Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer dropped off a rear wheel from a ZIPP 202.
It's a WO (tubular) rim spec.
This customer owns ZIPP 101, 202, and 303 wheels.
I haven't written about the 101, but when they dropped it off,
fortunately (or rather, unfortunately!?) it had centered issues,
so while I was centering it I also did some retensioning.
That said, the improvement is only perceptible by feel.
The 101 is an aluminum rim model, and the rear wheel is mysteriously 20H,
with a radial laced freewheel-side hub—a terrible spec—
while the non-freewheel side is 1x crossing, so the final crossing is close to the hub shell,
and therefore the bracing effect is minimal (not that I tried it).
The 303 rear wheel was rebuilt with the customer's hub,
and when I asked them about it at pickup,
they said the shimmy was gone and the handling felt noticeably better,
completely different from before the rebuild.
This customer is different from the one I just recently built for
who said "the 404 rear wheel you rebuilt before changed dramatically,
so please do the 303 too."
Not radial laced on the freewheel side, but rather 2x crossed left and right (in terms of spoke head position
there's a faint density phase offset, so I won't call it 4-pack building),
and the spokes on both sides are black CX-RAY straight gauge.
The freewheel-side spokes are bent and dented from a chain drop,
and the coating is also chipped.
They want me to rebuild this wheel reusing this hub.
...This is tricky. I considered going semi-Campagnolo or
semi-leading lacing, but
even with nipple washers, tensioning a 24H ZIPP rim on the freewheel side with 14 gauge plain nipples is extremely difficult,
and if you turn the nipples without hesitation—as if you're prepared to destroy the rim—
you can actually blow out the rim holes
(if you do the same thing on an ENVE, the nipple threads will strip and pull out).
However, there's no stable supply of round straight black spokes at about 85% spoke weight ratio.
I could search for spokes of usable length from
complete built wheels, but
this time I decided to use black CX Sprint straight spokes.
Can't do 46-spoke building (minor factor), not high-low flange (minor factor),
not offset rim (major factor compared to the previous two), plus
left-right different-diameter lacing with smaller impact than half-competition build,
so if needed I might do bracing on both sides.
If we only replaced all the freewheel-side spokes,
we wouldn't need to completely disassemble the wheel, but
since we're replacing all the nipples too, it's a complete disassembly.
I didn't disassemble it just to reserve space in the frame, okay.
The nipples were "supposed" to be turnable from the outer diameter side too, but
the bowl-shaped warped washer hit the tool end face first, so
the hex (which is 5.5mm across flats, by the way) had shallow engagement,
and it was actually better not to grab it from the outer diameter side at all.
Also, the corrosion pattern seems related to the potential difference caused by washer material,
and since it's corroded solid and rotates together with the nipple, reusing is difficult after all.
Many spoke-and-nipple relationships were also seized up,
so I cleaned the white corrosion on the threads of the non-freewheel side spokes that we're reusing.
Sapim nipple washers Type B (right in the photo above) barely fit through the rim holes,
so I'll use those for the rebuild.
As for the original nipple washers, they didn't stick to a magnet.
(Sapim nipple washers Type B do stick to magnets).
Built.
ZIPP V9 (Version Nine) 188 hub
24H, semi-CX Sprint left-right 2x crossing.
I'll do bracing later, but for the freewheel side
it tensioned so well I don't think it's necessary, so I won't.
It's not because I'm lazy, okay.
Also, regarding ZIPP hubs, there's a convenient archive (→here)
Shimano cassette, but
only the top gear has the wrong spline yet somehow
fits at an angle anyway,
and the initial lockring threading is so easy
that you can just tighten it hard with a tool.
In that case, only the top gear spins eccentrically, but
as long as you don't shift to the top gear, you won't notice in use.
The gear teeth wear visible in the photo above is evidence
of me doing exactly that in the past.
This rim is a 202 Firecrest WO,
and the customer asked me to weigh it if I was doing a complete disassembly.
Apart from the aluminum rim 101, ZIPP rims of the same era naturally
have lower absolute weight with lower rim height, but
considering relative weight accounting for rim height,
303s and 404s also probably aren't that heavy, so
setting aside aero pursuit, unless it's pure hill climbing,
303 or 404 might have better everyday suitability than 202.
Even if 303 loses to 202 in hill climbing aspects,
if it's tasty enough on flats and beyond that,
anything that's not pure hill climbing would just stay on 303s,
I imagine.
That's just talking about choosing within ZIPP rims though.
To have material for that kind of judgment,
you need to know the rim weight accurately.
And only the wheel owner and I need to know it.
You reading this now—it's got nothing to do with you.
↑man, this guy's got a bad attitude
I beg your pardon for the wait!
Please take a look at this image!
↑stop iiiiiit!
A customer dropped off a rear wheel from a ZIPP 202.
It's a WO (tubular) rim spec.
This customer owns ZIPP 101, 202, and 303 wheels.
I haven't written about the 101, but when they dropped it off,
fortunately (or rather, unfortunately!?) it had centered issues,
so while I was centering it I also did some retensioning.
That said, the improvement is only perceptible by feel.
The 101 is an aluminum rim model, and the rear wheel is mysteriously 20H,
with a radial laced freewheel-side hub—a terrible spec—
while the non-freewheel side is 1x crossing, so the final crossing is close to the hub shell,
and therefore the bracing effect is minimal (not that I tried it).
The 303 rear wheel was rebuilt with the customer's hub,
and when I asked them about it at pickup,
they said the shimmy was gone and the handling felt noticeably better,
completely different from before the rebuild.
This customer is different from the one I just recently built for
who said "the 404 rear wheel you rebuilt before changed dramatically,
so please do the 303 too."
Not radial laced on the freewheel side, but rather 2x crossed left and right (in terms of spoke head position
there's a faint density phase offset, so I won't call it 4-pack building),
and the spokes on both sides are black CX-RAY straight gauge.
The freewheel-side spokes are bent and dented from a chain drop,
and the coating is also chipped.
They want me to rebuild this wheel reusing this hub.
...This is tricky. I considered going semi-Campagnolo or
semi-leading lacing, but
even with nipple washers, tensioning a 24H ZIPP rim on the freewheel side with 14 gauge plain nipples is extremely difficult,
and if you turn the nipples without hesitation—as if you're prepared to destroy the rim—
you can actually blow out the rim holes
(if you do the same thing on an ENVE, the nipple threads will strip and pull out).
However, there's no stable supply of round straight black spokes at about 85% spoke weight ratio.
I could search for spokes of usable length from
complete built wheels, but
this time I decided to use black CX Sprint straight spokes.
Can't do 46-spoke building (minor factor), not high-low flange (minor factor),
not offset rim (major factor compared to the previous two), plus
left-right different-diameter lacing with smaller impact than half-competition build,
so if needed I might do bracing on both sides.
If we only replaced all the freewheel-side spokes,
we wouldn't need to completely disassemble the wheel, but
since we're replacing all the nipples too, it's a complete disassembly.
The nipples were "supposed" to be turnable from the outer diameter side too, but
the bowl-shaped warped washer hit the tool end face first, so
the hex (which is 5.5mm across flats, by the way) had shallow engagement,
and it was actually better not to grab it from the outer diameter side at all.
Also, the corrosion pattern seems related to the potential difference caused by washer material,
and since it's corroded solid and rotates together with the nipple, reusing is difficult after all.
Many spoke-and-nipple relationships were also seized up,
so I cleaned the white corrosion on the threads of the non-freewheel side spokes that we're reusing.
Sapim nipple washers Type B (right in the photo above) barely fit through the rim holes,
so I'll use those for the rebuild.
As for the original nipple washers, they didn't stick to a magnet.
(Sapim nipple washers Type B do stick to magnets).
Built.
ZIPP V9 (Version Nine) 188 hub
24H, semi-CX Sprint left-right 2x crossing.
I'll do bracing later, but for the freewheel side
it tensioned so well I don't think it's necessary, so I won't.
Also, regarding ZIPP hubs, there's a convenient archive (→here)
Shimano cassette, but
only the top gear has the wrong spline yet somehow
fits at an angle anyway,
and the initial lockring threading is so easy
that you can just tighten it hard with a tool.
In that case, only the top gear spins eccentrically, but
as long as you don't shift to the top gear, you won't notice in use.
The gear teeth wear visible in the photo above is evidence
of me doing exactly that in the past.
This rim is a 202 Firecrest WO,
and the customer asked me to weigh it if I was doing a complete disassembly.
Apart from the aluminum rim 101, ZIPP rims of the same era naturally
have lower absolute weight with lower rim height, but
considering relative weight accounting for rim height,
303s and 404s also probably aren't that heavy, so
setting aside aero pursuit, unless it's pure hill climbing,
303 or 404 might have better everyday suitability than 202.
Even if 303 loses to 202 in hill climbing aspects,
if it's tasty enough on flats and beyond that,
anything that's not pure hill climbing would just stay on 303s,
I imagine.
That's just talking about choosing within ZIPP rims though.
To have material for that kind of judgment,
you need to know the rim weight accurately.
And only the wheel owner and I need to know it.
You reading this now—it's got nothing to do with you.
↑man, this guy's got a bad attitude
I beg your pardon for the wait!
Please take a look at this image!
↑stop iiiiiit!