel side is dead while
the non-freewheel side is still loose—that's because
the right flange width is narrow (the ochoko cup is tight).
Also, considering the rider's body weight (early 40kg),
I went with all CX-RAY instead of half-competition spokes for the lightweight look,
but while building it I could feel the difference from my usual half-competition setup.
Because of the hub dimensions, I'm even starting to think the 46-spoke pattern isn't working.
With a rear wheel like this, tensioning is essential.
↑Actual measured weight. Before tensioning it was 670g.
Our shop currently has about 100 XR200 24H rims on hand,
and while 100 is impossible, I selected lighter rims from about 10,
so if I hadn't done that there could easily be an additional 15g.
For reference, an Evo-lite hub 24H half-competition 46-spoke pattern
rear wheel would come to around 760g.
I used turquoise aluminum nipples per the customer's request.
Turquoise isn't just something I call it myself—
it's the official color name for
DT's 12mm long, 14-gauge aluminum nipple
"30-008".
↑Turquoise
Separate from turquoise, there's also a blue color, but
the color can vary drastically depending on the production lot
↑Both are supposedly the same product.
You don't get a mix of two colors in one box,
but which of these two you get is random,
and while the light blue is more common,
you can also receive both dark blue and light blue in simultaneous orders.
When I ask customers "which blue do you prefer?"
most of the time they choose the lighter one, so
dark blue stock keeps accumulating.
This light blue,
is of course different from turquoise.
By using these three colors (definitely more than two when you look at them)
at one-third intervals around the wheel,
you'd get a blue gradient effect when it's spinning.
Gold nipples too come in distinctly different colors—
one that looks orangish and one that looks yellowish—
and they arrive randomly.
Red nipples also come in dark red and a pale reddish tone,
but for red nipples, I've only been seeing the paler red lately.