A customer dropped off a rear wheel with a lightweight, low-profile carbon rim that I'd built for them previously.
It's a wheel I built back then,
Reef hub 24H, full CX-RAY 46-spoke build with lacing, but
they want me to convert it to semi-comp.
Apparently their times on Rokko mountain are slower than with
the semi-comp practice wheels from Nomu Lab,
and honestly, when I built this rear wheel I did warn them: "You should go with semi-comp"
and "Don't just chase the light feel in your hands."
Well, there you have it.
There's another thing.
With a different customer at our shop who wanted
a full CX-RAY,
I talked them into going semi-comp instead
and built them an ENVE rear wheel in semi-comp. That person
ran into the owner of today's wheel
at the summit of Rokko mountain,
and they strongly recommended that semi-comp was better
(let's call this person M for now).
The weight increase of about 20g in the spoke section
when going from full CX-RAY to semi-comp is barely perceptible,
but the difference in wheel stiffness that results from it
is probably something you can feel,
and the factors you can actually sense matter more—which is the kind of thing
I'm always saying when considering "major elements versus minor elements,"
but M uses the word "factors" instead of "elements"
and says "major factors versus minor factors."
Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like some other word?
The tire that was on there,
Tufo's "Elite Jet under 160 grams" is
my top pick too, but strictly for hill climbs
This one's getting sketchy.
All built.
Partial disassembly with spoke replacement on the freewheel side only.
During the partial disassembly, I loosened the non-freewheel side by two turns,
and if I can add more than two extra turns of tightening to the non-freewheel side
after completing the comp side on the freewheel side,
it's guaranteed to be stiffer than the original wheel (and that's exactly what happened).
And at least in terms of spoke feel,
the customer confirmed the wheel is now stiffer than the original.
It's a wheel I built back then,
Reef hub 24H, full CX-RAY 46-spoke build with lacing, but
they want me to convert it to semi-comp.
Apparently their times on Rokko mountain are slower than with
the semi-comp practice wheels from Nomu Lab,
and honestly, when I built this rear wheel I did warn them: "You should go with semi-comp"
and "Don't just chase the light feel in your hands."
Well, there you have it.
There's another thing.
With a different customer at our shop who wanted
a full CX-RAY,
I talked them into going semi-comp instead
and built them an ENVE rear wheel in semi-comp. That person
ran into the owner of today's wheel
at the summit of Rokko mountain,
and they strongly recommended that semi-comp was better
(let's call this person M for now).
The weight increase of about 20g in the spoke section
when going from full CX-RAY to semi-comp is barely perceptible,
but the difference in wheel stiffness that results from it
is probably something you can feel,
and the factors you can actually sense matter more—which is the kind of thing
I'm always saying when considering "major elements versus minor elements,"
but M uses the word "factors" instead of "elements"
and says "major factors versus minor factors."
Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like some other word?
The tire that was on there,
Tufo's "Elite Jet under 160 grams" is
my top pick too, but strictly for hill climbs
This one's getting sketchy.
All built.
Partial disassembly with spoke replacement on the freewheel side only.
During the partial disassembly, I loosened the non-freewheel side by two turns,
and if I can add more than two extra turns of tightening to the non-freewheel side
after completing the comp side on the freewheel side,
it's guaranteed to be stiffer than the original wheel (and that's exactly what happened).
And at least in terms of spoke feel,
the customer confirmed the wheel is now stiffer than the original.