Another day of wheel work (and so on).
I took in a ZIPP 303 wheel rebuild job.
↑Before rebuild
This hub apparently can't be upgraded to Shimano 11-speed.
That's the reason for the rebuild.
The replacement hub was customer-supplied—a Novatech.
About the rebuild—this radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is quite a formidable opponent.
I don't say that because the hub is poor quality.
Quite the opposite: because it's so well-designed, making it better through a rebuild is the difficult part. That's what I mean by "formidable opponent."
The radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is theoretically the optimal solution for correcting spoke tension imbalance between sides.
On this hub, the non-freehub side is 1-cross, so it's not built in the closest tangential pattern.
That's where I can make an improvement.
It's a matchup between the optimization of the pre-rebuild radial freehub side through spoke tension reduction and the optimization of the post-rebuild near-tangential non-freehub side through spoke tension increase.
The reason the non-freehub side of the original hub is 1-cross is that the flanges are essentially coaxial, apart from the thickness of the spoke crossings.
If it had separate-axis flanges like the freehub side of older ZIPP hubs, they could have designed it as 2-cross.
But separate-axis flanges seem to create significant air turbulence around the flange area.
Though it's within the wheel's inner circumference, ZIPP—a brand that values aerodynamics—probably had concerns about it.
Rebuilt.
Semi-comp 24-spoke pattern.
I took in another ZIPP 303 wheel rebuild job.
↑Before rebuild
This hub can't be upgraded to Shimano 11-speed.
That's the reason for the rebuild.
I'll use our shop's Tni (Tni hub) for this one.
About this rebuild—the radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is quite a formidable opponent.
I don't say that because the hub is poor quality.
Quite the opposite: because it's so well-designed, making it better through a rebuild is the difficult part. That's what I mean by "formidable opponent."
The radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is theoretically the optimal solution for correcting spoke tension imbalance between sides.
On this hub, the non-freehub side is 1-cross, so it's not built in the closest tangential pattern.
That's where I can make an improvement.
It's a matchup between the optimization of the pre-rebuild radial freehub side through spoke tension reduction and the optimization of the post-rebuild near-tangential non-freehub side through spoke tension increase.
The customer asked me to weigh the rim before the rebuild,
but sorry, I forgot.
Even if I had measured it, I wouldn't post something like that here anyway.
↑Stop it!
But I do appreciate that they weighed it for me.
Rebuilt.
Full CX-RAY 24-spoke pattern.
The two customers don't know each other,
but it's funny how the same type of job comes in at the same time like this.
I took in a ZIPP 303 wheel rebuild job.
↑Before rebuild
This hub apparently can't be upgraded to Shimano 11-speed.
That's the reason for the rebuild.
The replacement hub was customer-supplied—a Novatech.
About the rebuild—this radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is quite a formidable opponent.
I don't say that because the hub is poor quality.
Quite the opposite: because it's so well-designed, making it better through a rebuild is the difficult part. That's what I mean by "formidable opponent."
The radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is theoretically the optimal solution for correcting spoke tension imbalance between sides.
On this hub, the non-freehub side is 1-cross, so it's not built in the closest tangential pattern.
That's where I can make an improvement.
It's a matchup between the optimization of the pre-rebuild radial freehub side through spoke tension reduction and the optimization of the post-rebuild near-tangential non-freehub side through spoke tension increase.
The reason the non-freehub side of the original hub is 1-cross is that the flanges are essentially coaxial, apart from the thickness of the spoke crossings.
If it had separate-axis flanges like the freehub side of older ZIPP hubs, they could have designed it as 2-cross.
But separate-axis flanges seem to create significant air turbulence around the flange area.
Though it's within the wheel's inner circumference, ZIPP—a brand that values aerodynamics—probably had concerns about it.
Rebuilt.
Semi-comp 24-spoke pattern.
I took in another ZIPP 303 wheel rebuild job.
↑Before rebuild
This hub can't be upgraded to Shimano 11-speed.
That's the reason for the rebuild.
I'll use our shop's Tni (Tni hub) for this one.
About this rebuild—the radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is quite a formidable opponent.
I don't say that because the hub is poor quality.
Quite the opposite: because it's so well-designed, making it better through a rebuild is the difficult part. That's what I mean by "formidable opponent."
The radial spoke pattern on the freehub side is theoretically the optimal solution for correcting spoke tension imbalance between sides.
On this hub, the non-freehub side is 1-cross, so it's not built in the closest tangential pattern.
That's where I can make an improvement.
It's a matchup between the optimization of the pre-rebuild radial freehub side through spoke tension reduction and the optimization of the post-rebuild near-tangential non-freehub side through spoke tension increase.
The customer asked me to weigh the rim before the rebuild,
but sorry, I forgot.
Even if I had measured it, I wouldn't post something like that here anyway.
↑Stop it!
But I do appreciate that they weighed it for me.
Rebuilt.
Full CX-RAY 24-spoke pattern.
The two customers don't know each other,
but it's funny how the same type of job comes in at the same time like this.