Another wheel day (and so on).
A customer left me with the front wheel of a Campagnolo Eurus.
The reason I call it "Eurus" rather than "Yulaus" is my own arbitrary distinction—
I reserve "Eurus" for the steel spoke era versions of EURUS,
while using "Yulaus" for the current generation.
Currently, distributor materials consistently use "Yulaus" in katakana, but
in the old days "Yulaus" was the mainstream spelling,
though "Eurus" spellings could also be spotted.
Similarly, I call the early silver-spoke era Nucleon "Nukureon" to distinguish it.
The customer's request was a rim replacement because
the braking zone is worn.
Well, it's not completely unworn, but
considering that plenty of people are fine using rims
with braking zones that are far worse off—rounded and concave—
it's truly admirable attention to detail.
Since it's an internal nipple design,
there are spoke holes on the rim's outer perimeter.
Also, if I have left/right dust caps in stock,
he'd like new ones.
This customer can build wheels themselves.
They're far better than the wheel-building playacting at most shops, so
if they had the materials, they wouldn't need to ask a shop to build the wheel.
This time too, if the exact same rim (part number WH-004EU) were available,
the customer might have built it themselves, but that rim is already discontinued.
I searched for a narrow rim in the same 16H with reusable spokes,
but that rim would likely require spoke trimming and
magnetic guidance of the nipples, so
it fell to me to do it.
I ordered the rim.
WH-113ZOB (Zonda Black)—a Zonda 2WAY-FIT rim.
It's 2WAY-FIT because that's what came up when I searched for a narrow rim with shorter lead time.
I was honest with the distributor person most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in all of Japan
about using this for Eurus repairs and had them find a rim for me.
I have no intention of getting "on record" that the manufacturer acknowledges its use for repairs,
and I'm well aware that's impossible anyway.
It's a modification wheel with a non-OEM rim combination no matter how you look at it,
but instead of saying "the rim's no longer available so give up," finding and presenting something that actually works was genuinely appreciated.
This wheel is from around 2002, but
I wonder how many manufacturers or brands can actually repair wheels from that era.
I lined up the Eurus and Zonda rims side by side.
By my reckoning, the Eurus has a higher rim height (meaning shorter spokes),
but because it has internal nipples,
when reusing spokes with the external-nipple Zonda rim,
the spoke length is actually longer, making trimming necessary, I thought.
The result was cutting 2mm.
So the wheel can never be rebuilt on the original rim.
It's built.
By the way, this rim is 2WAY-FIT, so
the valve hole isn't exactly centered between the spoke holes;
it shares the uncut spoke hole island with the nearest spoke hole.
↑This is the front wheel of a Racing Zero Competizione
on another job I'm working on.
Competizione is a 2WAY-FIT rim model.
So it likewise shares the uncut spoke hole island with the valve hole,
but this wheel officially has "cosmetic spoke color symmetry"
with "red cosmetic spokes are the spoke nearest the valve hole" as the rule.
Since the rear wheel's red spokes are on the anti-freewheel side (left),
for consistency, the front wheel's spoke nearest the valve hole should be
the left-side spoke
(this Racing Zero Competizione happens to be that way,
though some examples have the red spoke on the right).
From this, I built the Zonda 2WAY-FIT rim so that
the spoke nearest the valve hole is a left-side spoke.
Incidentally, both Racing Zero and Zonda have offset spoke holes.
Aluminum spoke 2WAY-FIT wheels have
a four-pronged valve bushing in the valve hole.
When building a wheel, for WO (wire-on) rims,
you insert the aluminum-spoke nipple from the outer perimeter,
but with 2WAY-FIT rims, opening the hole large enough for that would
make tubeless valves unusable, so
they enlarge the inner-side hole and later fill the dimension with a valve bushing.
In the Zonda case, even a slightly larger proprietary nipple
passes cleanly through the French valve-diameter hole, so
the inner-side hole doesn't have the valve bushing design.
As for the Eurus spokes, the flattened section thickens one more step
right before reaching the rim.
The CX-RAY tool's slot that would normally grip
doesn't fit at that position at all.
Writing out the butted dimensions from the hub side:
14-gauge round—same as CX-RAY—similar to CX Sprint—14-gauge round.
The nipple too has ribs dug into the grip area
like claws sinking in (and given the material properties,
fracture is unlikely anyway),
designed to resist breaking.
Here are the dust caps.
You can really see the wear and tear.
These dust caps come in two sizes.
Originally, they first appeared as the rear right-side cap for Shamal.
The Shamal I'm referring to here is Shamal 12—both front and rear at 12H—
making it a part from around 1997.
Currently, Shamal Ultra Grade parts carry an "SH" prefix,
but early Shamal had "SM".
Later, front hub dual-side dust caps appeared.
The part number includes "BO," indicating it first appeared as Bora caps.
These look very similar, but
the sizes differ subtly, and
(↑when you align the left edge, there's this much difference on the right)
they're not interchangeable.
I replaced the dust caps.
It might seem like you can no longer visually distinguish left from right, but
when viewed from the right side of the wheel, the text on the
hub body's grease hole band is readable in the correct orientation,
and as mentioned before, the spoke nearest the valve hole
comes from the left flange, which serve as clues.
The Eurus this time was once the top model of medium-profile rims,
and compared to Nukureon, the top model of low-profile aluminum rims,
something unusual happened: Nukureon was lighter in front, but
Eurus was lighter in rear—a reversal.
Nukureon Tubular F645g R895g
Nukureon WO F670g R910g
Eurus WO F695g R865g
↑manufacturer specs
The reason for this is that Nukureon's rear rim is an offset rim and
has internal walls, so it's heavier for its rim height,
Eurus G3 spokes are almost entirely CX-RAY at 21 spokes,
while Nukureon has quite an extreme left/right different-diameter spoke pattern,
and with 24 spokes recalculated to CX-RAY spoke weight equivalents,
it comes out to 32H or more, with longer spoke lengths too,
so the total spoke volume of Nukureon exceeds Eurus by 1.5 times or more,
meaning while the rim itself is still lighter on Nukureon,
the rear wheel ends up heavier elsewhere, which I believe
causes the reversal in manufacturer specs.
But even so, the Zonda this time—whether 2WAY-FIT or not—
has a lower rim height than Eurus and is from quite a different era,
so when rebuilding, I was expecting a weight reduction in the rim.
When I actually weighed the rims,
I was more struck by the Eurus's heaviness than the Zonda's lightness,
wondering how this ends up lighter than a Nukureon rear wheel.
By the way, I have no intention of publishing the measured weights.
Or more like, there's no way you'd get free rim weight info every day—
think about it a little, would you.
↑what a terrible attitude this person has
We-humbly-apologize-for-the-wait! Please-look-at-this-image!
It-is-the-Eurus-front-rim-otherwise-known-as-WH-004EU!
It-is-the-Zonda-2WAY-FIT-front-rim-otherwise-known-as-WH-113ZOB!
↑Stop-it-already!
A customer left me with the front wheel of a Campagnolo Eurus.
The reason I call it "Eurus" rather than "Yulaus" is my own arbitrary distinction—
I reserve "Eurus" for the steel spoke era versions of EURUS,
while using "Yulaus" for the current generation.
Currently, distributor materials consistently use "Yulaus" in katakana, but
in the old days "Yulaus" was the mainstream spelling,
though "Eurus" spellings could also be spotted.
Similarly, I call the early silver-spoke era Nucleon "Nukureon" to distinguish it.
The customer's request was a rim replacement because
the braking zone is worn.
Well, it's not completely unworn, but
considering that plenty of people are fine using rims
with braking zones that are far worse off—rounded and concave—
it's truly admirable attention to detail.
Since it's an internal nipple design,
there are spoke holes on the rim's outer perimeter.
Also, if I have left/right dust caps in stock,
he'd like new ones.
This customer can build wheels themselves.
They're far better than the wheel-building playacting at most shops, so
if they had the materials, they wouldn't need to ask a shop to build the wheel.
This time too, if the exact same rim (part number WH-004EU) were available,
the customer might have built it themselves, but that rim is already discontinued.
I searched for a narrow rim in the same 16H with reusable spokes,
but that rim would likely require spoke trimming and
magnetic guidance of the nipples, so
it fell to me to do it.
I ordered the rim.
WH-113ZOB (Zonda Black)—a Zonda 2WAY-FIT rim.
It's 2WAY-FIT because that's what came up when I searched for a narrow rim with shorter lead time.
I was honest with the distributor person most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in all of Japan
about using this for Eurus repairs and had them find a rim for me.
I have no intention of getting "on record" that the manufacturer acknowledges its use for repairs,
and I'm well aware that's impossible anyway.
It's a modification wheel with a non-OEM rim combination no matter how you look at it,
but instead of saying "the rim's no longer available so give up," finding and presenting something that actually works was genuinely appreciated.
This wheel is from around 2002, but
I wonder how many manufacturers or brands can actually repair wheels from that era.
I lined up the Eurus and Zonda rims side by side.
By my reckoning, the Eurus has a higher rim height (meaning shorter spokes),
but because it has internal nipples,
when reusing spokes with the external-nipple Zonda rim,
the spoke length is actually longer, making trimming necessary, I thought.
The result was cutting 2mm.
So the wheel can never be rebuilt on the original rim.
It's built.
By the way, this rim is 2WAY-FIT, so
the valve hole isn't exactly centered between the spoke holes;
it shares the uncut spoke hole island with the nearest spoke hole.
↑This is the front wheel of a Racing Zero Competizione
on another job I'm working on.
Competizione is a 2WAY-FIT rim model.
So it likewise shares the uncut spoke hole island with the valve hole,
but this wheel officially has "cosmetic spoke color symmetry"
with "red cosmetic spokes are the spoke nearest the valve hole" as the rule.
Since the rear wheel's red spokes are on the anti-freewheel side (left),
for consistency, the front wheel's spoke nearest the valve hole should be
the left-side spoke
(this Racing Zero Competizione happens to be that way,
though some examples have the red spoke on the right).
From this, I built the Zonda 2WAY-FIT rim so that
the spoke nearest the valve hole is a left-side spoke.
Incidentally, both Racing Zero and Zonda have offset spoke holes.
Aluminum spoke 2WAY-FIT wheels have
a four-pronged valve bushing in the valve hole.
When building a wheel, for WO (wire-on) rims,
you insert the aluminum-spoke nipple from the outer perimeter,
but with 2WAY-FIT rims, opening the hole large enough for that would
make tubeless valves unusable, so
they enlarge the inner-side hole and later fill the dimension with a valve bushing.
In the Zonda case, even a slightly larger proprietary nipple
passes cleanly through the French valve-diameter hole, so
the inner-side hole doesn't have the valve bushing design.
As for the Eurus spokes, the flattened section thickens one more step
right before reaching the rim.
The CX-RAY tool's slot that would normally grip
doesn't fit at that position at all.
Writing out the butted dimensions from the hub side:
14-gauge round—same as CX-RAY—similar to CX Sprint—14-gauge round.
The nipple too has ribs dug into the grip area
like claws sinking in (and given the material properties,
fracture is unlikely anyway),
designed to resist breaking.
Here are the dust caps.
You can really see the wear and tear.
These dust caps come in two sizes.
Originally, they first appeared as the rear right-side cap for Shamal.
The Shamal I'm referring to here is Shamal 12—both front and rear at 12H—
making it a part from around 1997.
Currently, Shamal Ultra Grade parts carry an "SH" prefix,
but early Shamal had "SM".
Later, front hub dual-side dust caps appeared.
The part number includes "BO," indicating it first appeared as Bora caps.
These look very similar, but
the sizes differ subtly, and
(↑when you align the left edge, there's this much difference on the right)
they're not interchangeable.
I replaced the dust caps.
It might seem like you can no longer visually distinguish left from right, but
when viewed from the right side of the wheel, the text on the
hub body's grease hole band is readable in the correct orientation,
and as mentioned before, the spoke nearest the valve hole
comes from the left flange, which serve as clues.
The Eurus this time was once the top model of medium-profile rims,
and compared to Nukureon, the top model of low-profile aluminum rims,
something unusual happened: Nukureon was lighter in front, but
Eurus was lighter in rear—a reversal.
Nukureon Tubular F645g R895g
Nukureon WO F670g R910g
Eurus WO F695g R865g
↑manufacturer specs
The reason for this is that Nukureon's rear rim is an offset rim and
has internal walls, so it's heavier for its rim height,
Eurus G3 spokes are almost entirely CX-RAY at 21 spokes,
while Nukureon has quite an extreme left/right different-diameter spoke pattern,
and with 24 spokes recalculated to CX-RAY spoke weight equivalents,
it comes out to 32H or more, with longer spoke lengths too,
so the total spoke volume of Nukureon exceeds Eurus by 1.5 times or more,
meaning while the rim itself is still lighter on Nukureon,
the rear wheel ends up heavier elsewhere, which I believe
causes the reversal in manufacturer specs.
But even so, the Zonda this time—whether 2WAY-FIT or not—
has a lower rim height than Eurus and is from quite a different era,
so when rebuilding, I was expecting a weight reduction in the rim.
When I actually weighed the rims,
I was more struck by the Eurus's heaviness than the Zonda's lightness,
wondering how this ends up lighter than a Nukureon rear wheel.
By the way, I have no intention of publishing the measured weights.
Or more like, there's no way you'd get free rim weight info every day—
think about it a little, would you.
↑what a terrible attitude this person has
We-humbly-apologize-for-the-wait! Please-look-at-this-image!
It-is-the-Eurus-front-rim-otherwise-known-as-WH-004EU!
It-is-the-Zonda-2WAY-FIT-front-rim-otherwise-known-as-WH-113ZOB!
↑Stop-it-already!