Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer dropped off the front wheel of a ZIPP 303 with me.
It's the companion wheel to the rear wheel I recently converted to 11-speed with a ZIPP 177 hub.
Around 2008 model with an 82 front hub, 20 hole,
CX-RAY straight radial lacing.
The rear wheel was built with black spokes per the customer's request,
and that's because we were planning to rebuild this front wheel companion with black spokes too,
so we won't be using the same hub. I'm holding a new hub for this job as well.
This rim has a shape where only the rim sides flare out from a narrow rim profile,
with the widest part being around the middle of the rim side rather than at the brake zone.
I have a front wheel (18 hole) from the next generation 303 rim,
and that one has a shape where the widest part of this rim
extends straight out to the circumference—it's in the wide rim category,
but still narrower than the wide rims you see these days.
Both 303s use CX-RAY spokes,
but in my 303's case with 18 holes,
I'd like to increase the spoke gauge a bit more.
This one has 20 holes, so CX-RAY works fine,
but since we built the rear wheel quite stiff,
I want to finish the front wheel with that same feel...
First, I searched for spokes from Bola or Bola WTO that would work length-wise,
but the front and rear-left spokes have anti-rotation nubs,
so only the rear-right spokes can be used as standard straight spokes.
In the image above, the top is a Bola WTO rear-right,
and the bottom is a Bola rear-left (with nub processing below the elbow).
If I could slightly trim the rear-right spokes,
I could find ones that would work for length,
but the price was an issue—
for example, Bola WTO rear-right spokes
have a list price of 675 yen per spoke before tax.
While I was pondering this, some good news came in.
The previous blog post covers that.
Wheel's built.
DT 350 straight hub, 20 hole, black CX Sprint straight radial lacing.
It was a relief that CX Sprint became available right around this time.
By the way, with the current ZIPP Firecrest rim brake wheels,
only the 808 uses CX-RAY, while the 202, 303, and 404 use CX Sprint.
But with the 404 NSW rim brake/tubeless, it's CX-RAY,
and with the 808 NSW rim brake/tubeless, it's CX Sprint—
the relationship between rim depth and spoke gauge is reversed.
Hmm, I can't figure out the reason for that. Since all the front wheels are 18 holes,
everything except the 808 should be CX Sprint,
with only the 808 being CX-RAY (the 404 could also work with CX-RAY),
and for rear wheels, regardless of rim depth, a left-right different-gauge CX Sprint/CX-RAY setup,
which would be a reasonable compromise given the stock hubs and available CX-RAY and CX Sprint materials.
A customer dropped off the front wheel of a ZIPP 303 with me.
It's the companion wheel to the rear wheel I recently converted to 11-speed with a ZIPP 177 hub.
Around 2008 model with an 82 front hub, 20 hole,
CX-RAY straight radial lacing.
The rear wheel was built with black spokes per the customer's request,
and that's because we were planning to rebuild this front wheel companion with black spokes too,
so we won't be using the same hub. I'm holding a new hub for this job as well.
This rim has a shape where only the rim sides flare out from a narrow rim profile,
with the widest part being around the middle of the rim side rather than at the brake zone.
I have a front wheel (18 hole) from the next generation 303 rim,
and that one has a shape where the widest part of this rim
extends straight out to the circumference—it's in the wide rim category,
but still narrower than the wide rims you see these days.
Both 303s use CX-RAY spokes,
but in my 303's case with 18 holes,
I'd like to increase the spoke gauge a bit more.
This one has 20 holes, so CX-RAY works fine,
but since we built the rear wheel quite stiff,
I want to finish the front wheel with that same feel...
First, I searched for spokes from Bola or Bola WTO that would work length-wise,
but the front and rear-left spokes have anti-rotation nubs,
so only the rear-right spokes can be used as standard straight spokes.
In the image above, the top is a Bola WTO rear-right,
and the bottom is a Bola rear-left (with nub processing below the elbow).
If I could slightly trim the rear-right spokes,
I could find ones that would work for length,
but the price was an issue—
for example, Bola WTO rear-right spokes
have a list price of 675 yen per spoke before tax.
While I was pondering this, some good news came in.
The previous blog post covers that.
Wheel's built.
DT 350 straight hub, 20 hole, black CX Sprint straight radial lacing.
It was a relief that CX Sprint became available right around this time.
By the way, with the current ZIPP Firecrest rim brake wheels,
only the 808 uses CX-RAY, while the 202, 303, and 404 use CX Sprint.
But with the 404 NSW rim brake/tubeless, it's CX-RAY,
and with the 808 NSW rim brake/tubeless, it's CX Sprint—
the relationship between rim depth and spoke gauge is reversed.
Hmm, I can't figure out the reason for that. Since all the front wheels are 18 holes,
everything except the 808 should be CX Sprint,
with only the 808 being CX-RAY (the 404 could also work with CX-RAY),
and for rear wheels, regardless of rim depth, a left-right different-gauge CX Sprint/CX-RAY setup,
which would be a reasonable compromise given the stock hubs and available CX-RAY and CX Sprint materials.