A customer brought in a front wheel built with an Iron Cross rim.
I built this one myself back in the day, but it looks like it got crashed pretty hard.
The rim has become potato-chip warped, and the bead hook shows visible deformation too.
I need to replace this rim, but since the Iron Cross is discontinued,
I have to think about what other rim to use.
If I go with the same maker's Stantz Grail,
the rim inner diameter is too different and I can't reuse the spokes.
The all-black CX-RAY 28-spoke set would go to waste, and the rim would be about 80g heavier too.
I've looked around at DT rims as well, but
the spoke length differs too much, so there's no rim I can reuse.
The last option I considered was the same maker's Crest, but
again, the rim inner diameter is slightly larger, making reuse difficult.
But here's the thing—
considering the customer's interest in reusing spokes if possible,
I thought there might be merit in building the wheel with a spoke length I'd normally never use,
so I decided to rebuild with the Crest.
The tubeless rim tape was shifted, but
the tubeless-ready seal was holding.
The spoke length before disassembly. Flush with the end face of the nipple.
Moving the rim from Iron Cross to Crest...
Built it.
Hmm! This is a length I'd absolutely never normally use, but
as long as I apply loctite, it barely works out.
By the way, moving spokes from Crest back to Iron Cross is impossible.
It might work if the Crest was built with shorter spokes, so
strictly speaking, "moving spokes from a Crest I built to Iron Cross is impossible."
However, spokes on the non-driveside can be recovered from the hub,
so they can be reused by cutting them shorter.
Next, a customer brought in a rear wheel built with a DT RR440.
This is also one I built myself back then,
with a PowerTap hub.
There's some runout that seems to stem from rim warping,
so I need to replace the rim itself, but
this RR440 is an asymmetric rim (offset rim), so
I decided to rebuild with the RR411, the current model closest to it.
The RR411 has a rim inner diameter slightly larger than the RR440.
The customer said it's OK to buy new spokes if needed, but
I confirmed that even accounting for adjustment clearance on the truing stand, it barely works.
The fact that the RR411 requires dedicated washers was also a fortunate element.
So I'll rebuild it, but
The RR411 requires using the dedicated nipples that come with the rim.
These nipples are silver, but the customer's original rear wheel had black nipples, so
I ordered black ones.
As I wrote in an earlier post (→here),
these nipples are labeled as 15mm long, but their effective length is the same as 12mm nipples,
so I don't really think you need to use these,
but I have no particular reason to resist, so I'll go with it.
At my new DT distributor, they call this nipple
the Squorex nipple (and it's labeled that way on the bag too),
so I'll call it that going forward.
It's nice that the distributor provides a clear katakana designation.
But these nipples come 20 per bag—ahhhhhhhhhhh!
The rear wheel I'm rebuilding is 28H. No wonder it seemed so cheap!
So my rebuild got delayed by 3 days.
Moving the rim...
Built it.
The spoke threads don't catch on the 12mm nipple plus the 3mm extension on the outer side,
but the thread engagement is sufficient.
No matter how hard I try, rim relocation work doesn't quite fill the "Wheel... (etc.)" category.
On the "Wheel... (etc.)" road,
you can rack up technique points all you want, but they won't combine into a complete technique.
I built this one myself back in the day, but it looks like it got crashed pretty hard.
The rim has become potato-chip warped, and the bead hook shows visible deformation too.
I need to replace this rim, but since the Iron Cross is discontinued,
I have to think about what other rim to use.
If I go with the same maker's Stantz Grail,
the rim inner diameter is too different and I can't reuse the spokes.
The all-black CX-RAY 28-spoke set would go to waste, and the rim would be about 80g heavier too.
I've looked around at DT rims as well, but
the spoke length differs too much, so there's no rim I can reuse.
The last option I considered was the same maker's Crest, but
again, the rim inner diameter is slightly larger, making reuse difficult.
But here's the thing—
considering the customer's interest in reusing spokes if possible,
I thought there might be merit in building the wheel with a spoke length I'd normally never use,
so I decided to rebuild with the Crest.
The tubeless rim tape was shifted, but
the tubeless-ready seal was holding.
The spoke length before disassembly. Flush with the end face of the nipple.
Moving the rim from Iron Cross to Crest...
Built it.
Hmm! This is a length I'd absolutely never normally use, but
as long as I apply loctite, it barely works out.
By the way, moving spokes from Crest back to Iron Cross is impossible.
It might work if the Crest was built with shorter spokes, so
strictly speaking, "moving spokes from a Crest I built to Iron Cross is impossible."
However, spokes on the non-driveside can be recovered from the hub,
so they can be reused by cutting them shorter.
Next, a customer brought in a rear wheel built with a DT RR440.
This is also one I built myself back then,
with a PowerTap hub.
There's some runout that seems to stem from rim warping,
so I need to replace the rim itself, but
this RR440 is an asymmetric rim (offset rim), so
I decided to rebuild with the RR411, the current model closest to it.
The RR411 has a rim inner diameter slightly larger than the RR440.
The customer said it's OK to buy new spokes if needed, but
I confirmed that even accounting for adjustment clearance on the truing stand, it barely works.
The fact that the RR411 requires dedicated washers was also a fortunate element.
So I'll rebuild it, but
The RR411 requires using the dedicated nipples that come with the rim.
These nipples are silver, but the customer's original rear wheel had black nipples, so
I ordered black ones.
As I wrote in an earlier post (→here),
these nipples are labeled as 15mm long, but their effective length is the same as 12mm nipples,
so I don't really think you need to use these,
but I have no particular reason to resist, so I'll go with it.
At my new DT distributor, they call this nipple
the Squorex nipple (and it's labeled that way on the bag too),
so I'll call it that going forward.
It's nice that the distributor provides a clear katakana designation.
But these nipples come 20 per bag—ahhhhhhhhhhh!
The rear wheel I'm rebuilding is 28H. No wonder it seemed so cheap!
So my rebuild got delayed by 3 days.
Moving the rim...
Built it.
The spoke threads don't catch on the 12mm nipple plus the 3mm extension on the outer side,
but the thread engagement is sufficient.
No matter how hard I try, rim relocation work doesn't quite fill the "Wheel... (etc.)" category.
On the "Wheel... (etc.)" road,
you can rack up technique points all you want, but they won't combine into a complete technique.