Déjà vu? Just my imagination.
Once in a while, I do sell complete built wheels.
Sold a Racing ZERO.
"Is there a hand-built wheel that can beat this high-low flange design and the perfectly balanced spoke tension from the 2:1 spoke pattern,
plus the minimal deformation of the aluminum spokes themselves?!"
Even if Wei Yan were to say this,
I can't answer like Ma Dai saying "I'm right here," and that frustrates me. Hmm, annoying.
For hand-built wheels, I can build ones with outstanding rim lightness in this class
or ones with good value for money—lightweight for the price.
It's actually a tubular.
With cement, you can apply it over the entire rim surface except the valve hole, just like a disc wheel,
and with tape, since it's an aluminum rim, surface delamination won't happen.
(Though there are rare cases where the black anodize layer gets stripped)
"With a clincher you'd need rim tape, so it actually adds weight, but with a tubular you can drill holes to save weight and make spoke replacement easier"
"Even much lighter rims than this normally have about 32 holes of the same size, so it's fine"
and so some people say this while drilling holes (that's me),
but good kids should resist copying this.
"I'm okay being a bad kid, so drill holes for me" — I refuse even when asked like this. Just so you know.
Aside from the rear wheel center being off,
there were no particular issues.
There were zero cutting shavings in the rim this time.
Years ago they used to come out all over the place, but lately they're extremely scarce,
so maybe "cutting shaving removal" has been added to the manufacturing process.
There's a punch mark next to the valve hole,
and this serves as a guide for the correct orientation because the wheel won't assemble if the rim hole alignment is wrong.
The stamping is slightly different, but Mavic rims have a similar mark too.
Since it's a USB bearing, I cracked it open a bit because I wanted to see the bearing cone color.
It's black. Steel ball bearing cones are black, CULT bearing cones are silver—that's definite.
I was wondering whether USB was "steel ball bearing cone with ceramic ball bearings"
or "USB-specific bearing cone."
Seems like it's the former.
Which means my REDWIND 105 USB spec (here)
must have gotten mixed up with CULT internals.
REDWIND 105 comes in both USB and CULT specs, so
unlike Racing ZERO which only comes in USB,
mix-ups happen more easily.
I'm praying there isn't a "fake CULT spec REDWIND with USB internals"
somewhere in the world.
Once in a while, I do sell complete built wheels.
Sold a Racing ZERO.
"Is there a hand-built wheel that can beat this high-low flange design and the perfectly balanced spoke tension from the 2:1 spoke pattern,
plus the minimal deformation of the aluminum spokes themselves?!"
Even if Wei Yan were to say this,
I can't answer like Ma Dai saying "I'm right here," and that frustrates me. Hmm, annoying.
For hand-built wheels, I can build ones with outstanding rim lightness in this class
or ones with good value for money—lightweight for the price.
It's actually a tubular.
With cement, you can apply it over the entire rim surface except the valve hole, just like a disc wheel,
and with tape, since it's an aluminum rim, surface delamination won't happen.
(Though there are rare cases where the black anodize layer gets stripped)
"With a clincher you'd need rim tape, so it actually adds weight, but with a tubular you can drill holes to save weight and make spoke replacement easier"
"Even much lighter rims than this normally have about 32 holes of the same size, so it's fine"
and so some people say this while drilling holes (that's me),
but good kids should resist copying this.
"I'm okay being a bad kid, so drill holes for me" — I refuse even when asked like this. Just so you know.
Aside from the rear wheel center being off,
there were no particular issues.
There were zero cutting shavings in the rim this time.
Years ago they used to come out all over the place, but lately they're extremely scarce,
so maybe "cutting shaving removal" has been added to the manufacturing process.
There's a punch mark next to the valve hole,
and this serves as a guide for the correct orientation because the wheel won't assemble if the rim hole alignment is wrong.
The stamping is slightly different, but Mavic rims have a similar mark too.
Since it's a USB bearing, I cracked it open a bit because I wanted to see the bearing cone color.
It's black. Steel ball bearing cones are black, CULT bearing cones are silver—that's definite.
I was wondering whether USB was "steel ball bearing cone with ceramic ball bearings"
or "USB-specific bearing cone."
Seems like it's the former.
Which means my REDWIND 105 USB spec (here)
must have gotten mixed up with CULT internals.
REDWIND 105 comes in both USB and CULT specs, so
unlike Racing ZERO which only comes in USB,
mix-ups happen more easily.
I'm praying there isn't a "fake CULT spec REDWIND with USB internals"
somewhere in the world.