I took in the latest Rapide CLX from a customer.
It's a wheelset with rim depths of 51mm front and 60mm rear.
The rim width is even wider than the previous model.
The customer brought it in straight from a shop in our neighborhood,
still in the box.
I often say something like "taking a wheel's precision to the mechanic's 100% point of compromise is the same whether you're truing spokes or receiving a partially built wheel,"
which basically means
"if you can't build wheels, you can't true them either."
Sometimes some guy will say "yeah, I can't build wheels, but I can sure true 'em,"
but that's impossible.
The key point is "whether you understand the moments when you actually have to loosen the nipples to remove lateral runout without introducing radial runout,"
and if you get that, you can
build wheels without precision issues.
I know the staff at the shop that sold this pretty well,
but not a single one of them can build wheels properly,
so proper inspection is impossible.
By the way, the title is the solution to the multiplication written on the rim side,
but the official model name is "Rapide CLX."
Specialized has previously simply called the model after the TARMAC SL4 just "TARMAC,"
and this uses a similarly simple model naming scheme.
There's an indent in the center of the rim that looks like it's for seating the tire bead,
and tubeless-looking rim tape is applied,
but this wheelset is not tubeless-compatible.
Even the CLX64 from the previous series didn't do this—
it's 2:1 lacing with 18 spokes total (six pairs).
Like Shimano's "disease of insisting on 16 spokes in the front wheel regardless of rim depth,"
once you start thinking about wind tunnel tests and spoke aerodynamic drag and such,
spoke aerodynamic drag seems to become the major factor compared to the loss of rigidity from reducing spoke count.
When I rebuilt the front wheel of a CLX64 disc for another job previously,
the customer didn't have an issue with rear wheel engagement,
but was really scared of the front wheel twisting in downhill corners
and wanted me to fix that—they were more concerned about the front wheel than the rear.
Even that front wheel had 2:1 lacing with 21 spokes (seven pairs), but...
Well, after I rebuilt it, it apparently doesn't twist on descents anymore.
Also, whereas the left side of the old CLX disc front wheel was 2-cross,
on the new Rapide CLX it's now 1-cross.
This wheelset uses same-diameter lacing on both left and right for both wheels, not reverse-diameter lacing,
and spoke weight-wise it's equivalent to CX-RAY/Aero Lite.
If I were to rebuild this wheel,
I'd make the right side CX Sprint and do reverse-diameter lacing,
but since the final crossing on the left is close to the hub flange,
the bracing effect would be minimal.
On inspection, it had basically no runout, just centering issues.
I showed the customer the condition before and after work,
but forgot to photograph it.
Next, the rear wheel.
24 spokes total: 2-cross 16 spokes on the freewheel side, 1-cross 8 spokes on the non-freewheel side.
Seen from this angle, it might look pretty cool.
It uses a DT hub with the new star ratchet,
where the ratchet changed from the bamboo shoot spring dual-pawl design to single-pawl.
The rim was shifted toward the non-freewheel side (fewer spokes side).
The amount of shift on the front wheel was roughly similar,
but shifted toward the more-spokes side.
Yeah, they definitely didn't inspect it!
Centered.
It's a wheelset with rim depths of 51mm front and 60mm rear.
The rim width is even wider than the previous model.
The customer brought it in straight from a shop in our neighborhood,
still in the box.
I often say something like "taking a wheel's precision to the mechanic's 100% point of compromise is the same whether you're truing spokes or receiving a partially built wheel,"
which basically means
"if you can't build wheels, you can't true them either."
Sometimes some guy will say "yeah, I can't build wheels, but I can sure true 'em,"
but that's impossible.
The key point is "whether you understand the moments when you actually have to loosen the nipples to remove lateral runout without introducing radial runout,"
and if you get that, you can
build wheels without precision issues.
I know the staff at the shop that sold this pretty well,
but not a single one of them can build wheels properly,
so proper inspection is impossible.
By the way, the title is the solution to the multiplication written on the rim side,
but the official model name is "Rapide CLX."
Specialized has previously simply called the model after the TARMAC SL4 just "TARMAC,"
and this uses a similarly simple model naming scheme.
There's an indent in the center of the rim that looks like it's for seating the tire bead,
and tubeless-looking rim tape is applied,
but this wheelset is not tubeless-compatible.
Even the CLX64 from the previous series didn't do this—
it's 2:1 lacing with 18 spokes total (six pairs).
Like Shimano's "disease of insisting on 16 spokes in the front wheel regardless of rim depth,"
once you start thinking about wind tunnel tests and spoke aerodynamic drag and such,
spoke aerodynamic drag seems to become the major factor compared to the loss of rigidity from reducing spoke count.
When I rebuilt the front wheel of a CLX64 disc for another job previously,
the customer didn't have an issue with rear wheel engagement,
but was really scared of the front wheel twisting in downhill corners
and wanted me to fix that—they were more concerned about the front wheel than the rear.
Even that front wheel had 2:1 lacing with 21 spokes (seven pairs), but...
Well, after I rebuilt it, it apparently doesn't twist on descents anymore.
Also, whereas the left side of the old CLX disc front wheel was 2-cross,
on the new Rapide CLX it's now 1-cross.
This wheelset uses same-diameter lacing on both left and right for both wheels, not reverse-diameter lacing,
and spoke weight-wise it's equivalent to CX-RAY/Aero Lite.
If I were to rebuild this wheel,
I'd make the right side CX Sprint and do reverse-diameter lacing,
but since the final crossing on the left is close to the hub flange,
the bracing effect would be minimal.
On inspection, it had basically no runout, just centering issues.
I showed the customer the condition before and after work,
but forgot to photograph it.
Next, the rear wheel.
24 spokes total: 2-cross 16 spokes on the freewheel side, 1-cross 8 spokes on the non-freewheel side.
Seen from this angle, it might look pretty cool.
It uses a DT hub with the new star ratchet,
where the ratchet changed from the bamboo shoot spring dual-pawl design to single-pawl.
The rim was shifted toward the non-freewheel side (fewer spokes side).
The amount of shift on the front wheel was roughly similar,
but shifted toward the more-spokes side.
Yeah, they definitely didn't inspect it!
Centered.