Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer dropped off a rear wheel from a ZIPP 404.
It's hand-built with an Evolight hub rather than stock from the manufacturer,
but it's become really loose and they're asking me to do something about it.
20H all-race 4-cross pattern, Sapim spokes instead of DT,
but in terms of spoke weight distribution it's essentially the same as full competition,
and even tightening it up as-is might help somewhat,
but the surface of the Sapim 14mm aluminum nipples has corroded, and when I try to turn the nipples
they're binding up badly—even turning to loosen them makes a "gigi gigi..." sound like something out of Barefoot Gen.
Despite the looseness, it was actually built reasonably well,
no centering issues and barely any wobble,
but three consecutive rim holes on the freewheel side near the valve hole
had been replaced with DT 12mm aluminum nipples,
suggesting that someone attempted to tighten them, the nipples either stripped or broke (probably stripped),
which forced a nipple replacement.
Even if I were to proceed with the same spoke configuration,
a complete nipple replacement would be necessary,
and on this rim the nipple washers are installed and
those also need replacing (more on that later).
If I rebuild it as all-race,
I could make it stiffer than the original state,
but if I switch to semi-comp, it would transform so dramatically in comparison
that I'm going to rebuild it as semi-comp.
Also, notice the rust on the serrated part of the hub end in the image above.
404 Not Found, right—
so no shops except ours
can rebuild it, I guess HAHAHAHA
...Anyway, setting that aside, in the image above you can see the nipple directly below the 404 sticker
is shorter than the other nipple.
This is that DT 12mm aluminum nipple I mentioned earlier.
Rebuilt.
Semi-comp 4-cross pattern with crossing. Even near the end of building,
the nipples turned smoothly and silently,
so the main cause of the stiff nipple rotation before the rebuild
wasn't spoke tension.
And the tension after the rebuild is far higher than before.
I replaced both the left and right hub ends with new ones.
Normally, these parts aren't available separately.
When disassembling the wheel,
I released some tension first before cutting the spokes—
these are the original spokes and Sapim 14mm nipples.
Not all of these nipples will deteriorate right away,
but they corrode far more easily than DT,
so I don't use Sapim aluminum nipples (especially the silver ones).
CX-RAY spokes come with one free per spoke, but
it's not something I can give to customers (※), so I can't use them.
※That's just my opinion.
I replaced the nipple washers too.
In the image above, the left side had spoke tension applied along the rim's direction of rotation,
but the right side had tension applied at a right angle to that, so
↑It warped along the left and right curves inside the rim.
(Warped while conforming)
If this was the main cause of tight nipple rotation in the original state—
it wasn't. Regardless of washer orientation,
Sapim nipples had stiff rotation anyway, so
nipple corrosion was far more significant.
After the rebuild, I've aligned the washers with the rotation direction and
also taken measures to reduce friction between the nipples and washers,
so the washers won't end up sideways during wheel building.
In this case, the DT nipples were swapped in later,
so obviously they haven't corroded much,
but even setting that aside,
it's definitely true that Sapim silver aluminum nipples
corrode more easily.
Based on how the Evolight hub end serrations rusted,
maybe the environment has some conditions unfavorable to rust and corrosion,
but even so, DT nipples
rarely corrode the way these Sapim ones did.
A customer dropped off a rear wheel from a ZIPP 404.
It's hand-built with an Evolight hub rather than stock from the manufacturer,
but it's become really loose and they're asking me to do something about it.
20H all-race 4-cross pattern, Sapim spokes instead of DT,
but in terms of spoke weight distribution it's essentially the same as full competition,
and even tightening it up as-is might help somewhat,
but the surface of the Sapim 14mm aluminum nipples has corroded, and when I try to turn the nipples
they're binding up badly—even turning to loosen them makes a "gigi gigi..." sound like something out of Barefoot Gen.
Despite the looseness, it was actually built reasonably well,
no centering issues and barely any wobble,
but three consecutive rim holes on the freewheel side near the valve hole
had been replaced with DT 12mm aluminum nipples,
suggesting that someone attempted to tighten them, the nipples either stripped or broke (probably stripped),
which forced a nipple replacement.
Even if I were to proceed with the same spoke configuration,
a complete nipple replacement would be necessary,
and on this rim the nipple washers are installed and
those also need replacing (more on that later).
If I rebuild it as all-race,
I could make it stiffer than the original state,
but if I switch to semi-comp, it would transform so dramatically in comparison
that I'm going to rebuild it as semi-comp.
Also, notice the rust on the serrated part of the hub end in the image above.
404 Not Found, right—
so no shops except ours
can rebuild it, I guess HAHAHAHA
...Anyway, setting that aside, in the image above you can see the nipple directly below the 404 sticker
is shorter than the other nipple.
This is that DT 12mm aluminum nipple I mentioned earlier.
Rebuilt.
Semi-comp 4-cross pattern with crossing. Even near the end of building,
the nipples turned smoothly and silently,
so the main cause of the stiff nipple rotation before the rebuild
wasn't spoke tension.
And the tension after the rebuild is far higher than before.
I replaced both the left and right hub ends with new ones.
Normally, these parts aren't available separately.
When disassembling the wheel,
I released some tension first before cutting the spokes—
these are the original spokes and Sapim 14mm nipples.
Not all of these nipples will deteriorate right away,
but they corrode far more easily than DT,
so I don't use Sapim aluminum nipples (especially the silver ones).
CX-RAY spokes come with one free per spoke, but
it's not something I can give to customers (※), so I can't use them.
※That's just my opinion.
I replaced the nipple washers too.
In the image above, the left side had spoke tension applied along the rim's direction of rotation,
but the right side had tension applied at a right angle to that, so
↑It warped along the left and right curves inside the rim.
(Warped while conforming)
If this was the main cause of tight nipple rotation in the original state—
it wasn't. Regardless of washer orientation,
Sapim nipples had stiff rotation anyway, so
nipple corrosion was far more significant.
After the rebuild, I've aligned the washers with the rotation direction and
also taken measures to reduce friction between the nipples and washers,
so the washers won't end up sideways during wheel building.
In this case, the DT nipples were swapped in later,
so obviously they haven't corroded much,
but even setting that aside,
it's definitely true that Sapim silver aluminum nipples
corrode more easily.
Based on how the Evolight hub end serrations rusted,
maybe the environment has some conditions unfavorable to rust and corrosion,
but even so, DT nipples
rarely corrode the way these Sapim ones did.