Wheels again today (and so on).
A customer left me a front wheel built with a Mavic CXP14 rim.
It's a 650C rim, by the way.
There was uneven braking at the rim seam,
so they filed it down, but that made it worse.
Separately, I have another CXP14 rim on hand,
and its seam isn't protruding but indented,
so if this one were the same, filing would actually make it worse.
Tradizionale hub, 32H, pillar aero spokes,
four-four Italian lacing, with a Rib Strong threaded through the hub barrel.
They want it reassembled the same way.
These pillar spokes have a cross-section close to a diamond shape,
and there's almost no flat surface on the side of the butted section,
so most spoke wrenches won't fit.
I have one or two that do, so there was no particular problem.
Spoke length checks out.
The expanding eyelets on this rim (→here)
aren't installed afterward—they came from the factory, I believe.
And they were all there in the replacement rim too.
Since expanding eyelets aren't fixed to the rim,
the rim alone rattles when you shake it.
This slot's narrow width and shape
suggest star nipples,
and the 3.4mm grab width is fine, but
it was built with 12mm-length nipples, which is the problem.
The nipple wrench barely gets a grip.
Jumping ahead in the timeline—this is after reassembly.
I switched to DT 16mm brass nipples.
Even though the tension wasn't that high,
the nipples were surprisingly hard to turn.
Looks like there's a soft adhesive—something like rim cement or bond—
on the spoke threads.
Separately, there's also a white threadlocker on the threads,
though I'm not sure if it was factory-applied to the spokes.
Since these need to be cleaned,
I'm not moving the rim yet.
It's definitely not just so I can keep saying
wheels again today (and so on).
Disassembled it.
Originally it was laced four-cross,
but there are marks of tension in the six-cross direction too.
Pulled out just the outboard spokes.
before
after
Put the outboard spokes back on the hub and pulled out the inboard spokes.
Cleaned them the same way and put the inboard spokes back,
but I didn't anticipate the trap that was waiting.
I started reassembly, but something was off.
I couldn't do Italian lacing.
But the original lacing was definitely Italian.
Looking closer, the original spokes were threaded right-drop,
and with right-and-left same-side lacing in right-drop Italian lacing,
that means the valve hole was inside the last crossing's 4-spoke-1-pair bracket.
This rim has an easy-to-see valve hole slot from the side,
but looking back at the opening shot (which is pretty much directly above the valve hole position),
the valve hole is inside that 4-spoke-1-pair bracket.
↑For example, I did a trial lacing at one spot.
This is what that looks like.
The opening shot was from the right side,
and this is from the left, so
the valve hole shift looks different,
but from the right side it's the same.
If you mix up right-drop and left-drop, with new spokes
you can just flip one outboard and one inboard from one flange,
but with used spokes,
I don't want to change the relationship between original outboard and original inboard,
so first I pull out one outboard spoke,
then move the spokes to the next hole in the same orientation...
This is the state one step before finishing that process.
Moved the inboard spoke to the next hole in the same orientation.
Filled in with the outboard spoke I pulled out initially.
This preserves the relationship between original outboard and original inboard
while converting from right-drop to left-drop.
The replacement rim had a burr that would interfere with truing,
(Though you could just avoid putting the gauge on that edge)
so I filed it off. It's not on the braking zone.
Built it up.
Left-drop Italian lacing, normal rim four-four lacing
with the valve hole between the 4-spoke-1-pair brackets.
In other words, the standard way.
Looking from the right, the hub barrel lettering isn't reversed,
and the Rib Strong reads in the correct direction—
but that's how it was originally.
Since I confirmed that first,
I never removed the Rib Strong from the hub barrel during the work.
A customer left me a front wheel built with a Mavic CXP14 rim.
It's a 650C rim, by the way.
There was uneven braking at the rim seam,
so they filed it down, but that made it worse.
Separately, I have another CXP14 rim on hand,
and its seam isn't protruding but indented,
so if this one were the same, filing would actually make it worse.
Tradizionale hub, 32H, pillar aero spokes,
four-four Italian lacing, with a Rib Strong threaded through the hub barrel.
They want it reassembled the same way.
These pillar spokes have a cross-section close to a diamond shape,
and there's almost no flat surface on the side of the butted section,
so most spoke wrenches won't fit.
I have one or two that do, so there was no particular problem.
Spoke length checks out.
The expanding eyelets on this rim (→here)
aren't installed afterward—they came from the factory, I believe.
And they were all there in the replacement rim too.
Since expanding eyelets aren't fixed to the rim,
the rim alone rattles when you shake it.
This slot's narrow width and shape
suggest star nipples,
and the 3.4mm grab width is fine, but
it was built with 12mm-length nipples, which is the problem.
The nipple wrench barely gets a grip.
Jumping ahead in the timeline—this is after reassembly.
I switched to DT 16mm brass nipples.
Even though the tension wasn't that high,
the nipples were surprisingly hard to turn.
Looks like there's a soft adhesive—something like rim cement or bond—
on the spoke threads.
Separately, there's also a white threadlocker on the threads,
though I'm not sure if it was factory-applied to the spokes.
Since these need to be cleaned,
I'm not moving the rim yet.
wheels again today (and so on).
Disassembled it.
Originally it was laced four-cross,
but there are marks of tension in the six-cross direction too.
Pulled out just the outboard spokes.
before
after
Put the outboard spokes back on the hub and pulled out the inboard spokes.
Cleaned them the same way and put the inboard spokes back,
but I didn't anticipate the trap that was waiting.
I started reassembly, but something was off.
I couldn't do Italian lacing.
But the original lacing was definitely Italian.
Looking closer, the original spokes were threaded right-drop,
and with right-and-left same-side lacing in right-drop Italian lacing,
that means the valve hole was inside the last crossing's 4-spoke-1-pair bracket.
This rim has an easy-to-see valve hole slot from the side,
but looking back at the opening shot (which is pretty much directly above the valve hole position),
the valve hole is inside that 4-spoke-1-pair bracket.
↑For example, I did a trial lacing at one spot.
This is what that looks like.
The opening shot was from the right side,
and this is from the left, so
the valve hole shift looks different,
but from the right side it's the same.
If you mix up right-drop and left-drop, with new spokes
you can just flip one outboard and one inboard from one flange,
but with used spokes,
I don't want to change the relationship between original outboard and original inboard,
so first I pull out one outboard spoke,
then move the spokes to the next hole in the same orientation...
This is the state one step before finishing that process.
Moved the inboard spoke to the next hole in the same orientation.
Filled in with the outboard spoke I pulled out initially.
This preserves the relationship between original outboard and original inboard
while converting from right-drop to left-drop.
The replacement rim had a burr that would interfere with truing,
(Though you could just avoid putting the gauge on that edge)
so I filed it off. It's not on the braking zone.
Built it up.
Left-drop Italian lacing, normal rim four-four lacing
with the valve hole between the 4-spoke-1-pair brackets.
In other words, the standard way.
Looking from the right, the hub barrel lettering isn't reversed,
and the Rib Strong reads in the correct direction—
but that's how it was originally.
Since I confirmed that first,
I never removed the Rib Strong from the hub barrel during the work.