Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer left me with some terrible wheels built with a Chris King R45 hub
and a Stans Alpha 400 rim.
Terrible wheels — that's the customer's term first, but I agree with the assessment.
Let me start with the front wheel.
R45 hub, 28H, Sapim black leader 14-gauge plain spokes, laced 6-cross Italian style,
with black brass nipples.
This wheel has the lateral runout and center dialed in, but
the spoke tension is just way too slack.
If you've ever built a wheel with a tension meter, you know
that as tension drops, spoke tension variation increases dramatically.
Just touching it, I could immediately spot at least two final crossings
with obviously low tension.
The spoke length is right at the lower limit of the proper range — flush with the nipple slot.
The rear wheel's drive side and non-drive side before rebuild were about the same.
This is technically within spec, so if the builder
had a deliberate preference for spoke length flush with the nipple slot
and calculated it properly, there'd be no problem.
But that's just coincidence here. I'll link to it later.
Built.
Rather than rebuilding with the Alpha 400 rim,
the customer wanted it converted to Nomulabo Wheel No. 5, so that's what I did.
Since the customer isn't the original owner of the old wheel,
what they essentially bought was not a wheel but
just "a barely-used Chris King hub in great condition."
They didn't send it to us immediately after buying — they used it a bit first
before deciding it was terrible.
CX-RAY 6-cross Italian lace
with silver aluminum nipples.
Now for the rear wheel.
Same as the front: R45 hub, 28H, black leader 14-gauge, 6-cross Italian lace,
black brass nipples.
If they'd used 15-gauge leader spokes and tensioned them properly,
this could have been a decent wheel.
The non-drive side was really mushy.
The lateral runout was about a piece of paper, so essentially negligible.
Built.
Semi-comp 4-cross lace with cross-lacing,
drive side
non-drive side
with silver aluminum nipples.
This wheel was built at the same shop as the Ursus rim wheel I built not long ago
（→here）.
As I wrote in that link, "a certain shop offering high-end display bikes
centered on American prestige brands at premium prices,"
so some people figured out which shop I meant.
There were apparently some voices saying "No, the shop owner's hand-built wheels are proper!
It's not like that!" But if someone genuinely finds no issues
with his hand-built wheels, well, that's blissful ignorance, I suppose.
Not having particularly high standards for the shop while gladly spending money
on fancy parts decking out display bikes — that's the ideal business model for that style of shop.
I'll grant that the shop puts effort into interior design and customer service
that creates that atmosphere.
But separate from all that, as a pure matter of fact,
his wheels are not very solid — at least not as racing equipment.
That's the one thing I won't compromise on.
However, some customers do notice, and as with the Ursus wheel,
↑Even the original owner barely used it.
Hmm, good judgment.
Even before the rebuild, the Chris King hub's unique ratcheting sound on freespin
and the smooth bearing rotation could still be enjoyed.
If someone's getting enough satisfaction from the wheel just by enjoying those qualities,
they wouldn't feel dissatisfied with the pre-rebuild wheel at all.
The Stans Alpha 400 is now discontinued, along with the Alpha 340.
The customer asked me to weigh the rim, so
I weighed it.
The number after Alpha is the spec weight, and it comes in around 400g,
so they're not lying.
But I'd always thought this rim was heavier — around 420g.
The Alpha 340, lighter than the Alpha 400, comes in
around 350g for early models with small logos,
and occasionally under 330g for some specimens.
Later models with larger logos, made after rim perforation cracking became frequent
and they increased the wall thickness on the inner diameter, came in around 380g.
So if a late-model Alpha 340 with big logo is 380g
and an Alpha 400 is around 400g, there's barely any difference, right?
And that's exactly how it was.
The gap is small enough that "a particularly light Alpha 400 specimen
could easily be lighter than a particularly heavy Alpha 340."
Oh, right, I just remembered. One last thing.
This customer has another Nomulabo Wheel No. 5 built with a Chris King R45 hub,
and when I asked why they needed another similar set,
they said they lent it to a teammate and it never came back — basically borrowed and not returned.
I should defend the teammate though — it sounds like they're basically evangelizing,
distributing it to spread the word.
Sorry, but you don't need to evangelize.
A customer left me with some terrible wheels built with a Chris King R45 hub
and a Stans Alpha 400 rim.
Terrible wheels — that's the customer's term first, but I agree with the assessment.
Let me start with the front wheel.
R45 hub, 28H, Sapim black leader 14-gauge plain spokes, laced 6-cross Italian style,
with black brass nipples.
This wheel has the lateral runout and center dialed in, but
the spoke tension is just way too slack.
If you've ever built a wheel with a tension meter, you know
that as tension drops, spoke tension variation increases dramatically.
Just touching it, I could immediately spot at least two final crossings
with obviously low tension.
The spoke length is right at the lower limit of the proper range — flush with the nipple slot.
The rear wheel's drive side and non-drive side before rebuild were about the same.
This is technically within spec, so if the builder
had a deliberate preference for spoke length flush with the nipple slot
and calculated it properly, there'd be no problem.
But that's just coincidence here. I'll link to it later.
Built.
Rather than rebuilding with the Alpha 400 rim,
the customer wanted it converted to Nomulabo Wheel No. 5, so that's what I did.
Since the customer isn't the original owner of the old wheel,
what they essentially bought was not a wheel but
just "a barely-used Chris King hub in great condition."
They didn't send it to us immediately after buying — they used it a bit first
before deciding it was terrible.
CX-RAY 6-cross Italian lace
with silver aluminum nipples.
Now for the rear wheel.
Same as the front: R45 hub, 28H, black leader 14-gauge, 6-cross Italian lace,
black brass nipples.
If they'd used 15-gauge leader spokes and tensioned them properly,
this could have been a decent wheel.
The non-drive side was really mushy.
The lateral runout was about a piece of paper, so essentially negligible.
Built.
Semi-comp 4-cross lace with cross-lacing,
drive side
non-drive side
with silver aluminum nipples.
This wheel was built at the same shop as the Ursus rim wheel I built not long ago
（→here）.
As I wrote in that link, "a certain shop offering high-end display bikes
centered on American prestige brands at premium prices,"
so some people figured out which shop I meant.
There were apparently some voices saying "No, the shop owner's hand-built wheels are proper!
It's not like that!" But if someone genuinely finds no issues
with his hand-built wheels, well, that's blissful ignorance, I suppose.
Not having particularly high standards for the shop while gladly spending money
on fancy parts decking out display bikes — that's the ideal business model for that style of shop.
I'll grant that the shop puts effort into interior design and customer service
that creates that atmosphere.
But separate from all that, as a pure matter of fact,
his wheels are not very solid — at least not as racing equipment.
That's the one thing I won't compromise on.
However, some customers do notice, and as with the Ursus wheel,
↑Even the original owner barely used it.
Hmm, good judgment.
Even before the rebuild, the Chris King hub's unique ratcheting sound on freespin
and the smooth bearing rotation could still be enjoyed.
If someone's getting enough satisfaction from the wheel just by enjoying those qualities,
they wouldn't feel dissatisfied with the pre-rebuild wheel at all.
The Stans Alpha 400 is now discontinued, along with the Alpha 340.
The customer asked me to weigh the rim, so
I weighed it.
The number after Alpha is the spec weight, and it comes in around 400g,
so they're not lying.
But I'd always thought this rim was heavier — around 420g.
The Alpha 340, lighter than the Alpha 400, comes in
around 350g for early models with small logos,
and occasionally under 330g for some specimens.
Later models with larger logos, made after rim perforation cracking became frequent
and they increased the wall thickness on the inner diameter, came in around 380g.
So if a late-model Alpha 340 with big logo is 380g
and an Alpha 400 is around 400g, there's barely any difference, right?
And that's exactly how it was.
The gap is small enough that "a particularly light Alpha 400 specimen
could easily be lighter than a particularly heavy Alpha 340."
Oh, right, I just remembered. One last thing.
This customer has another Nomulabo Wheel No. 5 built with a Chris King R45 hub,
and when I asked why they needed another similar set,
they said they lent it to a teammate and it never came back — basically borrowed and not returned.
I should defend the teammate though — it sounds like they're basically evangelizing,
distributing it to spread the word.
Sorry, but you don't need to evangelize.