I received a rear wheel from a Zentis Squad 2.5 from a customer.
It's loose, so they want it rebuilt.
Loose compared to what, you ask? Compared to Nomu Lab Wheel #5.
It's all-black CX-RAY straight 40H lacing equivalent, but
the spoke head phases on the freewheel side are overlapping,
so the spoke length calculation differs from the standard single-side 12H four-spoke lacing.
The hub is an XH003—XH presumably stands for Zentis Hub.
I don't have any use for this hub, but to recover the spokes on the non-freewheel side,
I need to remove the non-freewheel side hub bearing.
The signature is fading, but
at Zentis, there's a space on the rim where they write the maximum lateral and radial runout values and the signature of the person who did the final check—
they're confident in their precision.
This time there was no centering drift.
With non-freewheel-side radial-laced rear wheels, it's not unusual for them to drift toward the freewheel side by about a sheet of paper even with perfect centering at shipment after years of use,
so in this regard it's excellent.
Though it's possible it shipped with a sheet of paper of drift toward the non-freewheel side.
Both sides have push-fit dropouts, but this is a serious problem.
When you turn the left dropout, it slips relative to the hub axle, so it's hard to tell, but
when you remove the left dropout and try to turn the hub axle directly by hand,
it will turn backward but won't turn forward.
Because of rust on the freewheel body bearing,
the hub axle and freewheel body have become one solid object,
and it only rotates in the direction the ratchet freewheels.
On the freewheel body spline, it says
"For XH002 and XH003 hubs, 11-speed, Shimano,"
so I put a marker tape on the hub axle near that phase mark.
↑Like this—the freewheel body and hub axle are rusted and stuck together,
so their phases are synchronized.
If you fix the rear wheel to the frame with a quick-release and pedal,
the rust bond will crack with a "crunch" and release, so
it's not impossible to use with an abnormally gritty feel.
Either it wasn't used regularly, or the rust seized it during transit to our shop.
I tried to pull the freewheel body off the hub axle, but
for some reason it won't go any further. I can put it back.
↑to here
Even using a bearing puller to pull the freewheel body (static load) or
using an adapter/jig and tapping it out (impact load)
won't make it go any further, so I gave up.
My goal was to recover the spokes from the hub anyway.
I removed the non-freewheel side bearing with a puller.
Normally it should come out by hand, like removing a ring.
The anodize on the hub axle is thin and the finish is extremely poor,
so rust like what you'd see on a one-yen coin is spreading everywhere.
For example, with Campagnolo wheel hub axles,
I've never seen this happen,
so the axle rust doesn't seem unrelated to the bearing's abnormal rust and seizure.
Even with Campagnolo, cases of outer freewheel body bearing rust and seizure to the hub axle do occur,
but they're removable and the axle's secondary rust can be cleaned up fine.
And the section directly below the hub body doesn't corrode like this.
The bearing seals say "EZZO," which refers to Hokkaido-based Hokkaido Precision Bearing Company (in Ezo, the old name for Hokkaido),
and EZZO bearings aren't bad. They're actually pretty good.
They were once used in Pinarello headset bearings when the headset had
plain industrial bearings without tapered edges—
6806 (upper) and 6807 (lower, for different diameters top and bottom).
By the way, 6806 is also the bearing for BB30 with a 42mm frame-side inner diameter.
↑Freewheel side ratchet area
↑Non-freewheel side
I disassembled the hub to remove these spokes.
Non-freewheel side
Freewheel side
Non-freewheel side
Freewheel side
I have a bad feeling about this...
The freewheel side spokes seem too long.
The non-freewheel side spokes aren't critically short, but they're on the short side.
I carefully disassembled 20 of the 24 spokes in order starting from the valve hole.
I didn't loosen the nipples on these four spokes at all.
↑Freewheel side
↑Non-freewheel side
I mentioned earlier that the freewheel side flange holes are overlapping in phase, but
when you lace a hub like that using the standard calculation for a single-side 12H hub,
the spokes actually come out too short for the nipples.
You can't not notice when spokes are too long while building
(and if you don't notice, the builder at Zentis is an idiot),
and if the left and right were equally long or equally short,
I might think they have some philosophy behind spoke length like that,
but since they're different on each side, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Could there possibly be a "philosophy" of making the freewheel side long and the non-freewheel side short?
No, that's unlikely. And since this is mass-produced, not a one-off,
once they build one wheel and visually see the lengths are wrong,
they should adjust from the next one—but they haven't even done that.
Not just Zentis
(Reynolds, ENVE, ZIPP are the same),
even when the rim itself is fine, they manage to turn the whole wheel into garbage
with poor spoke selection that doesn't understand spoke proportions
and 20th-century-style building methods.
The fact that they casually make choices anyone should recognize as bad
suggests they either don't think about wheels or don't know anything about them.
And the fact that they even do this with hubs that can be built in ways other than non-freewheel-side radial
(→see here)
is beyond hope.
The bearing rust has loosened enough
that it spins independently of the hub axle.
When I turn the hub axle, nasty rust liquid
overflows like a millstone grinding.
I'm also not sure about this flange hole position.
They've badly misunderstood which is the more important factor
for rear wheel lateral stiffness: the left-right width of the bearing position or the left-right width of the spoke head position.
It's particularly sad that they probably did this intentionally thinking it would be good,
but the fact that it's limited to non-freewheel radial lacing is a dealbreaker anyway.
I reassembled the rear hub as if nothing had happened.
For now it turns with an abnormally gritty feel.
It might seize again eventually.
Today, wheels again (and so on)...
Let me get back to the title.
Separate from the Zentis work, I built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #5.
The hub work took so much time I didn't get to rebuilding the rear wheel.
Evolite hub, 20H CX-RAY, non-drive-side radial lacing.
It's loose, so they want it rebuilt.
Loose compared to what, you ask? Compared to Nomu Lab Wheel #5.
It's all-black CX-RAY straight 40H lacing equivalent, but
the spoke head phases on the freewheel side are overlapping,
so the spoke length calculation differs from the standard single-side 12H four-spoke lacing.
The hub is an XH003—XH presumably stands for Zentis Hub.
I don't have any use for this hub, but to recover the spokes on the non-freewheel side,
I need to remove the non-freewheel side hub bearing.
The signature is fading, but
at Zentis, there's a space on the rim where they write the maximum lateral and radial runout values and the signature of the person who did the final check—
they're confident in their precision.
This time there was no centering drift.
With non-freewheel-side radial-laced rear wheels, it's not unusual for them to drift toward the freewheel side by about a sheet of paper even with perfect centering at shipment after years of use,
so in this regard it's excellent.
Though it's possible it shipped with a sheet of paper of drift toward the non-freewheel side.
Both sides have push-fit dropouts, but this is a serious problem.
When you turn the left dropout, it slips relative to the hub axle, so it's hard to tell, but
when you remove the left dropout and try to turn the hub axle directly by hand,
it will turn backward but won't turn forward.
Because of rust on the freewheel body bearing,
the hub axle and freewheel body have become one solid object,
and it only rotates in the direction the ratchet freewheels.
On the freewheel body spline, it says
"For XH002 and XH003 hubs, 11-speed, Shimano,"
so I put a marker tape on the hub axle near that phase mark.
↑Like this—the freewheel body and hub axle are rusted and stuck together,
so their phases are synchronized.
If you fix the rear wheel to the frame with a quick-release and pedal,
the rust bond will crack with a "crunch" and release, so
it's not impossible to use with an abnormally gritty feel.
Either it wasn't used regularly, or the rust seized it during transit to our shop.
I tried to pull the freewheel body off the hub axle, but
for some reason it won't go any further. I can put it back.
↑to here
Even using a bearing puller to pull the freewheel body (static load) or
using an adapter/jig and tapping it out (impact load)
won't make it go any further, so I gave up.
My goal was to recover the spokes from the hub anyway.
I removed the non-freewheel side bearing with a puller.
Normally it should come out by hand, like removing a ring.
The anodize on the hub axle is thin and the finish is extremely poor,
so rust like what you'd see on a one-yen coin is spreading everywhere.
For example, with Campagnolo wheel hub axles,
I've never seen this happen,
so the axle rust doesn't seem unrelated to the bearing's abnormal rust and seizure.
Even with Campagnolo, cases of outer freewheel body bearing rust and seizure to the hub axle do occur,
but they're removable and the axle's secondary rust can be cleaned up fine.
And the section directly below the hub body doesn't corrode like this.
The bearing seals say "EZZO," which refers to Hokkaido-based Hokkaido Precision Bearing Company (in Ezo, the old name for Hokkaido),
and EZZO bearings aren't bad. They're actually pretty good.
They were once used in Pinarello headset bearings when the headset had
plain industrial bearings without tapered edges—
6806 (upper) and 6807 (lower, for different diameters top and bottom).
By the way, 6806 is also the bearing for BB30 with a 42mm frame-side inner diameter.
↑Freewheel side ratchet area
↑Non-freewheel side
I disassembled the hub to remove these spokes.
Non-freewheel side
Freewheel side
Non-freewheel side
Freewheel side
I have a bad feeling about this...
The freewheel side spokes seem too long.
The non-freewheel side spokes aren't critically short, but they're on the short side.
I carefully disassembled 20 of the 24 spokes in order starting from the valve hole.
I didn't loosen the nipples on these four spokes at all.
↑Freewheel side
↑Non-freewheel side
I mentioned earlier that the freewheel side flange holes are overlapping in phase, but
when you lace a hub like that using the standard calculation for a single-side 12H hub,
the spokes actually come out too short for the nipples.
You can't not notice when spokes are too long while building
(and if you don't notice, the builder at Zentis is an idiot),
and if the left and right were equally long or equally short,
I might think they have some philosophy behind spoke length like that,
but since they're different on each side, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Could there possibly be a "philosophy" of making the freewheel side long and the non-freewheel side short?
No, that's unlikely. And since this is mass-produced, not a one-off,
once they build one wheel and visually see the lengths are wrong,
they should adjust from the next one—but they haven't even done that.
Not just Zentis
(Reynolds, ENVE, ZIPP are the same),
even when the rim itself is fine, they manage to turn the whole wheel into garbage
with poor spoke selection that doesn't understand spoke proportions
and 20th-century-style building methods.
The fact that they casually make choices anyone should recognize as bad
suggests they either don't think about wheels or don't know anything about them.
And the fact that they even do this with hubs that can be built in ways other than non-freewheel-side radial
(→see here)
is beyond hope.
The bearing rust has loosened enough
that it spins independently of the hub axle.
When I turn the hub axle, nasty rust liquid
overflows like a millstone grinding.
I'm also not sure about this flange hole position.
They've badly misunderstood which is the more important factor
for rear wheel lateral stiffness: the left-right width of the bearing position or the left-right width of the spoke head position.
It's particularly sad that they probably did this intentionally thinking it would be good,
but the fact that it's limited to non-freewheel radial lacing is a dealbreaker anyway.
I reassembled the rear hub as if nothing had happened.
For now it turns with an abnormally gritty feel.
It might seize again eventually.
Today, wheels again (and so on)...
Let me get back to the title.
Separate from the Zentis work, I built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #5.
The hub work took so much time I didn't get to rebuilding the rear wheel.
Evolite hub, 20H CX-RAY, non-drive-side radial lacing.