It's wheels again today (and so on).
I've stocked 8 Altegra tubeless rim front wheels.
I completed the purchase last year.
That's because this wheel underwent a price "revision"—basically a major price hike—starting January 5th, 2023.
The pre-tax list price jumped from 66,000 yen to 82,600 yen (a 16,600 yen increase).
Including tax, it went from 72,600 yen to 90,860 yen—roughly a 25% increase.
At 25% higher, 5 wheels at the old price equals about 4 wheels at the new price.
I planned to take 4 of these 8 front wheels and rebuild them as rear wheels for our shop,
running a sale with the pitch: "Way better than buying off-the-shelf wheelsets,
and these are the last ones we can sell at the old price."
I was going to start this sale in early 2023, but the New Year holidays (which I didn't actually take) got too hectic to manage it.
I think I really should have made the holiday break end by the 10th anyway.
Since the old days of 36-hole and 32-hole low-profile rims,
when building front and rear wheels from two rims with the same spoke count,
if there's a weight difference between the two rims,
the convention is to use the lighter one for the rear wheel.
Following that, I decided to disassemble 4 of the 8 front wheels—the ones most likely to have lighter rims.
Among wheel components, spokes and nipples have virtually no weight variation.
Hubs won't vary much either, especially front hubs.
Tubeless valves are removed, and rim tape is left on, but there's almost no weight difference there either.
So if one wheel is lighter overall, the rim itself is very likely to be lighter too.
I weighed all 8 wheels and sorted them into two groups: positions 1-4 and 5-8 by weight.
The heavier ones will be sold as front wheels.
The first wheel I happened to pull out weighed 675g with the tubeless valve.
This front wheel's listed weight is 653g,
which I believe is the weight with tubeless rim and rim tape included.
When I removed the tubeless valve, it weighed 666g.
There's a reason I need this one wheel to weigh less than 666g.
I stacked 3 wheels each from the light and heavy groups and weighed them.
I wanted to do 4 each, but my scale only has a 2kg capacity,
so I could only measure 3 at a time if they're 666g or less per wheel.
↑3 wheels from the heavy group
Over the scale's capacity, but they measured it as a favor anyway.
↑3 wheels from the light group
Once I've sorted wheels into front and rear use,
I can't tell which is the lightest or heaviest anymore—even I can't.
What I can be certain of is that the rear wheel rims
are almost certainly lighter than the front wheel rims.
I disassembled the first wheel.
I'd expected the rim to be around 407g each,
but since I hand-picked the lightest ones I could find,
this is quite a light individual.
It's built.
Revo disc hub, 24-hole, black half-competizione, 4-cross JIS lacing.
The spoke wrapping comes later, but
I did one knot-tied spoke wrap (no soldering)
while building this wheel, and showed it to a customer
who happened to be in the shop,
having them grip the last cross and check the tension.
I disassembled the second front wheel too.
No good, that's all for today.
The second rim was also a light individual.
As I've been saying, I'm maximizing that possibility.
I've stocked 8 Altegra tubeless rim front wheels.
I completed the purchase last year.
That's because this wheel underwent a price "revision"—basically a major price hike—starting January 5th, 2023.
The pre-tax list price jumped from 66,000 yen to 82,600 yen (a 16,600 yen increase).
Including tax, it went from 72,600 yen to 90,860 yen—roughly a 25% increase.
At 25% higher, 5 wheels at the old price equals about 4 wheels at the new price.
I planned to take 4 of these 8 front wheels and rebuild them as rear wheels for our shop,
running a sale with the pitch: "Way better than buying off-the-shelf wheelsets,
and these are the last ones we can sell at the old price."
I was going to start this sale in early 2023, but the New Year holidays (which I didn't actually take) got too hectic to manage it.
I think I really should have made the holiday break end by the 10th anyway.
Since the old days of 36-hole and 32-hole low-profile rims,
when building front and rear wheels from two rims with the same spoke count,
if there's a weight difference between the two rims,
the convention is to use the lighter one for the rear wheel.
Following that, I decided to disassemble 4 of the 8 front wheels—the ones most likely to have lighter rims.
Among wheel components, spokes and nipples have virtually no weight variation.
Hubs won't vary much either, especially front hubs.
Tubeless valves are removed, and rim tape is left on, but there's almost no weight difference there either.
So if one wheel is lighter overall, the rim itself is very likely to be lighter too.
I weighed all 8 wheels and sorted them into two groups: positions 1-4 and 5-8 by weight.
The heavier ones will be sold as front wheels.
The first wheel I happened to pull out weighed 675g with the tubeless valve.
This front wheel's listed weight is 653g,
which I believe is the weight with tubeless rim and rim tape included.
When I removed the tubeless valve, it weighed 666g.
There's a reason I need this one wheel to weigh less than 666g.
I stacked 3 wheels each from the light and heavy groups and weighed them.
I wanted to do 4 each, but my scale only has a 2kg capacity,
so I could only measure 3 at a time if they're 666g or less per wheel.
↑3 wheels from the heavy group
Over the scale's capacity, but they measured it as a favor anyway.
↑3 wheels from the light group
Once I've sorted wheels into front and rear use,
I can't tell which is the lightest or heaviest anymore—even I can't.
What I can be certain of is that the rear wheel rims
are almost certainly lighter than the front wheel rims.
I disassembled the first wheel.
I'd expected the rim to be around 407g each,
but since I hand-picked the lightest ones I could find,
this is quite a light individual.
It's built.
Revo disc hub, 24-hole, black half-competizione, 4-cross JIS lacing.
The spoke wrapping comes later, but
I did one knot-tied spoke wrap (no soldering)
while building this wheel, and showed it to a customer
who happened to be in the shop,
having them grip the last cross and check the tension.
I disassembled the second front wheel too.
No good, that's all for today.
The second rim was also a light individual.
As I've been saying, I'm maximizing that possibility.