Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer brought me a pair of front and rear wheels—
a C50 and C36 WH-R8170—to work on.
At first glance they don't look weird, but these are actually
a C36 rear wheel and
a C50 front wheel combined together.
Apparently, at the end of last year, the customer went from shop to shop looking for a WH-R8170 before the price increase,
and this was the only combination they could buy.
The customer doesn't just want a simple rim swap on the front and rear wheels—
they also want the rear wheel rebuilt using the Nomu Lab Method
instead of the original 2:1 hub lacing pattern.
Rebuilding the C50 front wheel as a rear wheel—it's the same work I did yesterday,
but today's donor front wheel had an unusually slack feel on the low-tension side (the right),
even by those standards.
I checked the tension and centering on yesterday's wheel before disassembling it too,
but it wasn't nearly as loose as this one.
If I swapped yesterday's and today's donor front wheels around
under identical conditions (same tire and air pressure)
and test-rode them alternately,
I'm pretty sure you'd notice the difference by feel.
These are the spokes from yesterday's C50 front wheel.
The customer didn't say they didn't want them, so I disassembled everything carefully.
I sorted them by right and left out of habit,
but both the C36 and C50 front wheels have identical spoke lengths for both sides.
Pre-built Campagnolo wheels like the Zonda and Bora use special spoke specifications
with longer threaded sections than generic spokes.
The reason is to reach the nylon anti-loosening ring at the end of the special nipple,
which extends further outward than standard nipples.
When spoke threads are longer, the acceptable spoke length range for a given dimension becomes broader.
Even if I build a disk front hub (which isn't high/low flange)
with the same spoke count on both sides based on the ocho measurement,
the calculated length would differ by about 1mm,
but by using longer threaded spokes, you can make the same spoke work for both sides.
However, the threaded section of these wheel's spokes is the same as generic spokes,
so while sharing spokes left and right makes sense from a spare parts logistics standpoint,
as a specification it's a bit of a shortcut.
When I rebuilt yesterday's rear wheel,
I used rainbow-colored nipple arrangement with generic nipples,
so I didn't reuse the original nipples.
However, for today's rear wheel, although I'm swapping the hub and spokes,
if black nipples are acceptable, I can reuse them—
so while it's extremely tedious, I want to swap the hub and spokes
without peeling off the rim tape.
I released the spoke tension on the donor front wheel
just enough that the nipples won't pop out.
Mid-hub and spoke relocation.
Over locknut dimension is 242mm.
Both hubs in the image have their left sides on the left facing the camera.
The new hub came from the right side, with the hub ends butting against each other,
but if it were the other way around, the distance from the right flange to the right end face would be too great,
and we couldn't get this kind of shot.
Stupid camera keeps changing white balance.
I didn't peel off the rim tape.
If I accidentally drop a nipple inside the rim,
I can call it out to the rim holes using the magnetic method from the tubeless valve temporary assembly approach.
In that case, I'd need to remove the tubeless valve temporarily.
Got it built.
Revo disc hub, 24H, black, semi-complete, 4/6 JIS lacing.
I'll do the tension balancing later.
The rim doesn't seem to have directional attributes like offset or hole wobble,
but it looks like there's a strict convention that the orange WARNING sticker is on the left side on both wheels,
so I'm following that.
Since I never had a moment where the entire wheel was completely disassembled this time,
as long as the hub's left and right sides didn't flip during the relocation,
there's no way to mess it up.
A customer brought me a pair of front and rear wheels—
a C50 and C36 WH-R8170—to work on.
At first glance they don't look weird, but these are actually
a C36 rear wheel and
a C50 front wheel combined together.
Apparently, at the end of last year, the customer went from shop to shop looking for a WH-R8170 before the price increase,
and this was the only combination they could buy.
The customer doesn't just want a simple rim swap on the front and rear wheels—
they also want the rear wheel rebuilt using the Nomu Lab Method
instead of the original 2:1 hub lacing pattern.
Rebuilding the C50 front wheel as a rear wheel—it's the same work I did yesterday,
but today's donor front wheel had an unusually slack feel on the low-tension side (the right),
even by those standards.
I checked the tension and centering on yesterday's wheel before disassembling it too,
but it wasn't nearly as loose as this one.
If I swapped yesterday's and today's donor front wheels around
under identical conditions (same tire and air pressure)
and test-rode them alternately,
I'm pretty sure you'd notice the difference by feel.
These are the spokes from yesterday's C50 front wheel.
The customer didn't say they didn't want them, so I disassembled everything carefully.
I sorted them by right and left out of habit,
but both the C36 and C50 front wheels have identical spoke lengths for both sides.
Pre-built Campagnolo wheels like the Zonda and Bora use special spoke specifications
with longer threaded sections than generic spokes.
The reason is to reach the nylon anti-loosening ring at the end of the special nipple,
which extends further outward than standard nipples.
When spoke threads are longer, the acceptable spoke length range for a given dimension becomes broader.
Even if I build a disk front hub (which isn't high/low flange)
with the same spoke count on both sides based on the ocho measurement,
the calculated length would differ by about 1mm,
but by using longer threaded spokes, you can make the same spoke work for both sides.
However, the threaded section of these wheel's spokes is the same as generic spokes,
so while sharing spokes left and right makes sense from a spare parts logistics standpoint,
as a specification it's a bit of a shortcut.
When I rebuilt yesterday's rear wheel,
I used rainbow-colored nipple arrangement with generic nipples,
so I didn't reuse the original nipples.
However, for today's rear wheel, although I'm swapping the hub and spokes,
if black nipples are acceptable, I can reuse them—
so while it's extremely tedious, I want to swap the hub and spokes
without peeling off the rim tape.
I released the spoke tension on the donor front wheel
just enough that the nipples won't pop out.
Mid-hub and spoke relocation.
Over locknut dimension is 242mm.
Both hubs in the image have their left sides on the left facing the camera.
The new hub came from the right side, with the hub ends butting against each other,
but if it were the other way around, the distance from the right flange to the right end face would be too great,
and we couldn't get this kind of shot.
I didn't peel off the rim tape.
If I accidentally drop a nipple inside the rim,
I can call it out to the rim holes using the magnetic method from the tubeless valve temporary assembly approach.
In that case, I'd need to remove the tubeless valve temporarily.
Got it built.
Revo disc hub, 24H, black, semi-complete, 4/6 JIS lacing.
I'll do the tension balancing later.
The rim doesn't seem to have directional attributes like offset or hole wobble,
but it looks like there's a strict convention that the orange WARNING sticker is on the left side on both wheels,
so I'm following that.
Since I never had a moment where the entire wheel was completely disassembled this time,
as long as the hub's left and right sides didn't flip during the relocation,
there's no way to mess it up.