I received a rear wheel built with Open Pro CD rims from a customer.
It had been used for cyclocross.
With the "CD" specification where even the rim sides are covered in hard anodize,
you don't get the white corrosion bloom on exposed aluminum rim sides
that you'd normally see with disc brake rims.
The hub is a Shimano XT FH-M755.
The "5" at the end of the 750-series XT means it's for disc brakes—
Shimano's first disc brake hub.
There were no thru-axle or centerlock specifications back then;
it's a quick-release design with 135mm over-locknut dimension.
It's a 32-hole, six-cross JIS-pattern build.
The spokes are Wheelsmith #15 plain gauge.
If this wheel was built around the same era as the rim and hub,
these spokes are actually Asahi (Japanese spoke manufacturer) OEM.
Wheelsmith is a brand that's particular about spoke elbow angles,
and their website touts the "specially designed elbow section
to maximize fatigue life," but since they never had their own
spoke manufacturing equipment, they used Asahi as their OEM supplier back then.
As for why I received this wheel:
due to chain suck, all eight freewheel-side spokes have damage
of varying degrees, and the customer wants them replaced.
Technically, I was given the call on whether to replace them.
Two of them are gouged pretty badly, and there are also bent spokes,
so I'm doing a complete freewheel-side spoke replacement.
With JIS or Italian lacing patterns,
the freewheel-side spokes go in the porcupine direction,
but with reverse JIS or reverse Italian patterns,
they go in the anti-porcupine direction.
When freewheel-side spokes are anti-porcupine,
the damage from chain suck tends to be less severe than with porcupine direction—
which is probably why Americans build rear wheels with reverse Italian lacing.
Being able to use the same rear wheel lacing pattern for rim and disc brakes
might also reduce the work burden.
The final crossing on both sides was tied with fishing line (→here).
It's technically a knot-tied lacing.
With wire wrapping, the solder is what actually fixes the binding after wrapping the wire,
but with fishing line you need to apply instant adhesive to fix the lacing,
and no adhesive was used on this one.
I suspect this wheel was actually sent to me not for repair per se,
but to see what I'd write about it.
When you grab the final crossing, there's more flex than with wire binding,
but it's held tight enough that there's a point to it.
There were some loose spots,
but it was tied tightly enough that squeezing it wouldn't snap it apart.
The spoke length is correct, flush with the end face of the nipple.
There are lines cut at 120-degree intervals on the nipple end
(one disappears into the nipple slot),
which marks these as #15 nipples.
There was one spot with noticeable lateral runout.
When I positioned the truing stand gauge to touch the rim at that phase,
at all other phases there was this much clearance.
This provisional center point unrelated to the runout phase is
↑this. Offset significantly toward the non-freewheel side.
When I check the provisional center at the runout phase,
the result changes from other phases, so I found the phase with the most lateral runout and avoided it.
Since the runout in the earlier image was running toward the freewheel side,
if I had deliberately checked the provisional center directly below the worst runout phase,
the amount of center offset would decrease, but it would still be offset
toward the non-freewheel side.
I cut the fishing line with nippers and loosened the final crossing.
I removed all eight freewheel-side spokes.
↑Anti-porcupine pattern
I replaced all eight freewheel-side spokes, took out the lateral runout
with emphasis on tightening the freewheel side, and then tightened
all the freewheel-side spokes exactly one full turn each.
Since the original was loose, I was able to dial in the center by favoring
freewheel-side tightening. There's still a couple millimeters of offset, though.
With a properly tensioned finished wheel, you normally can't tighten
the freewheel side an extra turn. At least not on Nomura Lab wheels.
I got the center dialed in.
For spokes, I used Sapim black Leader #15.
Done.
Since the spoke deformation on the freewheel side is now tensioned
to the point where it's virtually the same with or without lacing,
I'm not doing any lacing on the freewheel side.
↑Replaced spokes
It had been used for cyclocross.
With the "CD" specification where even the rim sides are covered in hard anodize,
you don't get the white corrosion bloom on exposed aluminum rim sides
that you'd normally see with disc brake rims.
The hub is a Shimano XT FH-M755.
The "5" at the end of the 750-series XT means it's for disc brakes—
Shimano's first disc brake hub.
There were no thru-axle or centerlock specifications back then;
it's a quick-release design with 135mm over-locknut dimension.
It's a 32-hole, six-cross JIS-pattern build.
The spokes are Wheelsmith #15 plain gauge.
If this wheel was built around the same era as the rim and hub,
these spokes are actually Asahi (Japanese spoke manufacturer) OEM.
Wheelsmith is a brand that's particular about spoke elbow angles,
and their website touts the "specially designed elbow section
to maximize fatigue life," but since they never had their own
spoke manufacturing equipment, they used Asahi as their OEM supplier back then.
As for why I received this wheel:
due to chain suck, all eight freewheel-side spokes have damage
of varying degrees, and the customer wants them replaced.
Technically, I was given the call on whether to replace them.
Two of them are gouged pretty badly, and there are also bent spokes,
so I'm doing a complete freewheel-side spoke replacement.
With JIS or Italian lacing patterns,
the freewheel-side spokes go in the porcupine direction,
but with reverse JIS or reverse Italian patterns,
they go in the anti-porcupine direction.
When freewheel-side spokes are anti-porcupine,
the damage from chain suck tends to be less severe than with porcupine direction—
which is probably why Americans build rear wheels with reverse Italian lacing.
Being able to use the same rear wheel lacing pattern for rim and disc brakes
might also reduce the work burden.
The final crossing on both sides was tied with fishing line (→here).
It's technically a knot-tied lacing.
With wire wrapping, the solder is what actually fixes the binding after wrapping the wire,
but with fishing line you need to apply instant adhesive to fix the lacing,
and no adhesive was used on this one.
I suspect this wheel was actually sent to me not for repair per se,
but to see what I'd write about it.
When you grab the final crossing, there's more flex than with wire binding,
but it's held tight enough that there's a point to it.
There were some loose spots,
but it was tied tightly enough that squeezing it wouldn't snap it apart.
The spoke length is correct, flush with the end face of the nipple.
There are lines cut at 120-degree intervals on the nipple end
(one disappears into the nipple slot),
which marks these as #15 nipples.
There was one spot with noticeable lateral runout.
When I positioned the truing stand gauge to touch the rim at that phase,
at all other phases there was this much clearance.
This provisional center point unrelated to the runout phase is
↑this. Offset significantly toward the non-freewheel side.
When I check the provisional center at the runout phase,
the result changes from other phases, so I found the phase with the most lateral runout and avoided it.
Since the runout in the earlier image was running toward the freewheel side,
if I had deliberately checked the provisional center directly below the worst runout phase,
the amount of center offset would decrease, but it would still be offset
toward the non-freewheel side.
I cut the fishing line with nippers and loosened the final crossing.
I removed all eight freewheel-side spokes.
↑Anti-porcupine pattern
I replaced all eight freewheel-side spokes, took out the lateral runout
with emphasis on tightening the freewheel side, and then tightened
all the freewheel-side spokes exactly one full turn each.
Since the original was loose, I was able to dial in the center by favoring
freewheel-side tightening. There's still a couple millimeters of offset, though.
With a properly tensioned finished wheel, you normally can't tighten
the freewheel side an extra turn. At least not on Nomura Lab wheels.
I got the center dialed in.
For spokes, I used Sapim black Leader #15.
Done.
Since the spoke deformation on the freewheel side is now tensioned
to the point where it's virtually the same with or without lacing,
I'm not doing any lacing on the freewheel side.
↑Replaced spokes