Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer dropped off a rear wheel built with a Reynolds Assault rim.
Someone had gone to the trouble of disassembling a pre-built wheel and rebuilding it,
but unfortunately it was terribly poor work for something calling itself professional
(I've confirmed the customer wasn't involved—amateurs didn't do this either).
White Industries T11 hub, 24H
66 Italian lace, but
get this—
the non-drive side was laced with DT Compe, and
the drive side was laced with CX-RAY—reverse half-Compe lacing.
The drive side tension is cranked super tight,
but the non-drive side is slack, and well, that's obvious.
Logically speaking, it's worse than a normal wheel.
When I tried to use spare spokes from inventory that matched the length,
I told the customer it might have happened due to inventory clearing,
but apparently they actually had the spokes specially ordered,
so it looks like a straightforward mistake.
When I disassembled it, I noticed the CX-RAY on the drive side
was cut shorter than the nipple slot—really short.
I didn't ask which shop did this, but since they don't have a spoke cutter,
they're using the closest even-millimeter length from their 2mm increment stock, as-is.
Even so, another 2mm longer would've been better.
The rebuild uses 46 lacing, so it doesn't matter now,
but for 6-spoke drive-side lacing on this rim and hub, the length should be odd millimeters.
So, being stupid is one thing, but the killer mistake was this:
↑They had this much centering offset.
The customer had swapped it for a Shamal Mille I'd checked once,
and the brake clearance got thrown off, which they knew was odd.
But Shamal Mille wheels—whether I check them or not—
are almost always dead-center or off by about a paper's thickness.
The drive-side CX-RAY is so tight there's almost no room for retensioning.
Maybe another quarter-turn or so could be squeezed in, but
anyone who's ever built a wheel knows that
a quarter-turn increase on the drive side won't close a gap this big.
Since the rim has shifted toward the non-drive side,
if you can't tighten the drive side further, you have to loosen the non-drive side,
but do that and the spoke tension drops—
you'd get spokes that rattle and move when you just pinch and shake them with your fingers.
Maybe that's actually what happened, and they just tensioned the non-drive side
enough to prevent it.
As for the centering, I guess they thought no one would notice.
There are people who, given a 32H rim and hub,
never in their lives think of concepts like alternating-diameter or mixed-spoke builds—
64 or 44 lacing with same-diameter spokes—but this work-alike is worse than that.
Or maybe they read this blog, got the idea to try half-Compe lacing,
and just swapped the spoke sides by mistake?
If so, that's terminally stupid, and the fact they didn't notice
the wheel came out messed up—and even MORE asymmetrical—shows zero sense.
Spokes too short, centering off—if they knew and did it anyway, that's bad.
If they didn't know they were doing it, that's also bad.
In case whoever this is is reading:
I really don't know who you are,
but you shouldn't be building wheels anymore, buddy.
Don't waste my time like this...
You just set back another wheel's delivery by a day...
Built.
T11 hub, 24H, black half-Compe, 46 lacing, with bracing.
I believe black Compe spokes are reusable, but I went with fresh ones.
The nipples weren't Reynolds OEM—both sides used
Sapim 14mm black aluminum nipples (the ones that come with black CX-RAY),
but I don't use those.
I don't throw them away either, so
I've accumulated enough to plant yellow-neck radishes (more on that later).
For the rebuild, I used DT 12mm black aluminum nipples.
I'm not criticizing using Sapim nipples.
There are reasons to avoid them, but that's separate.
Dead-center. Just to be clear.
↑Yellow-neck radish
As for why I don't use Sapim black aluminum nipples, I won't say.
A customer dropped off a rear wheel built with a Reynolds Assault rim.
Someone had gone to the trouble of disassembling a pre-built wheel and rebuilding it,
but unfortunately it was terribly poor work for something calling itself professional
(I've confirmed the customer wasn't involved—amateurs didn't do this either).
White Industries T11 hub, 24H
66 Italian lace, but
get this—
the non-drive side was laced with DT Compe, and
the drive side was laced with CX-RAY—reverse half-Compe lacing.
The drive side tension is cranked super tight,
but the non-drive side is slack, and well, that's obvious.
Logically speaking, it's worse than a normal wheel.
When I tried to use spare spokes from inventory that matched the length,
I told the customer it might have happened due to inventory clearing,
but apparently they actually had the spokes specially ordered,
so it looks like a straightforward mistake.
When I disassembled it, I noticed the CX-RAY on the drive side
was cut shorter than the nipple slot—really short.
I didn't ask which shop did this, but since they don't have a spoke cutter,
they're using the closest even-millimeter length from their 2mm increment stock, as-is.
Even so, another 2mm longer would've been better.
The rebuild uses 46 lacing, so it doesn't matter now,
but for 6-spoke drive-side lacing on this rim and hub, the length should be odd millimeters.
So, being stupid is one thing, but the killer mistake was this:
↑They had this much centering offset.
The customer had swapped it for a Shamal Mille I'd checked once,
and the brake clearance got thrown off, which they knew was odd.
But Shamal Mille wheels—whether I check them or not—
are almost always dead-center or off by about a paper's thickness.
The drive-side CX-RAY is so tight there's almost no room for retensioning.
Maybe another quarter-turn or so could be squeezed in, but
anyone who's ever built a wheel knows that
a quarter-turn increase on the drive side won't close a gap this big.
Since the rim has shifted toward the non-drive side,
if you can't tighten the drive side further, you have to loosen the non-drive side,
but do that and the spoke tension drops—
you'd get spokes that rattle and move when you just pinch and shake them with your fingers.
Maybe that's actually what happened, and they just tensioned the non-drive side
enough to prevent it.
As for the centering, I guess they thought no one would notice.
There are people who, given a 32H rim and hub,
never in their lives think of concepts like alternating-diameter or mixed-spoke builds—
64 or 44 lacing with same-diameter spokes—but this work-alike is worse than that.
Or maybe they read this blog, got the idea to try half-Compe lacing,
and just swapped the spoke sides by mistake?
If so, that's terminally stupid, and the fact they didn't notice
the wheel came out messed up—and even MORE asymmetrical—shows zero sense.
Spokes too short, centering off—if they knew and did it anyway, that's bad.
If they didn't know they were doing it, that's also bad.
In case whoever this is is reading:
I really don't know who you are,
but you shouldn't be building wheels anymore, buddy.
You just set back another wheel's delivery by a day...
Built.
T11 hub, 24H, black half-Compe, 46 lacing, with bracing.
I believe black Compe spokes are reusable, but I went with fresh ones.
The nipples weren't Reynolds OEM—both sides used
Sapim 14mm black aluminum nipples (the ones that come with black CX-RAY),
but I don't use those.
I don't throw them away either, so
I've accumulated enough to plant yellow-neck radishes (more on that later).
For the rebuild, I used DT 12mm black aluminum nipples.
I'm not criticizing using Sapim nipples.
There are reasons to avoid them, but that's separate.
Dead-center. Just to be clear.
↑Yellow-neck radish
As for why I don't use Sapim black aluminum nipples, I won't say.