Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer brought in a rear wheel built with an XR300 rim.
Apparently it was built by some shady old guy from the neighborhood who claims to be a former bike mechanic,
but the spoke tension is abnormally loose, so they want me to rebuild it.
Evolite hub 32H, 14-gauge plain spokes, bright 6/6 Italian cross pattern laced
There's radial runout.
Since there's also lateral runout, the amount of radial runout varies somewhat depending on phase.
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
The spoke threads are protruding excessively from the nipple, but
this is because they used a spoke threading tool—
like a hand-crank pencil sharpener—
that cold-forms the threads as it advances,
so the spoke length itself isn't short.
The threading tool is probably a Hozan C-700 series
(the current model is C-702-1, where the "1" indicates
that the cold-forming dies are pre-set for 14-gauge),
but the thread crests are flattened, possibly because
the die compression on the three forming rollers is off.
The amount of thread protruding from the nipple is consistent
on both the drive and non-drive sides,
with the non-drive side being longer,
↑alternating long/short in sequence, but
when I disassembled it, the non-drive side spoke length was
flush with the nipple end face, so it was correct,
but the drive side was too long.
With normal thread length, this would be bottomed out,
but in this case it can be tightened further,
and since the rim was off-center toward the non-drive side, it should have been tightened—but it wasn't.
Well, even if you tighten the drive side to center the rim,
it's still way too loose on its own.
I rebuilt it.
Sapim Strong / Aero spoke, bright 14-gauge, 48-cross pattern with wire connection
DT brass nipples.
I prioritized stiffness without worrying about spoke weight.
The brake zone wear mark on the rim, which has no radial runout (at least none visible to the eye),
bounces up and down when you spin the wheel—
I had the customer confirm this too.
In the original state, the wear mark was running true while
the rim profile was bouncing up and down.
At the customer's request I removed the sticker,
and the rim was marked "Formosa-made".
Formosa is Portuguese for "beautiful island,"
so in Chinese characters it's also written as "Beautiful Island," which refers to Taiwan.
A customer brought in a rear wheel built with an XR300 rim.
Apparently it was built by some shady old guy from the neighborhood who claims to be a former bike mechanic,
but the spoke tension is abnormally loose, so they want me to rebuild it.
Evolite hub 32H, 14-gauge plain spokes, bright 6/6 Italian cross pattern laced
There's radial runout.
Since there's also lateral runout, the amount of radial runout varies somewhat depending on phase.
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
The spoke threads are protruding excessively from the nipple, but
this is because they used a spoke threading tool—
like a hand-crank pencil sharpener—
that cold-forms the threads as it advances,
so the spoke length itself isn't short.
The threading tool is probably a Hozan C-700 series
(the current model is C-702-1, where the "1" indicates
that the cold-forming dies are pre-set for 14-gauge),
but the thread crests are flattened, possibly because
the die compression on the three forming rollers is off.
The amount of thread protruding from the nipple is consistent
on both the drive and non-drive sides,
with the non-drive side being longer,
↑alternating long/short in sequence, but
when I disassembled it, the non-drive side spoke length was
flush with the nipple end face, so it was correct,
but the drive side was too long.
With normal thread length, this would be bottomed out,
but in this case it can be tightened further,
and since the rim was off-center toward the non-drive side, it should have been tightened—but it wasn't.
Well, even if you tighten the drive side to center the rim,
it's still way too loose on its own.
I rebuilt it.
Sapim Strong / Aero spoke, bright 14-gauge, 48-cross pattern with wire connection
DT brass nipples.
I prioritized stiffness without worrying about spoke weight.
The brake zone wear mark on the rim, which has no radial runout (at least none visible to the eye),
bounces up and down when you spin the wheel—
I had the customer confirm this too.
In the original state, the wear mark was running true while
the rim profile was bouncing up and down.
At the customer's request I removed the sticker,
and the rim was marked "Formosa-made".
Formosa is Portuguese for "beautiful island,"
so in Chinese characters it's also written as "Beautiful Island," which refers to Taiwan.