Another wheel build day (and so on).
I received an ENVE 1-45 rim from a customer.
Back on March 28th of this year.
It's been about 9 months since then—or rather,
there were reasons I couldn't build it before,
but it would have been possible to build just the rear wheel first.
I'll write about that on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow.
I determined it was definitely an ENVE and not an EDGE
because the serial number is 7 digits (in the 1 million range).
Based on the era, it wouldn't be strange if it weighed around 315g,
but this was a lighter specimen.
Back in the EDGE era, specimens in the 268–274g range
were pretty common.
Built it.
FH-6700, 24H, semi-competition four-cross lacing.
I'll do the spoke anchoring later.
This hub is essentially the same as the FH-6600,
the only difference being the font style of the Ultegra logo.
The 6600 front and rear hubs did have 24H versions,
but due to Shimano's recent policy of narrowing hub hole count options and discontinuing certain models,
the 24H spec disappeared starting with the 6800.
If Shimano had offered an 11-speed compatible 24H hub outside of Dura-Ace,
I would definitely have adopted it for Nōmu Lab wheels.
Instead of expanding the hub lineup, they pushed their own complete wheels as the answer,
but those disappeared pretty quickly—probably because they couldn't be upgraded to 11-speed compatibility.
Beyond that, they weren't particularly impressive wheels performance-wise either,
which I think was a big factor.
Going back in time a bit, the hub was brand new with no build marks.
The rim isn't new,
but since it was used with tubular tape,
there's no rim cement residue on the outer edge.
The image above shows the cap that covers the balloon-out hole,
positioned opposite the valve hole.
Without this cap, there would be a hole nearly the full width of the rim,
and that's typically where a rim spreads under buckling stress from hot brake friction.
There's a heat sag mark in the brake zone directly below the cap.
At this level, it's not a problem for use.
Smart ENVE improved this aspect quite a bit,
but it went from having the strongest height-to-weight ratio across all available rim heights
to being inferior in this regard compared to other brands,
losing that "special weapon" feel.
※ Show me another 25mm-height rim that weighs 195g,
or if a 45mm-height rim exists at 275g, I'd like to see it,
a 66mm-height rim at 378g—there's never been anything like this in bicycle history,
that's the level we're talking about.
To be fair, there were sub-200g rims in the 25mm-height range
in AX Lightness complete wheels too.
The 1-65 rim, but the sticker on early rims said 1-68,
the catalog model name was 1-65,
and the actual rim height is 66mm.
I received an ENVE 1-45 rim from a customer.
Back on March 28th of this year.
It's been about 9 months since then—or rather,
there were reasons I couldn't build it before,
but it would have been possible to build just the rear wheel first.
I'll write about that on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow.
I determined it was definitely an ENVE and not an EDGE
because the serial number is 7 digits (in the 1 million range).
Based on the era, it wouldn't be strange if it weighed around 315g,
but this was a lighter specimen.
Back in the EDGE era, specimens in the 268–274g range
were pretty common.
Built it.
FH-6700, 24H, semi-competition four-cross lacing.
I'll do the spoke anchoring later.
This hub is essentially the same as the FH-6600,
the only difference being the font style of the Ultegra logo.
The 6600 front and rear hubs did have 24H versions,
but due to Shimano's recent policy of narrowing hub hole count options and discontinuing certain models,
the 24H spec disappeared starting with the 6800.
If Shimano had offered an 11-speed compatible 24H hub outside of Dura-Ace,
I would definitely have adopted it for Nōmu Lab wheels.
Instead of expanding the hub lineup, they pushed their own complete wheels as the answer,
but those disappeared pretty quickly—probably because they couldn't be upgraded to 11-speed compatibility.
Beyond that, they weren't particularly impressive wheels performance-wise either,
which I think was a big factor.
Going back in time a bit, the hub was brand new with no build marks.
The rim isn't new,
but since it was used with tubular tape,
there's no rim cement residue on the outer edge.
The image above shows the cap that covers the balloon-out hole,
positioned opposite the valve hole.
Without this cap, there would be a hole nearly the full width of the rim,
and that's typically where a rim spreads under buckling stress from hot brake friction.
There's a heat sag mark in the brake zone directly below the cap.
At this level, it's not a problem for use.
Smart ENVE improved this aspect quite a bit,
but it went from having the strongest height-to-weight ratio across all available rim heights
to being inferior in this regard compared to other brands,
losing that "special weapon" feel.
※ Show me another 25mm-height rim that weighs 195g,
or if a 45mm-height rim exists at 275g, I'd like to see it,
a 66mm-height rim at 378g—there's never been anything like this in bicycle history,
that's the level we're talking about.
To be fair, there were sub-200g rims in the 25mm-height range
in AX Lightness complete wheels too.
The 1-65 rim, but the sticker on early rims said 1-68,
the catalog model name was 1-65,
and the actual rim height is 66mm.