This was a job that gave me real trouble after a long time.
The same customer requested a respoke job on three carbon rear wheels all at once,
and I ran into all sorts of issues.
Starting with the 20mm.
I'm building the black CX-RAY in 40-spoke lacing.
The free side is reverse Italian lacing, and the non-drive side radial lacing uses outpoke threading throughout.
This is a low-profile rim—quite a light one—but
rather than just chasing "feels light in hand," the focus here is on rigidity for spinning that light outer section
so the customer specifically wanted a respoke to DT Competition spokes.
That's some seriously bold contrarian thinking.
I suspect the wheel felt sloppy because of the non-drive side radial lacing,
and along with fixing that, choosing to go thicker spoke-wise
is the kind of move that feels like real craftsmanship.
Respoke complete.
DT Competition in 46-spoke lacing.
Next, the 38mm.
28 holes—a slightly higher spoke count.
Black CX-RAY in 40-spoke lacing, with the non-drive side radial lacing using outpoke threading throughout,
but for some reason the free side is Italian lacing on this one.
Respoke complete.
Silver CX-RAY in 46-spoke lacing.
Of the three wheels, this one came out exceptionally well
in terms of correcting left-right spoke tension differences.
We're planning to lace-lock all of them, but for this one it might not even be necessary.
The wheel already had decent rigidity to begin with, but it's even better now.
Finally, the 50mm.
40-spoke lacing again, but this time the free side is reverse Italian.
And the non-drive side radial lacing on this one alone uses inpoke threading.
The inconsistency makes me sense something experimental going on.
"Spoke tension is loose," the customer had written,
but I'll be honest—and I mean no disrespect—
I thought it was an unfinished wheel.
That's how loose it was.
For this one, the customer wanted the free-side spokes reused if possible,
and said it was fine if the left and right sides had different spoke colors.
It looks doable, so I'll do it,
but I have to undo the reverse Italian lacing section to fix it, so I need to pull the whole thing apart.
Plus, the hub is getting swapped anyway, so it's a complete rebuild regardless.
The 20mm and 38mm use the same hub,
but the 50mm hub was quite narrow-flange, so
I switched it to a Tni Evolution hub.
Too bad, really—the original hub had beautiful high-low flange proportions.
Built.
46-spoke Italian lacing.
That goes for all of them on this one, actually.
The same customer requested a respoke job on three carbon rear wheels all at once,
and I ran into all sorts of issues.
Starting with the 20mm.
I'm building the black CX-RAY in 40-spoke lacing.
The free side is reverse Italian lacing, and the non-drive side radial lacing uses outpoke threading throughout.
This is a low-profile rim—quite a light one—but
rather than just chasing "feels light in hand," the focus here is on rigidity for spinning that light outer section
so the customer specifically wanted a respoke to DT Competition spokes.
That's some seriously bold contrarian thinking.
I suspect the wheel felt sloppy because of the non-drive side radial lacing,
and along with fixing that, choosing to go thicker spoke-wise
is the kind of move that feels like real craftsmanship.
Respoke complete.
DT Competition in 46-spoke lacing.
Next, the 38mm.
28 holes—a slightly higher spoke count.
Black CX-RAY in 40-spoke lacing, with the non-drive side radial lacing using outpoke threading throughout,
but for some reason the free side is Italian lacing on this one.
Respoke complete.
Silver CX-RAY in 46-spoke lacing.
Of the three wheels, this one came out exceptionally well
in terms of correcting left-right spoke tension differences.
We're planning to lace-lock all of them, but for this one it might not even be necessary.
The wheel already had decent rigidity to begin with, but it's even better now.
Finally, the 50mm.
40-spoke lacing again, but this time the free side is reverse Italian.
And the non-drive side radial lacing on this one alone uses inpoke threading.
The inconsistency makes me sense something experimental going on.
"Spoke tension is loose," the customer had written,
but I'll be honest—and I mean no disrespect—
I thought it was an unfinished wheel.
That's how loose it was.
For this one, the customer wanted the free-side spokes reused if possible,
and said it was fine if the left and right sides had different spoke colors.
It looks doable, so I'll do it,
but I have to undo the reverse Italian lacing section to fix it, so I need to pull the whole thing apart.
Plus, the hub is getting swapped anyway, so it's a complete rebuild regardless.
The 20mm and 38mm use the same hub,
but the 50mm hub was quite narrow-flange, so
I switched it to a Tni Evolution hub.
Too bad, really—the original hub had beautiful high-low flange proportions.
Built.
46-spoke Italian lacing.
That goes for all of them on this one, actually.