Another day with wheels (and so on).
Another day with the Power Tap (and so on).
↑Before the rebuild.
Time to call in the wheel jig.
It was built with DT Revolution spokes,
but even accounting for the thinness of the spokes,
the tension was way too loose, so I decided to rebuild it.
According to the shop that originally built this,
this wheel performs on par with a Racing Zero,
but I have to say that's just not possible.
True, the rim is lighter than a Racing Zero.
Probably light enough to save the weight of one DT tube.
But a Racing Zero has aluminum spokes with a rigid feel, pulled almost tangentially on the freewheel side.
That "propelled" sensation when you pedal just can't be achieved with steel spokes.
You might get close to that vertical stiffness with 2.0mm plain spokes in a 32H or 36H build,
but that would only make the wheel much heavier than a Racing Zero.
↑On the non-freewheel side, the spokes heading in the "anti-porcupine" direction
(Italian lacing, so non-round spokes)
I placed reference tape just below where the spokes intersect.
↑And I gripped the spokes.
Racing Zeros don't deflect nearly this much,
and neither do most hand-built wheels.
In terms of actual spoke tension after adjustment, the tight sections measured around 30 kgf,
and the loosest sections, where I suspect some loosening had occurred from years of use,
were around 15 kgf.
Even with Revolution spokes, you can tension higher than this.
It's not that the wheel itself is bad.
If it was intentionally left loose, that's fine,
and if the customer is satisfied with it, that's what matters.
(Though they probably wouldn't have brought it here if they were satisfied.)
But calling it Racing Zero equivalent is nonsense.
There are plenty of people in the world who can tell the difference by feel and by riding,
so talking like this will just get you laughed at.
I mentioned age-related loosening earlier,
but this red grease was applied when it was brand new.
I've opened up a lot of Power Tap internals over the years (sorry about that),
and this one is relatively clean.
The shaft rotation was smooth with no sense of anything out of place,
so I didn't disassemble and clean the bearings.
I just cleaned the freewheel section.
From this point, I'll apply fresh grease to the freewheel pawls.
↑Well, I did take care of that.
Rebuilt. Actually, there's still more work to come.
Forgive me for today.
Campagnolo on the freewheel side, CX-RAY on the non-freewheel side, Italian 4-cross lacing.
I plan to tie the spokes, but before that,
I'd really like the customer to confirm
"for the freewheel-side tension, isn't the non-freewheel side pulling pretty hard?"
Once you tie the spokes, the apparent deformation in the front-back direction looks the same on both sides.
(Only apparently though. The true spoke tension doesn't change.)
Even without tying, it should feel much "snappier" than before the rebuild,
but I still can't believe this wheel matches a Racing Zero.
I do think we did the best we could with the materials we had.
Another day with the Power Tap (and so on).
↑Before the rebuild.
Time to call in the wheel jig.
It was built with DT Revolution spokes,
but even accounting for the thinness of the spokes,
the tension was way too loose, so I decided to rebuild it.
According to the shop that originally built this,
this wheel performs on par with a Racing Zero,
but I have to say that's just not possible.
True, the rim is lighter than a Racing Zero.
Probably light enough to save the weight of one DT tube.
But a Racing Zero has aluminum spokes with a rigid feel, pulled almost tangentially on the freewheel side.
That "propelled" sensation when you pedal just can't be achieved with steel spokes.
You might get close to that vertical stiffness with 2.0mm plain spokes in a 32H or 36H build,
but that would only make the wheel much heavier than a Racing Zero.
↑On the non-freewheel side, the spokes heading in the "anti-porcupine" direction
(Italian lacing, so non-round spokes)
I placed reference tape just below where the spokes intersect.
↑And I gripped the spokes.
Racing Zeros don't deflect nearly this much,
and neither do most hand-built wheels.
In terms of actual spoke tension after adjustment, the tight sections measured around 30 kgf,
and the loosest sections, where I suspect some loosening had occurred from years of use,
were around 15 kgf.
Even with Revolution spokes, you can tension higher than this.
It's not that the wheel itself is bad.
If it was intentionally left loose, that's fine,
and if the customer is satisfied with it, that's what matters.
(Though they probably wouldn't have brought it here if they were satisfied.)
But calling it Racing Zero equivalent is nonsense.
There are plenty of people in the world who can tell the difference by feel and by riding,
so talking like this will just get you laughed at.
I mentioned age-related loosening earlier,
but this red grease was applied when it was brand new.
I've opened up a lot of Power Tap internals over the years (sorry about that),
and this one is relatively clean.
The shaft rotation was smooth with no sense of anything out of place,
so I didn't disassemble and clean the bearings.
I just cleaned the freewheel section.
From this point, I'll apply fresh grease to the freewheel pawls.
↑Well, I did take care of that.
Rebuilt. Actually, there's still more work to come.
Forgive me for today.
Campagnolo on the freewheel side, CX-RAY on the non-freewheel side, Italian 4-cross lacing.
I plan to tie the spokes, but before that,
I'd really like the customer to confirm
"for the freewheel-side tension, isn't the non-freewheel side pulling pretty hard?"
Once you tie the spokes, the apparent deformation in the front-back direction looks the same on both sides.
(Only apparently though. The true spoke tension doesn't change.)
Even without tying, it should feel much "snappier" than before the rebuild,
but I still can't believe this wheel matches a Racing Zero.
I do think we did the best we could with the materials we had.