Another day of wheel work (and so on).
A customer brought in a rear wheel built with a hub from ONYX Racing Products.
As I've mentioned before,
ONYX is definitely pronounced "onyx,"
but Japanese distributors call it O-N-Y-X.
It's done this way because there's a conflicting trademark in the bicycle industry.
The rim is an Easton R90SL
(the reason for the different nipple colors will be explained later),
Sapim black Leader 14 straight gauge 6x laced.
According to the current manufacturer website, ONYX hubs have
a vast array of models with different specifications beyond just spoke count:
MTB has 113 types, fat bike has 36 types, BMX has 35 types,
cyclocross has 11 types, and road has 4 types.
Of the 4 road types, there are 2 front hubs:
a road front hub (that's actually the model name, not a generic term)
with no lightening holes in the hub shell,
and a road helix front hub
with spiral-shaped lightening grooves in the hub shell.
The rear hub is only available as the Road DS Rear Hub model,
and the 2 types of specifications differ only in whether
the freebody is for Shimano or Campagnolo,
so ONYX's road rear hub is
really just this one model.
The reason it was brought in was that nipples kept breaking frequently,
and the customer wanted something done about it.
The only nipple that was broken when brought in
has cracked diagonally.
As for why the breakage occurs so frequently,
as I've written many times before,
you cannot trust Sapim's 14mm aluminum nipples.
CX-RAY spokes come with matching silver or black nipples,
but I don't use them.
I only use Sapim aluminum nipples out of necessity when
I need orange, which DT doesn't offer, and only in the 12mm length.
However, the main cause of this frequent breakage
is probably not the Sapim 14mm nipples but rather
↑Freehub side
↑Non-freehub side
the fact that the spokes are too short, with insufficient thread engagement.
The more threads engaged under spoke tension, the better—
so spoke length should be longer rather than shorter.
Of course, there are limits.
The two rim holes with black nipples adjacent to the valve hole
mark where the broken nipple was repaired,
but even though the nipple length changed, the outer end dimension stays the same,
so the spokes are still short.
The blue (or maybe turquoise) 14mm nipples
had a 3.2mm hex wrench size,
while the black 16mm nipples were 3.4mm hex wrench size.
I asked the customer if the shop that built it with blue nipples
and the shop that repaired it with black nipples were different,
but surprisingly they were the same shop. Are they kidding?
I can't name the shop because they asked me not to write it here,
but I'm familiar with this place for being good at poor assembly work with expensive parts,
so I wasn't surprised once I figured out which shop it was.
Maybe the head mechanic did the build and an apprentice did the repair,
but they're both lousy, so it amounts to the same thing.
If the people involved see this from the rim and hub specs, they'll know it's them,
but I'll say it again: you are completely hopeless hacks,
both in the assembly and in everything that follows.
Apart from the nipple breakage, the tension was slack,
and when I squeezed the non-freehub side crosses,
the characteristic creaking of black spokes came out easily.
Just swapping to DT nipples alone (with the short spokes still in place)
would dramatically reduce the probability of breakage. If I build it.
Even staying with all-black Leader 6x laced,
it will be tighter than before, so the spoke ends
can be brought to just barely exceed the thread engagement limit.
As an alternative proposal, since plain spokes can be cut to any length,
I suggested to the customer that we use black Leader in appropriate length for 4x on the freehub side
and black CX-RAY in 6x on the non-freehub side, with a junction—
and the customer decided to go with that.
There were fragments of a broken nipple left inside the rim,
but at the time of drop-off, only one place was broken.
The one in the image above on the right, cracked diagonally, is that one,
and the other fragment was from a previous break that remained inside the rim.
Built.
24H, half-black Leader 4x6 laced with junction.
As usual, on the freehub side spokes, original Jspokes stay as Jspokes
and original anti-Jspokes stay as anti-Jspokes,
but since the characteristic deformation at the neck wasn't pronounced,
I suspect this is related to the low tension.
Some models don't have them, but
the freebody lightening holes are one of ONYX hub's selling points.
The main feature is the infinitely variable ratchet.
ONYX makes reverse high-low flange rear disc hubs in some models,
but this hub is high-low flange.
↑Freehub side
↑Non-freehub side
The spokes are black but the customer wanted silver nipples, so I used silver.
A customer brought in a rear wheel built with a hub from ONYX Racing Products.
As I've mentioned before,
ONYX is definitely pronounced "onyx,"
but Japanese distributors call it O-N-Y-X.
It's done this way because there's a conflicting trademark in the bicycle industry.
The rim is an Easton R90SL
(the reason for the different nipple colors will be explained later),
Sapim black Leader 14 straight gauge 6x laced.
According to the current manufacturer website, ONYX hubs have
a vast array of models with different specifications beyond just spoke count:
MTB has 113 types, fat bike has 36 types, BMX has 35 types,
cyclocross has 11 types, and road has 4 types.
Of the 4 road types, there are 2 front hubs:
a road front hub (that's actually the model name, not a generic term)
with no lightening holes in the hub shell,
and a road helix front hub
with spiral-shaped lightening grooves in the hub shell.
The rear hub is only available as the Road DS Rear Hub model,
and the 2 types of specifications differ only in whether
the freebody is for Shimano or Campagnolo,
so ONYX's road rear hub is
really just this one model.
The reason it was brought in was that nipples kept breaking frequently,
and the customer wanted something done about it.
The only nipple that was broken when brought in
has cracked diagonally.
As for why the breakage occurs so frequently,
as I've written many times before,
you cannot trust Sapim's 14mm aluminum nipples.
CX-RAY spokes come with matching silver or black nipples,
but I don't use them.
I only use Sapim aluminum nipples out of necessity when
I need orange, which DT doesn't offer, and only in the 12mm length.
However, the main cause of this frequent breakage
is probably not the Sapim 14mm nipples but rather
↑Freehub side
↑Non-freehub side
the fact that the spokes are too short, with insufficient thread engagement.
The more threads engaged under spoke tension, the better—
so spoke length should be longer rather than shorter.
Of course, there are limits.
The two rim holes with black nipples adjacent to the valve hole
mark where the broken nipple was repaired,
but even though the nipple length changed, the outer end dimension stays the same,
so the spokes are still short.
The blue (or maybe turquoise) 14mm nipples
had a 3.2mm hex wrench size,
while the black 16mm nipples were 3.4mm hex wrench size.
I asked the customer if the shop that built it with blue nipples
and the shop that repaired it with black nipples were different,
but surprisingly they were the same shop. Are they kidding?
I can't name the shop because they asked me not to write it here,
but I'm familiar with this place for being good at poor assembly work with expensive parts,
so I wasn't surprised once I figured out which shop it was.
Maybe the head mechanic did the build and an apprentice did the repair,
but they're both lousy, so it amounts to the same thing.
If the people involved see this from the rim and hub specs, they'll know it's them,
but I'll say it again: you are completely hopeless hacks,
both in the assembly and in everything that follows.
Apart from the nipple breakage, the tension was slack,
and when I squeezed the non-freehub side crosses,
the characteristic creaking of black spokes came out easily.
Just swapping to DT nipples alone (with the short spokes still in place)
would dramatically reduce the probability of breakage. If I build it.
Even staying with all-black Leader 6x laced,
it will be tighter than before, so the spoke ends
can be brought to just barely exceed the thread engagement limit.
As an alternative proposal, since plain spokes can be cut to any length,
I suggested to the customer that we use black Leader in appropriate length for 4x on the freehub side
and black CX-RAY in 6x on the non-freehub side, with a junction—
and the customer decided to go with that.
There were fragments of a broken nipple left inside the rim,
but at the time of drop-off, only one place was broken.
The one in the image above on the right, cracked diagonally, is that one,
and the other fragment was from a previous break that remained inside the rim.
Built.
24H, half-black Leader 4x6 laced with junction.
As usual, on the freehub side spokes, original Jspokes stay as Jspokes
and original anti-Jspokes stay as anti-Jspokes,
but since the characteristic deformation at the neck wasn't pronounced,
I suspect this is related to the low tension.
Some models don't have them, but
the freebody lightening holes are one of ONYX hub's selling points.
The main feature is the infinitely variable ratchet.
ONYX makes reverse high-low flange rear disc hubs in some models,
but this hub is high-low flange.
↑Freehub side
↑Non-freehub side
The spokes are black but the customer wanted silver nipples, so I used silver.