Another day, another wheel (and so on).
A customer left me a Mavic Ellipse front wheel.
It's a classic track bike practice wheel.
There's basically nothing like it from other manufacturers—
no complete wheels built for that specific purpose.
Campagnolo had the Pista, an aluminum-rim wheel for track,
but that was tubular-rim only,
so depending on the tire, it could even be used in races.
The Ellipse comes in clincher-rim spec only.
The hub axle is a quick-release style,
but these days most competition track bikes have
through-axle front forks as standard,
so quick-release front wheels won't work.
On a separate note, I once heard about someone who took a Rovaal CLX 50
with the disc rotor removed and used it as a track bike front wheel on the velodrome—
the wheel rolled so badly they couldn't help but laugh.
It's gross enough having a disc rotor seat on the front wheel for no reason,
but since it only turns left, they could swap the wheel's left and right sides
and test the difference in cornering speed
between the high-spoke-count side and low-spoke-count side—
seems like it would be an interesting experiment.
Anyway, the customer wanted this front wheel rebuilt
with a through-axle front hub from Araya.
Actually, "from Araya" might be generous—
it feels more like a personal project of Tetsuza-san,
similar to the disc wheel (← not a disc-brake wheel, mind you).
The Ellipse is built with aero spokes that have a fairly high flattening ratio.
The Araya hub—you can't quite see it in the photo above—
has slitted flange holes,
so it can take flattened spokes 2.3mm wide or thicker.
The customer preferred using spokes like that if possible,
but among reputable manufacturers, the only flattened spokes
I could reliably source right now were silver.
I asked whether they wanted to prioritize "flattened spokes" or "black spokes,"
and they said black, so I built it with black CX Sprint pulled to full tension.
Jumping ahead in the timeline here—20 spokes from the disassembled Ellipse.
Both the head and the threads were 14-gauge base.
Some older Cosmic Carbon spokes had 13-gauge base for the round-section ends,
and current disc-brake Cosmic has spokes that are just slightly 13-gauge
from the head section, then 14-gauge base thereafter.
Since the hub's spoke-head seat is machined for 13-gauge,
if a spoke breaks, you can't even do a makeshift repair with 14-gauge base spokes
of similar weight as a stopgap till the original arrives.
And on top of that, Japanese distributors don't stock them,
and they sometimes don't get restocked for months (we don't carry them,
so I don't know the details—not that I care much anyway).
Weight came to 136.4g on a scale with 0.1g graduations.
The length was 279mm, so the spoke weight ratio is
136.4 ÷ 20 ÷ 279 ÷ 0.0257 = 0.951145686...,
roughly 95%.
CX Sprint is 78% spoke weight ratio, so if spoke tension is the same,
the off-the-shelf Ellipse would be a stiffer wheel.
But if pulling CX Sprint to full tension achieves a state where "the rider's input barely deforms it,"
there wouldn't be any noticeable difference in feel.
Oh, this time I'm not reciting the usual incantation,
so the evil leaking crustaceans won't be making an appearance.
Wheel's built.
I measured the right-side dimension with a centering gauge,
and checked it on the left side...
...and there's this much clearance.
But the wheel center is true.
There was something off when I touched the rim,
When I set the left as the side with the hub's bearing adjustment mechanism,
the right side of the rim has almost no step
between the rim's sidewall and the brake zone,
but on the left side there's a step comparable to
Campagnolo's rim-brake wheels.
Not every Ellipse I know of has this issue.
Mavic's aluminum rims or aluminum-rim wheels—
the Ksyrium and R-SYS with aluminum spokes,
plus the traditional narrow Open Pro as a long-seller—
are French-made except those are mostly Chinese rims
assembled in Romania.
This Ellipse's rim origin is unclear, but
it was assembled in Romania.
To put it in exaggerated terms, it's like this.
When I measured with calipers, the rim's inner hole wasn't
centered on the rim's outer width—
it was at the rim's profile apex.
The bead hook thickness didn't have as glaring a difference
as in this case,
so I went ahead and built the wheel.
Araya through-axle hub, 20H, black CX Sprint,
outpoke radial lacing with black brass nipples.
The marking on the hub shell—
—there are three of them, spaced 120° apart.
If the hub hole count were a practical multiple of 3—
18H, 24H, 36H, or 12H—
the phase relationship between the flange holes and the hub marking wouldn't change,
but with 20H it shifts slightly, so
I positioned the hub marking so it's visible when you look in from the valve hole,
choosing the most appropriate of the three possible phases.
A customer left me a Mavic Ellipse front wheel.
It's a classic track bike practice wheel.
There's basically nothing like it from other manufacturers—
no complete wheels built for that specific purpose.
Campagnolo had the Pista, an aluminum-rim wheel for track,
but that was tubular-rim only,
so depending on the tire, it could even be used in races.
The Ellipse comes in clincher-rim spec only.
The hub axle is a quick-release style,
but these days most competition track bikes have
through-axle front forks as standard,
so quick-release front wheels won't work.
On a separate note, I once heard about someone who took a Rovaal CLX 50
with the disc rotor removed and used it as a track bike front wheel on the velodrome—
the wheel rolled so badly they couldn't help but laugh.
It's gross enough having a disc rotor seat on the front wheel for no reason,
but since it only turns left, they could swap the wheel's left and right sides
and test the difference in cornering speed
between the high-spoke-count side and low-spoke-count side—
seems like it would be an interesting experiment.
Anyway, the customer wanted this front wheel rebuilt
with a through-axle front hub from Araya.
Actually, "from Araya" might be generous—
it feels more like a personal project of Tetsuza-san,
similar to the disc wheel (← not a disc-brake wheel, mind you).
The Ellipse is built with aero spokes that have a fairly high flattening ratio.
The Araya hub—you can't quite see it in the photo above—
has slitted flange holes,
so it can take flattened spokes 2.3mm wide or thicker.
The customer preferred using spokes like that if possible,
but among reputable manufacturers, the only flattened spokes
I could reliably source right now were silver.
I asked whether they wanted to prioritize "flattened spokes" or "black spokes,"
and they said black, so I built it with black CX Sprint pulled to full tension.
Jumping ahead in the timeline here—20 spokes from the disassembled Ellipse.
Both the head and the threads were 14-gauge base.
Some older Cosmic Carbon spokes had 13-gauge base for the round-section ends,
and current disc-brake Cosmic has spokes that are just slightly 13-gauge
from the head section, then 14-gauge base thereafter.
Since the hub's spoke-head seat is machined for 13-gauge,
if a spoke breaks, you can't even do a makeshift repair with 14-gauge base spokes
of similar weight as a stopgap till the original arrives.
And on top of that, Japanese distributors don't stock them,
and they sometimes don't get restocked for months (we don't carry them,
so I don't know the details—not that I care much anyway).
Weight came to 136.4g on a scale with 0.1g graduations.
The length was 279mm, so the spoke weight ratio is
136.4 ÷ 20 ÷ 279 ÷ 0.0257 = 0.951145686...,
roughly 95%.
CX Sprint is 78% spoke weight ratio, so if spoke tension is the same,
the off-the-shelf Ellipse would be a stiffer wheel.
But if pulling CX Sprint to full tension achieves a state where "the rider's input barely deforms it,"
there wouldn't be any noticeable difference in feel.
Oh, this time I'm not reciting the usual incantation,
so the evil leaking crustaceans won't be making an appearance.
Wheel's built.
I measured the right-side dimension with a centering gauge,
and checked it on the left side...
...and there's this much clearance.
But the wheel center is true.
There was something off when I touched the rim,
When I set the left as the side with the hub's bearing adjustment mechanism,
the right side of the rim has almost no step
between the rim's sidewall and the brake zone,
but on the left side there's a step comparable to
Campagnolo's rim-brake wheels.
Not every Ellipse I know of has this issue.
Mavic's aluminum rims or aluminum-rim wheels—
the Ksyrium and R-SYS with aluminum spokes,
plus the traditional narrow Open Pro as a long-seller—
are French-made except those are mostly Chinese rims
assembled in Romania.
This Ellipse's rim origin is unclear, but
it was assembled in Romania.
To put it in exaggerated terms, it's like this.
When I measured with calipers, the rim's inner hole wasn't
centered on the rim's outer width—
it was at the rim's profile apex.
The bead hook thickness didn't have as glaring a difference
as in this case,
so I went ahead and built the wheel.
Araya through-axle hub, 20H, black CX Sprint,
outpoke radial lacing with black brass nipples.
The marking on the hub shell—
—there are three of them, spaced 120° apart.
If the hub hole count were a practical multiple of 3—
18H, 24H, 36H, or 12H—
the phase relationship between the flange holes and the hub marking wouldn't change,
but with 20H it shifts slightly, so
I positioned the hub marking so it's visible when you look in from the valve hole,
choosing the most appropriate of the three possible phases.