I received an R-SYS wheel from a customer.
They've been using it for about a year,
and they wanted rim truing, hub centering, and bearing grease relubrication.
For centering, the front wheel was fine but the rear had a slight issue,
and for trueness both front and rear had minor problems, though nothing too severe.
The bearings weren't damaged, but I did regrease them anyway.
The R-SYS's carbon spokes have the aluminum nipple section on the rim side and
the spoke head section on the hub side bonded to the carbon spoke section,
making these three parts one integrated unit.
So when you turn the nipple, the spoke head section rotates the same amount
without any twisting between them.
So when truing the wheel,
you have to remove the spoke ring where the spoke head makes contact
before doing the truing work.
This is where metal (aluminum) parts contact each other, and the R-SYS hub noise issues
are usually caused by this. While that wasn't the issue this time,
when reinstalling the spoke ring to the hub, I applied grease to the contact points.
Tightening the front wheel nipples on the R-SYS
doesn't directly improve the ride feel's crispness.
This is because of the compression structure (as Mavic calls it)
and the lack of deformation from the carbon spoke tension.
However, tightening here (within limits) and regreasing
are very effective at reducing noise.
The red plastic part is a spoke ring anti-rotation device,
but the original R-SYS didn't have one.
I'm a bit skeptical about whether this is really an improvement.
Because of this anti-rotation device, you can't
change the contact point between the spoke ring and spoke head.
With the original ring, you could shift the phase during reassembly
to a section that previously hadn't been in contact.
I called it an anti-rotation device, but in reality
I've never actually seen a spoke ring slip in the rotational direction.
↑This is the state with just the spoke ring removed.
From here I install the axle and do the truing,
but the wear on the spoke head is evenly distributed closer to the hub side than center.
This is the original contact point with the spoke ring, and the fact that it's worn evenly there means
this front wheel has never been trued before.
They've been using it for about a year,
and they wanted rim truing, hub centering, and bearing grease relubrication.
For centering, the front wheel was fine but the rear had a slight issue,
and for trueness both front and rear had minor problems, though nothing too severe.
The bearings weren't damaged, but I did regrease them anyway.
The R-SYS's carbon spokes have the aluminum nipple section on the rim side and
the spoke head section on the hub side bonded to the carbon spoke section,
making these three parts one integrated unit.
So when you turn the nipple, the spoke head section rotates the same amount
without any twisting between them.
So when truing the wheel,
you have to remove the spoke ring where the spoke head makes contact
before doing the truing work.
This is where metal (aluminum) parts contact each other, and the R-SYS hub noise issues
are usually caused by this. While that wasn't the issue this time,
when reinstalling the spoke ring to the hub, I applied grease to the contact points.
Tightening the front wheel nipples on the R-SYS
doesn't directly improve the ride feel's crispness.
This is because of the compression structure (as Mavic calls it)
and the lack of deformation from the carbon spoke tension.
However, tightening here (within limits) and regreasing
are very effective at reducing noise.
The red plastic part is a spoke ring anti-rotation device,
but the original R-SYS didn't have one.
I'm a bit skeptical about whether this is really an improvement.
Because of this anti-rotation device, you can't
change the contact point between the spoke ring and spoke head.
With the original ring, you could shift the phase during reassembly
to a section that previously hadn't been in contact.
I called it an anti-rotation device, but in reality
I've never actually seen a spoke ring slip in the rotational direction.
↑This is the state with just the spoke ring removed.
From here I install the axle and do the truing,
but the wear on the spoke head is evenly distributed closer to the hub side than center.
This is the original contact point with the spoke ring, and the fact that it's worn evenly there means
this front wheel has never been trued before.