Today it's wheels again (and so on).
I received a front wheel from a customer's Rapide CLX (a high-end road bike).
It wasn't rolling smoothly, so they asked me to do something about it.
With a 2:1 lacing pattern, that's 3 spokes per bundle × 6 bundles = 18 holes total,
so the low-spoke side gets just 6 spokes—a pretty ridiculous spec.
But Ｒovaal, for whatever reason, didn't use a cross-4 (X) pattern—
they went with a cross-2 (Ж) pattern instead.
With this few spokes, when you do that,
the final crossing ends up too close to the hub flange,
which weakens the lacing effect...
The front wheel rim pursues aerodynamic performance when the tire is mounted,
so the bead seat width at the peak is extremely wide.
In my opinion, when you factor in the balance of all the elements for overall performance,
the aerodynamic advantage gained from this spec
is outweighed by the weight penalty of making the rim heavier.
It's not a rim that competes on lightness to begin with,
so the weight increase from thickening the bead hook is probably around 30g,
and apparently they don't really care about that.
More than that though, the stiffness loss from choosing 18 spokes
instead of going with 24 or 21 spokes is the bigger issue.
Looking at the wheel in its as-received state, hanging centered,
it was slightly off to the right.
That's fine, but the spoke tension on the high-spoke side (the left side)
is quite low considering the spoke count.
This isn't my first time rebuilding a Rapide CLX front wheel,
but this particular one feels like a dud tension-wise.
After all, it's even lower than the front wheel of the Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5.
I disassembled the wheel, replaced the low-spoke side spokes with black CX Sprint straight spokes,
tensioned them up to just short of finish, and chased down the lateral and radial runout.
From the initial assembly, I heavily favored tightening the low-spoke side,
so I intentionally shifted the center way off.
When I true it up from here by tightening the high-spoke side,
the low-spoke side tension will also increase a bit,
so I've left it slightly under-tensioned to account for that.
The fact that I can true the wheel by tightening the side with the more shallow spoke angle
—on the rear wheel, that would be the non-freewheel side—
is possible because this is a 2:1 lacing wheel, just like the Bora from the previous post.
And since this one uses left-right reverse asymmetric diameter lacing,
I can shift the center and tighten up even more easily.
Before I disassembled the wheel, I measured the high-spoke side tension.
By the point shown in the image above,
the high-spoke side tension is already the same as it was before disassembly,
and I was hoping that any further centering work would be purely bonus tightening...
but that point has already passed, and the high-spoke side tension
has already exceeded what it was when I received it.
The wheel is now centered.
↑This is the wheel in its as-received state, but
the Rapide CLX front wheel doesn't braid the final crossing on the high-spoke side.
Maybe it's because it's too close to the flange.
Depending on the spoke, the crossing might occur at the round section before it becomes flat,
but if it crosses in the flat section,
then I think it's fine to braid it like this.
Even if I squeeze the crossing together, there's no noise,
and while the lacing effect is diminished because it's so close to the hub flange,
there's not much else I can do with this wheel,
so I'll lace it. Later on.
All built up.
As I mentioned earlier, I've replaced the low-spoke side
with black CX Sprint straight spokes.
Since CX Sprint is a Sapim spoke, if Ｒovaal were to do the same,
they could assemble something nearly identical using
DT Swiss Aero Comp spokes in the same gauge.
But instead, obsessed with aerodynamics, they busy themselves
shaping the hub into a drum shape, widening the bead hook on the rim,
and reducing spoke count—never stopping to consider
how to incorporate left-right reverse asymmetric diameter lacing
as a counterbalance to unequal spoke counts on left and right.
I received a front wheel from a customer's Rapide CLX (a high-end road bike).
It wasn't rolling smoothly, so they asked me to do something about it.
With a 2:1 lacing pattern, that's 3 spokes per bundle × 6 bundles = 18 holes total,
so the low-spoke side gets just 6 spokes—a pretty ridiculous spec.
But Ｒovaal, for whatever reason, didn't use a cross-4 (X) pattern—
they went with a cross-2 (Ж) pattern instead.
With this few spokes, when you do that,
the final crossing ends up too close to the hub flange,
which weakens the lacing effect...
The front wheel rim pursues aerodynamic performance when the tire is mounted,
so the bead seat width at the peak is extremely wide.
In my opinion, when you factor in the balance of all the elements for overall performance,
the aerodynamic advantage gained from this spec
is outweighed by the weight penalty of making the rim heavier.
It's not a rim that competes on lightness to begin with,
so the weight increase from thickening the bead hook is probably around 30g,
and apparently they don't really care about that.
More than that though, the stiffness loss from choosing 18 spokes
instead of going with 24 or 21 spokes is the bigger issue.
Looking at the wheel in its as-received state, hanging centered,
it was slightly off to the right.
That's fine, but the spoke tension on the high-spoke side (the left side)
is quite low considering the spoke count.
This isn't my first time rebuilding a Rapide CLX front wheel,
but this particular one feels like a dud tension-wise.
After all, it's even lower than the front wheel of the Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5.
I disassembled the wheel, replaced the low-spoke side spokes with black CX Sprint straight spokes,
tensioned them up to just short of finish, and chased down the lateral and radial runout.
From the initial assembly, I heavily favored tightening the low-spoke side,
so I intentionally shifted the center way off.
When I true it up from here by tightening the high-spoke side,
the low-spoke side tension will also increase a bit,
so I've left it slightly under-tensioned to account for that.
The fact that I can true the wheel by tightening the side with the more shallow spoke angle
—on the rear wheel, that would be the non-freewheel side—
is possible because this is a 2:1 lacing wheel, just like the Bora from the previous post.
And since this one uses left-right reverse asymmetric diameter lacing,
I can shift the center and tighten up even more easily.
Before I disassembled the wheel, I measured the high-spoke side tension.
By the point shown in the image above,
the high-spoke side tension is already the same as it was before disassembly,
and I was hoping that any further centering work would be purely bonus tightening...
but that point has already passed, and the high-spoke side tension
has already exceeded what it was when I received it.
The wheel is now centered.
↑This is the wheel in its as-received state, but
the Rapide CLX front wheel doesn't braid the final crossing on the high-spoke side.
Maybe it's because it's too close to the flange.
Depending on the spoke, the crossing might occur at the round section before it becomes flat,
but if it crosses in the flat section,
then I think it's fine to braid it like this.
Even if I squeeze the crossing together, there's no noise,
and while the lacing effect is diminished because it's so close to the hub flange,
there's not much else I can do with this wheel,
so I'll lace it. Later on.
All built up.
As I mentioned earlier, I've replaced the low-spoke side
with black CX Sprint straight spokes.
Since CX Sprint is a Sapim spoke, if Ｒovaal were to do the same,
they could assemble something nearly identical using
DT Swiss Aero Comp spokes in the same gauge.
But instead, obsessed with aerodynamics, they busy themselves
shaping the hub into a drum shape, widening the bead hook on the rim,
and reducing spoke count—never stopping to consider
how to incorporate left-right reverse asymmetric diameter lacing
as a counterbalance to unequal spoke counts on left and right.