Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer brought in a Ровал CLX50
rim brake wheelset for me to work on.
The rear wheel is the one that's so bad it absolutely needs rebuilding,
but they also brought in the front wheel and asked if I could do something about it if possible.
DT black Aero Light straight spokes, 16H, radial lacing.
If only it had been 18H instead, it would've been at least somewhat better...
If you're going to go with 16H,
considering that Ровал later designed the CLX front wheel
as if to say "as long as aerodynamics are excellent, rim weight doesn't matter,"
I think they should just increase spoke gauge without worrying about spoke weight.
The rim weight is approximate since there's a weight label on it.
It's around 435g or so.
Got it built.
I went with black CX Sprint straight spokes instead.
Spoke gauge matters, but so does spoke tension.
If you take the original off-the-shelf wheel and
this rebuilt wheel,
put the same tires and tubes on each,
set them to the same air pressure, and ride both,
I'd say almost nobody wouldn't notice a difference.
And I doubt you'd find many people saying the off-the-shelf one rides better.
A customer brought in a Ровал CLX50
rim brake wheelset for me to work on.
The rear wheel is the one that's so bad it absolutely needs rebuilding,
but they also brought in the front wheel and asked if I could do something about it if possible.
DT black Aero Light straight spokes, 16H, radial lacing.
If only it had been 18H instead, it would've been at least somewhat better...
If you're going to go with 16H,
considering that Ровал later designed the CLX front wheel
as if to say "as long as aerodynamics are excellent, rim weight doesn't matter,"
I think they should just increase spoke gauge without worrying about spoke weight.
The rim weight is approximate since there's a weight label on it.
It's around 435g or so.
Got it built.
I went with black CX Sprint straight spokes instead.
Spoke gauge matters, but so does spoke tension.
If you take the original off-the-shelf wheel and
this rebuilt wheel,
put the same tires and tubes on each,
set them to the same air pressure, and ride both,
I'd say almost nobody wouldn't notice a difference.
And I doubt you'd find many people saying the off-the-shelf one rides better.