Another wheel day (and so on).
I received an Easton EC90 Aero rear wheel from a customer.
Full carbon clincher rim.
The hub went bad, and after poking around at it
things got confusing,
so the customer wanted to rebuild it with a different hub.
The R4SL hub is the ceramic bearing version of the R4 hub,
but you barely feel any difference in rotational smoothness compared to steel ball bearings,
and it's the type of bearing that Campagnolo would call USB (※)—
just steel ball races with ceramic balls dropped in—
so the ball races seize up and fail immediately.
※One correction: the current USB is strong enough that you could call it a "fake CULT,"
so you shouldn't lump it in with bearings like this.
When I inspect or true wheels, I very often see the R4SL hub (especially rear hubs)
with the hub axle feeling grinding and rough,
and I often joke that the "SL" acronym doesn't mean "Superlight"
but "Short Life."
For the R4SL, the SL really might as well stand for Short Life.
Built.
Evolite hub, 20H, black half-championed pattern.
I'll finish the threading later.
Before rebuilding it had red aluminum nipples,
but the customer wanted black spokes and black nipples, so that's what I did.
Moving on to another job,
I received an EC90 Aero rim (bare rim) from a customer.
I think it's been difficult to get spare parts from Easton,
but I don't know about that. Anyway, it's brand new.
This one is a tubular rim.
The rim was making all sorts of rough rattling sounds inside,
and I understand that balloon residue can come out during manufacturing.
But why there were bits of nylon scouring pad in there, I have no idea.
I can sort of imagine based on the work process, though.
Built.
Evolite hub, 20H, black half-championed pattern.
I'll finish the threading later.
The customer wanted black nipples,
but on closer inspection, this is an internal nipple model.
However, this time I used black nipples.
There are a few reasons, but within the scope of what I can say:
the paint coating on the threads provides some resistance that acts like a friction lock—which is just right—
(these are brass nipples, by the way),
and it makes it obvious that I'm the one who built it.
On a different note,
among the Mavic Comet Disc wheels from the era when aluminum was in the brake zone
(→here),
the clincher rim models supposedly don't need rim tape, but actually they do.
There's a hole on the opposite side of the valve hole that looks like a valve hole for some reason.
Without rim tape, the tube will actually puncture right away.
Even if you don't use a full-circumference stretch-band rim tape,
you need to at least tape that spot with tape-type rim tape.
There's a similar hole in the EC90 rim too, and
this is the one. The factory's consideration here is
because there's a serial number.
Naturally it only goes through on the outer side,
but if you were to apply rim cement and, while it's semi-dry,
push the valve through here when mounting the tire,
you'd have a real mess on your hands.
On the clincher rim,
(apparently on purpose) tape was applied on top to seal it.
This is about the same size as the valve hole, so it's unlikely to be a balloon deflation hole,
and besides, these rims didn't use a balloon in the first place.
↑Clincher rim
↑Tubular rim
The wheel weights came out like this.
There's a 178g difference, but the rear hub, spoke count, and spoke gauges left and right are the same across both,
and while the tubular with internal nipples has slightly longer spokes, the difference is only a few grams,
the clincher is about 13g lighter because it has aluminum nipples,
and the clincher had a balancing weight sticker,
so the actual weight difference between the clincher and tubular rims is probably 170–180g.
I've weighed the tubular one because I was curious—
for a 56mm rim height, it's surprisingly light and it surprised me
(both are what you'd call narrow rims these days).
If I revealed that weight, you'd eventually figure out the clincher rim's weight too,
but it's valuable data so I'm not telling.
↑Wow, what an unpleasant guy
S0rry f0r teh w4it!
Pl34s3 l00k 4t th1s p1c!!!
↑Stop right there!
I received an Easton EC90 Aero rear wheel from a customer.
Full carbon clincher rim.
The hub went bad, and after poking around at it
things got confusing,
so the customer wanted to rebuild it with a different hub.
The R4SL hub is the ceramic bearing version of the R4 hub,
but you barely feel any difference in rotational smoothness compared to steel ball bearings,
and it's the type of bearing that Campagnolo would call USB (※)—
just steel ball races with ceramic balls dropped in—
so the ball races seize up and fail immediately.
※One correction: the current USB is strong enough that you could call it a "fake CULT,"
so you shouldn't lump it in with bearings like this.
When I inspect or true wheels, I very often see the R4SL hub (especially rear hubs)
with the hub axle feeling grinding and rough,
and I often joke that the "SL" acronym doesn't mean "Superlight"
but "Short Life."
For the R4SL, the SL really might as well stand for Short Life.
Built.
Evolite hub, 20H, black half-championed pattern.
I'll finish the threading later.
Before rebuilding it had red aluminum nipples,
but the customer wanted black spokes and black nipples, so that's what I did.
Moving on to another job,
I received an EC90 Aero rim (bare rim) from a customer.
I think it's been difficult to get spare parts from Easton,
but I don't know about that. Anyway, it's brand new.
This one is a tubular rim.
The rim was making all sorts of rough rattling sounds inside,
and I understand that balloon residue can come out during manufacturing.
But why there were bits of nylon scouring pad in there, I have no idea.
I can sort of imagine based on the work process, though.
Built.
Evolite hub, 20H, black half-championed pattern.
I'll finish the threading later.
The customer wanted black nipples,
but on closer inspection, this is an internal nipple model.
However, this time I used black nipples.
There are a few reasons, but within the scope of what I can say:
the paint coating on the threads provides some resistance that acts like a friction lock—which is just right—
(these are brass nipples, by the way),
and it makes it obvious that I'm the one who built it.
On a different note,
among the Mavic Comet Disc wheels from the era when aluminum was in the brake zone
(→here),
the clincher rim models supposedly don't need rim tape, but actually they do.
There's a hole on the opposite side of the valve hole that looks like a valve hole for some reason.
Without rim tape, the tube will actually puncture right away.
Even if you don't use a full-circumference stretch-band rim tape,
you need to at least tape that spot with tape-type rim tape.
There's a similar hole in the EC90 rim too, and
this is the one. The factory's consideration here is
because there's a serial number.
Naturally it only goes through on the outer side,
but if you were to apply rim cement and, while it's semi-dry,
push the valve through here when mounting the tire,
you'd have a real mess on your hands.
On the clincher rim,
(apparently on purpose) tape was applied on top to seal it.
This is about the same size as the valve hole, so it's unlikely to be a balloon deflation hole,
and besides, these rims didn't use a balloon in the first place.
↑Clincher rim
↑Tubular rim
The wheel weights came out like this.
There's a 178g difference, but the rear hub, spoke count, and spoke gauges left and right are the same across both,
and while the tubular with internal nipples has slightly longer spokes, the difference is only a few grams,
the clincher is about 13g lighter because it has aluminum nipples,
and the clincher had a balancing weight sticker,
so the actual weight difference between the clincher and tubular rims is probably 170–180g.
I've weighed the tubular one because I was curious—
for a 56mm rim height, it's surprisingly light and it surprised me
(both are what you'd call narrow rims these days).
If I revealed that weight, you'd eventually figure out the clincher rim's weight too,
but it's valuable data so I'm not telling.
↑Wow, what an unpleasant guy
S0rry f0r teh w4it!
Pl34s3 l00k 4t th1s p1c!!!
↑Stop right there!