Another wheel day (and so on).
A customer left me front and rear wheels built with Open Pro CD ceramic rims.
Today I only worked on the front wheel though.
HB-7700 32H Sapim #15 laced in Italian six-cross.
The customer wanted it rebuilt in black CX-RAY radial lacing.
Dead center and tension was nice and tight.
It's built properly. The reason I pulled back for the shot is
because with Italian lacing, the spoke direction alternates left and right,
and I wanted to capture that in the image.
Runout was essentially non-existent.
Some people might find it unusual that I'm complimenting someone else's wheelwork,
but it's not that praise is rare—
it's that properly built wheels are rare.
The counter-spoke head has spoke witness marks, so
even at this point, this is not the first wheel on this hub.
The nipples aren't Sapim brand, but rather 3.4mm square brass.
Apart from the slot, the 120-degree phase-incremented lines
are apparently a marking to distinguish these as #15 nipples.
As for "CD ceramic"—first, "CD" refers to hard anodized color, and
"ceramic" refers to
this black, rough texture on the braking surface.
The specification with chemical formula laser-etched on it
is limited to early production runs of Open Pro from the era of the sticker on this rim.
Ceramic treatment is often applied to CD anodized rims,
but rims like the MACH 2 CD2 (Mach Two CD-2) have
silver rim with ceramic treatment applied.
For this rim, Shimano once made
ceramic-specific brake shoes for both
7700-series Dura-Ace caliper brakes and
9500-series XTR V-brakes.
Using them together doesn't so much increase stopping power as it does
dramatically improve braking in wet conditions compared to normal rim-and-shoe combinations.
Using ceramic-rim shoes on normal rims is not recommended because
it causes abnormally rapid rim wear.
Using normal shoes on ceramic rims
is not specifically forbidden—they'll just wear faster.
If you're looking for current brake shoes with similar characteristics,
something like SwissStop's BXP is a good option.
Rebuilt it.
Black CX-RAY radial laced with black aluminum nipples.
A third mark now appears on the hub flange.
Radial lacing of 28H or higher makes the hub shell harder to wipe down.
This hub actually prohibits radial lacing, and
the first Shimano hub officially cleared for radial lacing was
the HB-5500 front hub for the 105 on 7700-series Dura-Ace,
then the HB-5501 with changed logo,
then the HB-5501-A minor revision.
However, the HB-7400 front hub of the earlier 7400-series Dura-Ace
and the HB-6400 front hub of the contemporary 6400-series 600 Altegra both come in 18H,
and the HB-7700 also comes in 18H, so
even if you use tangential lacing, one spoke in three will inevitably be radial.
I myself have a front wheel with the HB-7700 in 24H laced radially,
and when these hubs and rims were current,
wheels supplied with complete bikes (especially budget to mid-range models)
weren't pre-built—most were hand-laced—and
I frequently saw front wheels with 4400-series Tiagra and 3300-series Sora 32H hubs
laced radially.
What I'm getting at is, people were building radial lacing as a matter of course back then too.
before
after
The customer asked me to weigh the wheel before and after rebuilding,
so I did.
I'm not using this to say "it's nearly 10% lighter!"
and therefore the rebuilt wheel is superior.
Of course the rim weight hasn't changed in the rebuild
(though the weight reduction in the rim periphery from different nipple material is significant),
and a wheel that feels light doesn't necessarily roll better.
In fact, with wheels I rebuild regularly, the case where
the weight around the spokes actually increases is more common.
Also, both images above
are weighed without the spoke protector band.
Even though it's 15mm wide, which doesn't match,
a spoke protector band from some manufacturer was on it
(installed backwards from the start).
When you cut spokes under tension, at first
the spoke flies outward from the rim with vigor.
More than to avoid that, leaving tension on causes
damage to the rim—carbon rims can crack at the spoke holes—so
even when discarding cut spokes,
I loosen the nipples and fully release tension.
Even so, cut spokes still drop out of the rim...and this protector band prevents that.
Don't expect it to do anything beyond that.
Because the product name says "rim tape,"
many people inadvertently use it as rim tape,
but this develops denting extremely quickly and
often causes pinch flats from the inside, so
it must not be used as rim tape.
The product name includes the word "Light," but
compared to Vittoria rim tape of the same width, it's over 1g heavier,
and while 1g might seem small, 1g out of 20g is a 5% difference,
which is significant.
Moreover, Vittoria's is actual rim tape, so
it naturally has a reasonable service life.
Probably the customer wrapped this spoke protector band
to prevent the unlikely event of something like an eye injury from scattered spokes
when I disassemble the wheel (an occurrence with virtually zero probability
even if I cut spokes without releasing tension).
I've received this same considerate treatment from various customers before—
having this band already installed—but
it's unnecessary. You don't need to bother wrapping the rim with this band
before handing the wheel to me.
Don't waste money on unnecessary things like that.
Oh, and the width doesn't match anyway, but
even if it did, this wheel didn't have
a "rim tape" on it, so
I'll install Vittoria's 18mm width.
A customer left me front and rear wheels built with Open Pro CD ceramic rims.
Today I only worked on the front wheel though.
HB-7700 32H Sapim #15 laced in Italian six-cross.
The customer wanted it rebuilt in black CX-RAY radial lacing.
Dead center and tension was nice and tight.
It's built properly. The reason I pulled back for the shot is
because with Italian lacing, the spoke direction alternates left and right,
and I wanted to capture that in the image.
Runout was essentially non-existent.
Some people might find it unusual that I'm complimenting someone else's wheelwork,
but it's not that praise is rare—
it's that properly built wheels are rare.
The counter-spoke head has spoke witness marks, so
even at this point, this is not the first wheel on this hub.
The nipples aren't Sapim brand, but rather 3.4mm square brass.
Apart from the slot, the 120-degree phase-incremented lines
are apparently a marking to distinguish these as #15 nipples.
As for "CD ceramic"—first, "CD" refers to hard anodized color, and
"ceramic" refers to
this black, rough texture on the braking surface.
The specification with chemical formula laser-etched on it
is limited to early production runs of Open Pro from the era of the sticker on this rim.
Ceramic treatment is often applied to CD anodized rims,
but rims like the MACH 2 CD2 (Mach Two CD-2) have
silver rim with ceramic treatment applied.
For this rim, Shimano once made
ceramic-specific brake shoes for both
7700-series Dura-Ace caliper brakes and
9500-series XTR V-brakes.
Using them together doesn't so much increase stopping power as it does
dramatically improve braking in wet conditions compared to normal rim-and-shoe combinations.
Using ceramic-rim shoes on normal rims is not recommended because
it causes abnormally rapid rim wear.
Using normal shoes on ceramic rims
is not specifically forbidden—they'll just wear faster.
If you're looking for current brake shoes with similar characteristics,
something like SwissStop's BXP is a good option.
Rebuilt it.
Black CX-RAY radial laced with black aluminum nipples.
A third mark now appears on the hub flange.
This hub actually prohibits radial lacing, and
the first Shimano hub officially cleared for radial lacing was
the HB-5500 front hub for the 105 on 7700-series Dura-Ace,
then the HB-5501 with changed logo,
then the HB-5501-A minor revision.
However, the HB-7400 front hub of the earlier 7400-series Dura-Ace
and the HB-6400 front hub of the contemporary 6400-series 600 Altegra both come in 18H,
and the HB-7700 also comes in 18H, so
even if you use tangential lacing, one spoke in three will inevitably be radial.
I myself have a front wheel with the HB-7700 in 24H laced radially,
and when these hubs and rims were current,
wheels supplied with complete bikes (especially budget to mid-range models)
weren't pre-built—most were hand-laced—and
I frequently saw front wheels with 4400-series Tiagra and 3300-series Sora 32H hubs
laced radially.
What I'm getting at is, people were building radial lacing as a matter of course back then too.
before
after
The customer asked me to weigh the wheel before and after rebuilding,
so I did.
I'm not using this to say "it's nearly 10% lighter!"
and therefore the rebuilt wheel is superior.
Of course the rim weight hasn't changed in the rebuild
(though the weight reduction in the rim periphery from different nipple material is significant),
and a wheel that feels light doesn't necessarily roll better.
In fact, with wheels I rebuild regularly, the case where
the weight around the spokes actually increases is more common.
Also, both images above
are weighed without the spoke protector band.
Even though it's 15mm wide, which doesn't match,
a spoke protector band from some manufacturer was on it
(installed backwards from the start).
When you cut spokes under tension, at first
the spoke flies outward from the rim with vigor.
More than to avoid that, leaving tension on causes
damage to the rim—carbon rims can crack at the spoke holes—so
even when discarding cut spokes,
I loosen the nipples and fully release tension.
Even so, cut spokes still drop out of the rim...and this protector band prevents that.
Don't expect it to do anything beyond that.
Because the product name says "rim tape,"
many people inadvertently use it as rim tape,
but this develops denting extremely quickly and
often causes pinch flats from the inside, so
it must not be used as rim tape.
The product name includes the word "Light," but
compared to Vittoria rim tape of the same width, it's over 1g heavier,
and while 1g might seem small, 1g out of 20g is a 5% difference,
which is significant.
Moreover, Vittoria's is actual rim tape, so
it naturally has a reasonable service life.
Probably the customer wrapped this spoke protector band
to prevent the unlikely event of something like an eye injury from scattered spokes
when I disassemble the wheel (an occurrence with virtually zero probability
even if I cut spokes without releasing tension).
I've received this same considerate treatment from various customers before—
having this band already installed—but
it's unnecessary. You don't need to bother wrapping the rim with this band
before handing the wheel to me.
Don't waste money on unnecessary things like that.
Oh, and the width doesn't match anyway, but
even if it did, this wheel didn't have
a "rim tape" on it, so
I'll install Vittoria's 18mm width.