Another wheel day (et cetera).
Another PowerTap day (et cetera).
↑Before rebuild.
Time for some consideration.
It was originally laced with DT Revolution spokes, but
even accounting for how thin they are, the tension was way too slack,
so a rebuild became necessary.
According to the shop that originally built it, this wheel is comparable to a Racing Zero,
but I have to say that's just not possible.
Sure, the rim is lighter compared to a Racing Zero.
Probably light enough to save a whole WO inner tube.
But what makes a Racing Zero what it is: rigid aluminum spokes
laced nearly tangentially on the drive side.
That "forward feel" when you're pedaling—you just can't get that with steel spokes.
You might achieve a similar vertical stiffness by building with 2.0mm plain spokes at 32H or 36H,
but then you end up with a wheel that's way heavier than a Racing Zero.
↑On the non-drive side, the outpoke
(it's Italian lacing, so they're outpokes)
in that "porcupine" direction—I marked the spot
right below where the spokes cross.
↑And then I grabbed the spoke.
A Racing Zero doesn't deflect like this,
and neither does most hand-built wheels.
Converting to true spoke tension, the tight sections were around 30 kgf,
and the loosest areas—where age-related slack had probably set in—
were down to about 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 loose, that's fine, and if
the customer is happy with it, then no problem.
(Though if they were happy, they wouldn't have brought it here.)
But claiming this is equivalent to a Racing Zero? That's pure fiction.
There are plenty of people out there who can tell just by touching or riding a wheel,
and you'll get laughed at saying stuff like that.
I mentioned age-related loosening earlier, but
this red grease is what was applied when it was new.
I've opened up a lot of PowerTap internals over the years (sorry about that),
and this one's relatively clean.
The shaft spins smoothly with no sense of contamination,
so I skipped the full bearing tear-down cleaning.
I just cleaned the freewheel section.
From here, I'll re-grease the freewheel pawls.
↑Oh, I did take care of this.
Rebuilt. Actually, there's still more work to do after this.
Cut me some slack for today.
Drive side Campagnolo Comp, non-drive side Shimano CX-RAY, Italian 46-spoke lacing.
I'm planning to tie-and-brace it, but before I do,
I want the customer to check something:
"Given how tight the drive side is, isn't the non-drive side tensioned pretty hard?"
Once you tie-and-brace, fore-aft deflection looks the same front-to-back on the surface.
(Just on the surface. True spoke tension doesn't change.)
Even without tie-and-brace, I think the wheel has way better "feel" than before the rebuild,
but I still don't think this wheel matches a Racing Zero.
Though I do think we've done the best we can with what we have to work with.
Another PowerTap day (et cetera).
↑Before rebuild.
Time for some consideration.
It was originally laced with DT Revolution spokes, but
even accounting for how thin they are, the tension was way too slack,
so a rebuild became necessary.
According to the shop that originally built it, this wheel is comparable to a Racing Zero,
but I have to say that's just not possible.
Sure, the rim is lighter compared to a Racing Zero.
Probably light enough to save a whole WO inner tube.
But what makes a Racing Zero what it is: rigid aluminum spokes
laced nearly tangentially on the drive side.
That "forward feel" when you're pedaling—you just can't get that with steel spokes.
You might achieve a similar vertical stiffness by building with 2.0mm plain spokes at 32H or 36H,
but then you end up with a wheel that's way heavier than a Racing Zero.
↑On the non-drive side, the outpoke
(it's Italian lacing, so they're outpokes)
in that "porcupine" direction—I marked the spot
right below where the spokes cross.
↑And then I grabbed the spoke.
A Racing Zero doesn't deflect like this,
and neither does most hand-built wheels.
Converting to true spoke tension, the tight sections were around 30 kgf,
and the loosest areas—where age-related slack had probably set in—
were down to about 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 loose, that's fine, and if
the customer is happy with it, then no problem.
(Though if they were happy, they wouldn't have brought it here.)
But claiming this is equivalent to a Racing Zero? That's pure fiction.
There are plenty of people out there who can tell just by touching or riding a wheel,
and you'll get laughed at saying stuff like that.
I mentioned age-related loosening earlier, but
this red grease is what was applied when it was new.
I've opened up a lot of PowerTap internals over the years (sorry about that),
and this one's relatively clean.
The shaft spins smoothly with no sense of contamination,
so I skipped the full bearing tear-down cleaning.
I just cleaned the freewheel section.
From here, I'll re-grease the freewheel pawls.
↑Oh, I did take care of this.
Rebuilt. Actually, there's still more work to do after this.
Cut me some slack for today.
Drive side Campagnolo Comp, non-drive side Shimano CX-RAY, Italian 46-spoke lacing.
I'm planning to tie-and-brace it, but before I do,
I want the customer to check something:
"Given how tight the drive side is, isn't the non-drive side tensioned pretty hard?"
Once you tie-and-brace, fore-aft deflection looks the same front-to-back on the surface.
(Just on the surface. True spoke tension doesn't change.)
Even without tie-and-brace, I think the wheel has way better "feel" than before the rebuild,
but I still don't think this wheel matches a Racing Zero.
Though I do think we've done the best we can with what we have to work with.