Another day of wheel building (and so on).
I received two tubular rims from a customer—one 18-hole EDGE or ENVE 1-45, and one 24-hole.
Since there are no stickers, I can't distinguish one of these as EDGE or ENVE from this image.
The front rim has a sticker around the valve hole, which is not present on EDGE rims, so this one is definitely ENVE.
The other one also shows no possibility of being EDGE based on the serial number.
Even with early-model ENVE rims, if there's no sticker around the valve hole, I can't tell just from that alone.
I'll write more detailed info about that when I do the rear wheel.
The customer also left stickers with me.
Three stickers per rim side, six for both sides, so twelve total needed for front and rear rims, but there are thirteen.
Must be insurance in case I mess up.
We have a 20-hole ENVE 1-45 rim here at the shop that a customer (technically) left behind, so I'll use that as reference for the sticker placement.
This rim is an early-model ENVE, so there's no sticker around the valve hole.
The sticker I received has white triangles at the corners of the text, but this rim has black ones, so I thought it might be a different version. But those parts are clear, so when applied to the rim they become black triangles—no color difference from the original.
If you look closely, you can see that ENVE stickers were removed and large square stickers were applied for a certain period of time.
I put marker tape on the reference rim to match the sticker position.
The customer (technically) of this rim
wanted the "beetle" (self-named) I made from Mavic tubeless rim tape, so I'm giving it to them. Here you go.
I have aluminum nipples from the customer for both the 18-hole and 24-hole rims.
The ones with 18 pieces are the later-model nipples.
The 24-piece set has some corrosion on the surface, but I'll reuse them.
The two types of nipples this time differ in length, but both are specified to be assembled with the side where the threads start abruptly facing outward.
But these nipples show signs of being assembled the wrong way.
If you put them on the inner side, they rub against the rim and turn black.
ENVE rims have extremely thin walls on the inner side, so if you put the thread start on the inside, the spoke thread end will hit immediately.
I thought assembling nipples backward was the worst mistake possible, but there's actually an even lower level I never imagined.
Some nipples are actually used in the correct orientation.
In other words, it's not that the nipple orientation was misunderstood—it's that "the nipple orientation wasn't considered at all."
This is a new discovery.
Built it up.
Like the supplied nipples, the 18-hole with the valve hole sticker is the later model.
Built it as an 18-hole Evolite hub CX-RAY anti-Nipo spoke radial laced wheel.
I received two tubular rims from a customer—one 18-hole EDGE or ENVE 1-45, and one 24-hole.
Since there are no stickers, I can't distinguish one of these as EDGE or ENVE from this image.
The front rim has a sticker around the valve hole, which is not present on EDGE rims, so this one is definitely ENVE.
The other one also shows no possibility of being EDGE based on the serial number.
Even with early-model ENVE rims, if there's no sticker around the valve hole, I can't tell just from that alone.
I'll write more detailed info about that when I do the rear wheel.
The customer also left stickers with me.
Three stickers per rim side, six for both sides, so twelve total needed for front and rear rims, but there are thirteen.
Must be insurance in case I mess up.
We have a 20-hole ENVE 1-45 rim here at the shop that a customer (technically) left behind, so I'll use that as reference for the sticker placement.
This rim is an early-model ENVE, so there's no sticker around the valve hole.
The sticker I received has white triangles at the corners of the text, but this rim has black ones, so I thought it might be a different version. But those parts are clear, so when applied to the rim they become black triangles—no color difference from the original.
If you look closely, you can see that ENVE stickers were removed and large square stickers were applied for a certain period of time.
I put marker tape on the reference rim to match the sticker position.
The customer (technically) of this rim
wanted the "beetle" (self-named) I made from Mavic tubeless rim tape, so I'm giving it to them. Here you go.
I have aluminum nipples from the customer for both the 18-hole and 24-hole rims.
The ones with 18 pieces are the later-model nipples.
The 24-piece set has some corrosion on the surface, but I'll reuse them.
The two types of nipples this time differ in length, but both are specified to be assembled with the side where the threads start abruptly facing outward.
But these nipples show signs of being assembled the wrong way.
If you put them on the inner side, they rub against the rim and turn black.
ENVE rims have extremely thin walls on the inner side, so if you put the thread start on the inside, the spoke thread end will hit immediately.
I thought assembling nipples backward was the worst mistake possible, but there's actually an even lower level I never imagined.
Some nipples are actually used in the correct orientation.
In other words, it's not that the nipple orientation was misunderstood—it's that "the nipple orientation wasn't considered at all."
This is a new discovery.
Built it up.
Like the supplied nipples, the 18-hole with the valve hole sticker is the later model.
Built it as an 18-hole Evolite hub CX-RAY anti-Nipo spoke radial laced wheel.