Another wheel day (details omitted).
I built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #4.
Leaf hub, 20H, CX Sprint outpoke radial lacing
with red aluminum nipples.
This wheel was supposed to be built with green nipples,
but a customer showed up today and we switched to red nipples on the spot.
That was close. This wheel was one of the candidates to build soon anyway, so
there was a real possibility I'd have already laced it up with green nipples yesterday.
The tire is Continental Grand Prix 4000S II (box says 4000S2)
tubular tire.
The customer wants me to mount it without rim cement or tubular tape,
just stretched on the rim,
so I pumped it to 11 bar after mounting (tire limit is 12 bar).
Among Continental's tubular tires,
this one is one of three flagship models at the same price point
(the other two are Competition and Podium TT).
The tread pattern is the same as the Grand Prix 4000 clincher,
but otherwise it doesn't really have Grand Prix 4000 characteristics.
The compound is completely different to begin with, and
it has an unusually tacky feel (not in a bad way), extremely high cornering limits,
and the tire sidewalls are quite short, so the wheel diameter including the tire
comes out noticeably smaller.
On the flip side, it doesn't have the almost absurd durability
that the clincher model had.
The tire construction is quite unusual, not just for Continental but
among tubular tires in general. The stitching runs on the outer side (under the tread),
so there's no bulge from the stitching on the underside.
It resembles a TUFO tire that has no stitching at all.
When it's mounted on the rim but not yet inflated,
it has quite a flat profile.
I built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #4.
Leaf hub, 20H, CX Sprint outpoke radial lacing
with red aluminum nipples.
This wheel was supposed to be built with green nipples,
but a customer showed up today and we switched to red nipples on the spot.
That was close. This wheel was one of the candidates to build soon anyway, so
there was a real possibility I'd have already laced it up with green nipples yesterday.
The tire is Continental Grand Prix 4000S II (box says 4000S2)
tubular tire.
The customer wants me to mount it without rim cement or tubular tape,
just stretched on the rim,
so I pumped it to 11 bar after mounting (tire limit is 12 bar).
Among Continental's tubular tires,
this one is one of three flagship models at the same price point
(the other two are Competition and Podium TT).
The tread pattern is the same as the Grand Prix 4000 clincher,
but otherwise it doesn't really have Grand Prix 4000 characteristics.
The compound is completely different to begin with, and
it has an unusually tacky feel (not in a bad way), extremely high cornering limits,
and the tire sidewalls are quite short, so the wheel diameter including the tire
comes out noticeably smaller.
On the flip side, it doesn't have the almost absurd durability
that the clincher model had.
The tire construction is quite unusual, not just for Continental but
among tubular tires in general. The stitching runs on the outer side (under the tread),
so there's no bulge from the stitching on the underside.
It resembles a TUFO tire that has no stitching at all.
When it's mounted on the rim but not yet inflated,
it has quite a flat profile.