Recently I received a comment about building the front wheel of a fixed gear bike with JIS lacing.
I've mentioned from time to time that "for tangent-laced front wheels, I prefer Italian lacing,"
but
↑I received a comment asking why I chose JIS lacing for this one.
Fundamentally, I'm not fond of "lacing patterns where the spoke stretch direction differs left to right."
Specifically, that would be JIS lacing or reverse JIS lacing.
I actually think reverse Italian lacing is preferable to those (from a spoke standpoint).
So why did I go with JIS lacing this time?
The DT rim in the image above has a label at the valve position.
↑That wheel has a 415 rim, this image shows a 585 rim,
but the sticker orientation is the same on both.
I'm passing a screwdriver through the valve hole, but
the sticker on the opposite side is offset by about 90° in phase.
That fixed gear rear hub had double-threaded ends, so I also built the rear wheel with JIS lacing,
but here let's assume I built the DT rim with Italian lacing instead.
The red line in the diagram above shows the sticker position.
If there's a sticker at the valve hole position
↑when building the front wheel with Italian lacing, I'd want it to look like this.
↑but having it turn out like this is somewhat unappealing to me.
Now, let's say the rear wheel is a JIS-laced double-threaded fixed gear hub,
and I flip it over to use it,
if the front wheel is Italian-laced, then "the relationship between the valve position and sticker phase"
would differ between front and rear wheels.
If the front wheel is JIS-laced, that wouldn't happen.
When flipping the rear wheel over, I could simply flip the front wheel over as well.
If the tire has a directional orientation, I'd need to change the tire direction too.
However, if the front hub had front-to-back or left-right attributes, that would be different.
↑this Record hub has front-to-back attributes.
If mounted backwards, the logo and text become reversed.
↑this Record hub doesn't have front-to-back attributes,
but it does have left-right attributes.
Since the play adjustment nut is on the left side for the rear hub,
I treat this side as the left for the front hub as well.
Also, as a detail, the band on the grease port cap has text on it,
so this should be installed in a direction that's readable when viewed from the right side.
I said "should," but of course it has no bearing on performance. It's a matter of convention.
↑this Record hub is from the generation just before the aluminum large-diameter axle,
both sides of the hub are the same shape, and the grease port band has no text on it.
Even if built with JIS lacing, this hub has no elements that would end up reversed front-to-back or left-right.
Not that it matters, but this isn't a standard steel axle model—
it's the titanium axle version. There's text engraved on the end of the axle.
Pretty meticulous workmanship.
Since this text only appears on one side, strictly speaking this is the only "left-right attribute."
The current Record Pista hub (the front wheel hub from the beginning) seems to be based on
the steel axle version of that hub mentioned earlier,
and this hub has absolutely no distinguishing front-to-back or left-right elements.
And since I'm building it with a DT rim, if the rear wheel were flipped,
I wanted to be able to follow along with the relationship of "whether there's a sticker at the valve position,"
so I chose JIS lacing.
"Having the valve phase aligned front to back while the sticker position differs when viewed from the side" and
"having JIS lacing"—when I weighed those two options, the former seemed worse to me.
If the hub did have logos or text with front-to-back and left-right attributes,
then "when flipping the wheel, the rim sticker position would align front to back
but the hub design would be reversed."
In that case, even if the sticker phase differed front to back,
I'd find the reversed hub design more objectionable, so
I would have built the front wheel with Italian lacing—something I'd never flip over.
"A hub with no front-to-back or left-right attributes" combined with
"a rim where stickers are offset 90° in phase left to right"—under these conditions,
when thinking through my "things I'd prefer not to do, in order,"
JIS lacing happened to be the answer this time.
As a supplement to the earlier Open Pro article,
the current model's sticker looks like this.
If I were to build with this rim and that fixed gear hub,
I would have done Italian lacing for the front wheel.
The JIS lacing on the front wheel at the start is neither a change of faith nor whimsy—
it's the result of my deliberation.
Thank you for the sharp comment.
I'm flattered that you're reading my past articles so carefully as well.
I've mentioned from time to time that "for tangent-laced front wheels, I prefer Italian lacing,"
but
↑I received a comment asking why I chose JIS lacing for this one.
Fundamentally, I'm not fond of "lacing patterns where the spoke stretch direction differs left to right."
Specifically, that would be JIS lacing or reverse JIS lacing.
I actually think reverse Italian lacing is preferable to those (from a spoke standpoint).
So why did I go with JIS lacing this time?
The DT rim in the image above has a label at the valve position.
↑That wheel has a 415 rim, this image shows a 585 rim,
but the sticker orientation is the same on both.
I'm passing a screwdriver through the valve hole, but
the sticker on the opposite side is offset by about 90° in phase.
That fixed gear rear hub had double-threaded ends, so I also built the rear wheel with JIS lacing,
but here let's assume I built the DT rim with Italian lacing instead.
The red line in the diagram above shows the sticker position.
If there's a sticker at the valve hole position
↑when building the front wheel with Italian lacing, I'd want it to look like this.
↑but having it turn out like this is somewhat unappealing to me.
Now, let's say the rear wheel is a JIS-laced double-threaded fixed gear hub,
and I flip it over to use it,
if the front wheel is Italian-laced, then "the relationship between the valve position and sticker phase"
would differ between front and rear wheels.
If the front wheel is JIS-laced, that wouldn't happen.
When flipping the rear wheel over, I could simply flip the front wheel over as well.
If the tire has a directional orientation, I'd need to change the tire direction too.
However, if the front hub had front-to-back or left-right attributes, that would be different.
↑this Record hub has front-to-back attributes.
If mounted backwards, the logo and text become reversed.
↑this Record hub doesn't have front-to-back attributes,
but it does have left-right attributes.
Since the play adjustment nut is on the left side for the rear hub,
I treat this side as the left for the front hub as well.
Also, as a detail, the band on the grease port cap has text on it,
so this should be installed in a direction that's readable when viewed from the right side.
I said "should," but of course it has no bearing on performance. It's a matter of convention.
↑this Record hub is from the generation just before the aluminum large-diameter axle,
both sides of the hub are the same shape, and the grease port band has no text on it.
Even if built with JIS lacing, this hub has no elements that would end up reversed front-to-back or left-right.
Not that it matters, but this isn't a standard steel axle model—
it's the titanium axle version. There's text engraved on the end of the axle.
Pretty meticulous workmanship.
Since this text only appears on one side, strictly speaking this is the only "left-right attribute."
The current Record Pista hub (the front wheel hub from the beginning) seems to be based on
the steel axle version of that hub mentioned earlier,
and this hub has absolutely no distinguishing front-to-back or left-right elements.
And since I'm building it with a DT rim, if the rear wheel were flipped,
I wanted to be able to follow along with the relationship of "whether there's a sticker at the valve position,"
so I chose JIS lacing.
"Having the valve phase aligned front to back while the sticker position differs when viewed from the side" and
"having JIS lacing"—when I weighed those two options, the former seemed worse to me.
If the hub did have logos or text with front-to-back and left-right attributes,
then "when flipping the wheel, the rim sticker position would align front to back
but the hub design would be reversed."
In that case, even if the sticker phase differed front to back,
I'd find the reversed hub design more objectionable, so
I would have built the front wheel with Italian lacing—something I'd never flip over.
"A hub with no front-to-back or left-right attributes" combined with
"a rim where stickers are offset 90° in phase left to right"—under these conditions,
when thinking through my "things I'd prefer not to do, in order,"
JIS lacing happened to be the answer this time.
As a supplement to the earlier Open Pro article,
the current model's sticker looks like this.
If I were to build with this rim and that fixed gear hub,
I would have done Italian lacing for the front wheel.
The JIS lacing on the front wheel at the start is neither a change of faith nor whimsy—
it's the result of my deliberation.
Thank you for the sharp comment.
I'm flattered that you're reading my past articles so carefully as well.