Another wheel day (and so on). But first.
There was once a handlebar manufacturer in Italy called ITM.
Unlike Deda, which moved production to Taiwan to offer products cheaply
while preserving an Italian brand image,
ITM pursued a strategy that didn't compromise—
it insisted on Italian domestic production
right down to budget-grade components.
Whether that was the reason or not, it resulted in bankruptcy.
ITM is short for Italmanubri,
where "Ital" means "Italian" and "manubri" means "handlebar,"
so in English that's "Italian Handlebar."
By the way, the ITM that exists now is a different brand that bought the name from the old ITM.
The old ITM had a series called "Millennium" that included
handlebars, stems, and seatposts.
There were also wheels and carbon forks in the lineup,
but I don't think much of it made it to Japan.
The Millennium stem is, in my personal opinion,
the pinnacle of aheadset stem design.
This is the Millennium Adjustable,
a rare stem that incorporates an angle-adjustment mechanism.
As for this Millennium seatpost,
it's not made by ITM.
It was made by Selcof, another seatpost maker
that also insisted on Italian domestic production.
↑Selcof seatpost box
There's a clear line at the joint where the plate tube is inserted into the round pipe,
and the front bolt of the infinitely adjustable seesaw-type front-and-back bolts
is adjusted with an 8mm wrench when the rear bolt is loosened,
but the Millennium plate is exactly the same shape.
Conversely, while rare,
there also exist handlebars and stems branded Selcof that were actually made by ITM.
These have exactly the same design as ITM stems,
so anyone who knows will spot it immediately.
Anyway, back to wheels.
I received a DT 32mm high-profile rear wheel from a customer.
On the hub body of what appears to be a hub equivalent to DT's 240S,
there's RRC written on it
525
R.
Among DT rims, the rule is that R (Road) and RR (Road Racing) have the number that follows representing catalog weight.
This doesn't apply to MTB rims,
so for example, the XR361 rim doesn't actually weigh around 361g.
Strictly speaking, when DT started its rim business,
the first aluminum rims were called RR1.1 and RR1.2,
and with later versions under different names, RR1.1 became RR415
and RR1.2 became RR585. From that point on, the number equals the weight.
This rear wheel is model RRC525R,
but I believe they're just using the claimed weight in the model name here too.
The third letter C doesn't stand for clincher—it means carbon.
The matching front wheel assembled with the same rim
has the model name RRC425F,
so the R at the end of RRC525R means rear wheel.
24H white Aero Lite 4-cross laced.
The coating is weak and cracks easily—
white or red Aero Lite spokes
were produced for a time and were used on wheels like those from FF Yamaguchi,
but DT's own announcement at the time was not to final-cross lace
white and red Aero Lite.
So why is DT's own complete wheel final-cross laced?
This rim, no matter how you look at it,
is the same rim as Reynolds 32 or
the later version of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6.
It even has a swirl lip generator protrusion on the inside.
In other words, this is a wheel built when Reynolds
was getting hubs and spokes from DT
while DT was getting rims from Reynolds—
the DT version of Reynolds 32.
Seeing this reminded me of the old ITM and Selcof relationship,
which is why I wrote that opening story.
This DT version of 32, though—
the customer wants it rebuilt with
this Campagnolo Proton rear hub.
It's a hub spec that occasionally shows up on Campagnolo and Fulcrum rear wheels—
"straight spokes on one side only."
Some earlier Racing 7 rear wheels
had straight-spoke-on-one-side specs too,
but those had a universal flange on the freewheel side
and forced radial lacing on the non-freewheel side.
This Proton hub has the freewheel side at forced 4-cross equivalent
and a universal flange on the non-freewheel side.
On off-the-peg Protons, the non-freewheel side is outpoke radial laced.
↑The bottom image shows my personal Neutron hub,
from the same era as this Proton.
The Neutron is classified as Record-grade
so the hub body has a grease port
and comes with a C-ring cap to seal it.
The Neutron and Hyperon are equal-spoke-count both sides
with non-freewheel side radial lacing,
but with quite extreme left-right different spoke counts
and the left flange positioned fairly far outboard (as you can see),
there's no sense of low lateral stiffness.
I disassembled the original wheel.
The image above shows the 12 spokes on the non-freewheel (low-tension) side,
and you can see the paint has chipped off
at the final-cross contact points.
The rim had a rim cement bed laid down,
but it still came in under 280g. That's the same weight as
the Reynolds 32 and the Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6 later version rims.
The Reynolds 32 has no left-right hole offset on the rim's inside.
And for some reason, only the front wheel is built treating the rim as reverse.
Campagnolo's equal-spoke-count wheels are built with both front and rear
treating the rim as reverse.
So I decided to build this rear wheel treating the rim as reverse too.
It's already proven okay by the Reynolds front wheel.
The image above shows after I finished the freewheel-side rough lacing,
then threaded just one Italian-laced final cross on the non-freewheel side.
On the back of the flange hole that the outpoke spoke threads through,
I stuck a guide tape positioned to block the neighboring flange hole.
These two spokes of the final cross,
span across the valve hole.
I shifted the final-cross spoke holes
forward by one position.
The guide tape stays where it was before.
This operation is equivalent to switching between
right-drop/left-drop when first threading spokes through a universal-flange hub.
The pair of left-right final-cross bundles
of four spokes is now reverse-rim-laced
without spanning the valve hole.
Built.
Proton hub, 24H, black Champion straight / black CX Sprint,
4-cross with bridging.
Since there's no Comp straight spokes
(it's not that they don't exist, just hard to source),
it ends up being half-Comp with upgraded spoke ratios on both sides.
The customer asked me to swap the freebody
from Campagnolo to Shimano,
but when I removed the right end nut, there was heavy rust
and the freebody wouldn't come out by hand.
By era, the hub axle should be non-butted old type,
in which case the white-anodized aluminum freebody can't be installed.
To install an aluminum freebody
you have to swap to a butted new-type axle (I have stock).
A steel freebody, on the other hand,
can be installed on the old-type axle (I have stock).
To extract the freebody most easily,
it's quickest to remove the axle from the hub body, so
I extracted the hub axle with the freebody attached.
The freewheel-side hub bearing shows no wear,
but the non-freewheel-side ball bearings had turned rust-colored.
The hub rotation had no roughness, though.
The cone too
and the bearing cup have clean wear marks
with not a hint of pitting even in reserve,
so just swapping the retainer bearings will be fine.
I separated the freebody from the hub axle.
It was indeed a non-butted old-type shaft.
I wiped it clean.
I could also grind it and remove the rust more thoroughly.
A secondary rust ring has formed just below the inner race of both bearings,
particularly pronounced on the outer side.
↑Freewheel-side condition
Even if we swap the freebody or hub axle,
the wheel center shouldn't shift,
but sometimes it does—about a paper's thickness—
so after reassembling the hub I'll check
and correct if needed.
There was once a handlebar manufacturer in Italy called ITM.
Unlike Deda, which moved production to Taiwan to offer products cheaply
while preserving an Italian brand image,
ITM pursued a strategy that didn't compromise—
it insisted on Italian domestic production
right down to budget-grade components.
Whether that was the reason or not, it resulted in bankruptcy.
ITM is short for Italmanubri,
where "Ital" means "Italian" and "manubri" means "handlebar,"
so in English that's "Italian Handlebar."
By the way, the ITM that exists now is a different brand that bought the name from the old ITM.
The old ITM had a series called "Millennium" that included
handlebars, stems, and seatposts.
There were also wheels and carbon forks in the lineup,
but I don't think much of it made it to Japan.
The Millennium stem is, in my personal opinion,
the pinnacle of aheadset stem design.
This is the Millennium Adjustable,
a rare stem that incorporates an angle-adjustment mechanism.
As for this Millennium seatpost,
it's not made by ITM.
It was made by Selcof, another seatpost maker
that also insisted on Italian domestic production.
↑Selcof seatpost box
There's a clear line at the joint where the plate tube is inserted into the round pipe,
and the front bolt of the infinitely adjustable seesaw-type front-and-back bolts
is adjusted with an 8mm wrench when the rear bolt is loosened,
but the Millennium plate is exactly the same shape.
Conversely, while rare,
there also exist handlebars and stems branded Selcof that were actually made by ITM.
These have exactly the same design as ITM stems,
so anyone who knows will spot it immediately.
Anyway, back to wheels.
I received a DT 32mm high-profile rear wheel from a customer.
On the hub body of what appears to be a hub equivalent to DT's 240S,
there's RRC written on it
525
R.
Among DT rims, the rule is that R (Road) and RR (Road Racing) have the number that follows representing catalog weight.
This doesn't apply to MTB rims,
so for example, the XR361 rim doesn't actually weigh around 361g.
Strictly speaking, when DT started its rim business,
the first aluminum rims were called RR1.1 and RR1.2,
and with later versions under different names, RR1.1 became RR415
and RR1.2 became RR585. From that point on, the number equals the weight.
This rear wheel is model RRC525R,
but I believe they're just using the claimed weight in the model name here too.
The third letter C doesn't stand for clincher—it means carbon.
The matching front wheel assembled with the same rim
has the model name RRC425F,
so the R at the end of RRC525R means rear wheel.
24H white Aero Lite 4-cross laced.
The coating is weak and cracks easily—
white or red Aero Lite spokes
were produced for a time and were used on wheels like those from FF Yamaguchi,
but DT's own announcement at the time was not to final-cross lace
white and red Aero Lite.
So why is DT's own complete wheel final-cross laced?
This rim, no matter how you look at it,
is the same rim as Reynolds 32 or
the later version of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6.
It even has a swirl lip generator protrusion on the inside.
In other words, this is a wheel built when Reynolds
was getting hubs and spokes from DT
while DT was getting rims from Reynolds—
the DT version of Reynolds 32.
Seeing this reminded me of the old ITM and Selcof relationship,
which is why I wrote that opening story.
This DT version of 32, though—
the customer wants it rebuilt with
this Campagnolo Proton rear hub.
It's a hub spec that occasionally shows up on Campagnolo and Fulcrum rear wheels—
"straight spokes on one side only."
Some earlier Racing 7 rear wheels
had straight-spoke-on-one-side specs too,
but those had a universal flange on the freewheel side
and forced radial lacing on the non-freewheel side.
This Proton hub has the freewheel side at forced 4-cross equivalent
and a universal flange on the non-freewheel side.
On off-the-peg Protons, the non-freewheel side is outpoke radial laced.
↑The bottom image shows my personal Neutron hub,
from the same era as this Proton.
The Neutron is classified as Record-grade
so the hub body has a grease port
and comes with a C-ring cap to seal it.
The Neutron and Hyperon are equal-spoke-count both sides
with non-freewheel side radial lacing,
but with quite extreme left-right different spoke counts
and the left flange positioned fairly far outboard (as you can see),
there's no sense of low lateral stiffness.
I disassembled the original wheel.
The image above shows the 12 spokes on the non-freewheel (low-tension) side,
and you can see the paint has chipped off
at the final-cross contact points.
The rim had a rim cement bed laid down,
but it still came in under 280g. That's the same weight as
the Reynolds 32 and the Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6 later version rims.
The Reynolds 32 has no left-right hole offset on the rim's inside.
And for some reason, only the front wheel is built treating the rim as reverse.
Campagnolo's equal-spoke-count wheels are built with both front and rear
treating the rim as reverse.
So I decided to build this rear wheel treating the rim as reverse too.
It's already proven okay by the Reynolds front wheel.
The image above shows after I finished the freewheel-side rough lacing,
then threaded just one Italian-laced final cross on the non-freewheel side.
On the back of the flange hole that the outpoke spoke threads through,
I stuck a guide tape positioned to block the neighboring flange hole.
These two spokes of the final cross,
span across the valve hole.
I shifted the final-cross spoke holes
forward by one position.
The guide tape stays where it was before.
This operation is equivalent to switching between
right-drop/left-drop when first threading spokes through a universal-flange hub.
The pair of left-right final-cross bundles
of four spokes is now reverse-rim-laced
without spanning the valve hole.
Built.
Proton hub, 24H, black Champion straight / black CX Sprint,
4-cross with bridging.
Since there's no Comp straight spokes
(it's not that they don't exist, just hard to source),
it ends up being half-Comp with upgraded spoke ratios on both sides.
The customer asked me to swap the freebody
from Campagnolo to Shimano,
but when I removed the right end nut, there was heavy rust
and the freebody wouldn't come out by hand.
By era, the hub axle should be non-butted old type,
in which case the white-anodized aluminum freebody can't be installed.
To install an aluminum freebody
you have to swap to a butted new-type axle (I have stock).
A steel freebody, on the other hand,
can be installed on the old-type axle (I have stock).
To extract the freebody most easily,
it's quickest to remove the axle from the hub body, so
I extracted the hub axle with the freebody attached.
The freewheel-side hub bearing shows no wear,
but the non-freewheel-side ball bearings had turned rust-colored.
The hub rotation had no roughness, though.
The cone too
and the bearing cup have clean wear marks
with not a hint of pitting even in reserve,
so just swapping the retainer bearings will be fine.
I separated the freebody from the hub axle.
It was indeed a non-butted old-type shaft.
I wiped it clean.
I could also grind it and remove the rust more thoroughly.
A secondary rust ring has formed just below the inner race of both bearings,
particularly pronounced on the outer side.
↑Freewheel-side condition
Even if we swap the freebody or hub axle,
the wheel center shouldn't shift,
but sometimes it does—about a paper's thickness—
so after reassembling the hub I'll check
and correct if needed.