Another day with wheels (details omitted).
I took in a wheel from a customer built with Stans Grail rims.
Today I'm only doing the rear wheel.
Both front and rear wheels are built with Shimano CX75 hubs,
28H, all-black CX-RAY in JIS 4x lacing.
This hub is quick-release spec,
but they want it rebuilt with through-axle spec hubs.
They mentioned the name of one of our regular customers and said they know them,
and told me to get it done right away,
just before—or actually right in the middle of—cyclocross season.
With Shimano hubs, if I use either RS470 or RS770,
the hub body dimensions are the same, so I can reuse all the spokes.
Back in the 9-speed Dura-Ace 7700 era,
only the Dura-Ace rear hub had a subtle high-low flange
with a flange hole diameter difference of 45/44mm between free and non-free sides,
while lower grades were 45mm on both sides.
This 45/44mm hub body gradually spread to lower grades over the years,
and the RS770 hub, being the top of the 700 series in the RS (Road Series) tier,
makes sense to have 45/44 flanges.
However, the RS470 hub also had 45/44 flanges.
Well, it's more cost-efficient for production to share hub body material before anodizing.
Incidentally, the HB/FH-RS770 hub is classified as the SHIMANO series on Shimano's website,
but the complete WH-RS770 wheel is categorized as Altegra grade.
And the HB/FH-470 hub belongs to the 4700-series Tiagra tier,
so nowadays not all RS part numbers are exactly outside-grade.
Going the budget route,
we decided on RS470 hubs.
As proposals for better respooking, there's semi-competé or semi-CX sprint lacing,
but for both wheels, compared to the original CX-RAY,
the spokes on the side with steeper angles can't be reused due to different gauge,
and the spokes on the side with shallower angles can't be reused due to different length,
so the original CX-RAY gets completely scrapped.
I had to be careful that this proposal wouldn't be seen as me just trying to squeeze money out of the customer by pushing parts changes—I did make the proposal—
so I decided to fully respect the customer's budget-conscious preference.
Basically, it's just normal wheel building, so I even said
"you don't really need us for this, you could take it somewhere else"... but anyway.
As for the condition of the original wheel, it was perfectly centered,
but the free side was tensioned incredibly tight.
In contrast, the non-free side made creaking sounds when squeezed and deflected quite a bit.
Yeah, pretty typical of a non-offset rim with identical left-right diameter and same lacing count,
basically a rear wheel that's held together almost entirely by free-side tension alone.
Actually, the free-side tension was so high that, by second-stage standards,
it was even tighter than my competitive-laced free side.
If this were an Arlen Ness Iron Cross, the rim holes would explode
(by the way, the Iron Cross's limit tension is 95 kgf,
while this Grail's limit tension is 125 kgf).
The nipples are Sapim 14mm aluminum nipples that came with the CX-RAY,
and I'm reusing those too.
I almost never build wheels with these nipples myself,
and that's because compared to DT's 12mm aluminum nipples,
the risk of spoke-end breakage is statistically clearly higher,
and with silver nipples, corrosion is more likely.
That said, if I start talking about how like those dodgy shops that claim
"spoke replacement is mandatory for Racing Zero rim swaps!"—spouting fraudulent sales tactics—
it would look bad if I forced replacement of nipples that haven't even broken yet,
so this time I'll respect the budget approach.
That said, I always replace all aluminum nipples when respoking or doing rim swaps on wheels
that have been in use over time, even DT 12mm ones, but let's not worry about that.
I thought maybe I'd respoke it while keeping the rim tape on,
so it wouldn't look like I was peeling it off to pocket the rim tape fee—
even though it's more work—but the condition wasn't worth respecting that much,
so I peeled it off.
The valve hole situation—even like this,
you can get an airtight seal if you crank down a tubeless valve hard enough.
↑Free side
↑Non-free side
↑Free side
↑Non-free side
The non-free side spokes are noticeably shorter.
Generally in these cases,
both sides often use the same length spokes,
but this one actually had different lengths for each side.
This rear wheel was built in reverse rim orientation.
I'm guessing the wheel builder had the habit of
"with tangent lacing, drop on the left side."
If you only build front and rear rim brake wheels
with symmetrical lacing on both sides, you'll never run into problems from this (except in velodrome racing).
If you try to thread the spokes left-drop from the hub into JIS lacing,
the bundle of four spokes in the final crossover on both sides
straddles the valve hole, so I think the builder noticed this
and switched from normal rim orientation to reverse rim orientation.
Or they might not have realized what caused the issue.
If they had realized, they could've just flipped all the non-spoke and anti-spoke holes
on one flange during initial assembly.
The reason I wonder if they only know left-drop is because
the front wheel was built with reverse-Italian lacing in normal rim orientation.
If it's symmetrical lacing on both sides (the spoke bundle doesn't straddle the valve hole),
both Italian and reverse-Italian lacing start with left-drop.
↑This is the current rear wheel,
built left-drop in JIS lacing.
If this were about reusing the hub for something like a collapsed rim swap,
I would've probably continued with left-drop JIS lacing
in reverse rim orientation, respecting the spoke-end bite marks on the hub flanges (ha).
For example, if it were moving to another Grail rim,
I'd do it without pulling a single spoke from the hub flanges.
This Grail is from the same era as the Iron Cross,
so I doubt any new ones exist anymore.
The RS470 hub I'm using for the rebuild is brand new
with no spoke bite marks on the flanges,
so this one point—and only this—I'll change from the original wheel's spec
and switch to right-drop.
↑This is a new Grail rim from our shop inventory,
and this rim had no left-right hole offset.
So reverse rim orientation is "not a problem this time."
I can identify the rim's manufacturing year from certain clues,
and this shop inventory rim is 2015,
while the customer's rear wheel rim is 2014.
So the wheel was probably built around that time.
I reused the nipples,
but that's the result of careful consideration, so don't worry about it.
Oh, I could also check the hub manufacturing date.
I'll verify that when I do the front wheel.
Fine sand was packed into the spoke threads.
↑These are seven anti-spokes on the free side,
and I cleaned the spokes and applied threadlocker to the threads
(what I applied is classified information,
so the image above is just the cleaning stage).
In Greek mythology, Achilles was
dipped in the River Styx by his mother as a baby
and gained an immortal body,
but the heel his mother Thetis held onto during the dipping
was not immortal,
and he died years later from an arrow wound there.
The Achilles tendon is named after this.
Similarly, Sapim black spokes have a part where the color isn't applied
on what we'd presume to be the spot Thetis grabbed.
This batch of spokes has that on both sides,
though sometimes even the flat end of the round edge on the thread end
is painted solid black.
So the end is either unpainted or completely black—one or the other.
This indicates that these spokes weren't cut with a spoke cutter.
If you cut unpainted-end spokes, depending on the length,
the unpainted section either disappears or leaves just one thread pitch
with a distinctive look,
and if only black remains, there won't be a black end, or if you cut an all-black spoke,
the cut surface won't be black—either way, you can tell.
Even before that, you can pretty much confirm it just by looking at
the plain section length on the thread end side.
I moved the seven anti-spokes from the free side
to the RS470 hub after applying threadlocker.
The reason I distinguish between spokes and anti-spokes when reusing them is
because the spoke-end deformation from tension differs
between spoke and anti-spoke positions.
The threadlocker color is as shown in the image above.
Oh, I got cut off there (wrong usage lol). My bad.
Next, which spokes should I move
to get maximum article value?
Choose one of the following. (20 points)
1. Free-side spokes
2. Non-free-side spokes
3. Non-free-side anti-spokes
The answer is 2. Non-free-side spokes.
The reason is
it lets me explain right-drop versus left-drop.
Orient the hub so its left-right becomes up-down
(either side can be up or down),
thread a spoke through the upper flange
and hang it so it's parallel to the hub body,
and the spoke you thread through the lower flange
will be offset in phase from the spoke hanging from the upper flange
toward either its right or left.
Threading to the right is right-drop,
and threading to the left is left-drop.
The image above shows the RS470 hub after rebuilding,
and looking at the center spoke in the image,
you can see it's right-drop.
Similarly, looking at the spokes left on the CX75 hub before rebuilding,
you can see it was left-drop.
↑This is the CX75 hub's anti-spoke I moved last,
and there was wear marks on the final crossover section.
Built.
FH-RS470, all-black CX-RAY in JIS 4x lacing
right-drop, normal rim orientation.
I'm not lacing them.
Not doing it was a condition of taking this job.
The original wheel didn't have them laced,
so how could I, of all people, presume to lace them?
The original rim also had no treatment equivalent to
drilling the rim holes or using a flange reamer to reduce nipple friction,
but respecting that original condition,
I tensioned it up to the same point as the original wheel.
I took in a wheel from a customer built with Stans Grail rims.
Today I'm only doing the rear wheel.
Both front and rear wheels are built with Shimano CX75 hubs,
28H, all-black CX-RAY in JIS 4x lacing.
This hub is quick-release spec,
but they want it rebuilt with through-axle spec hubs.
They mentioned the name of one of our regular customers and said they know them,
and told me to get it done right away,
just before—or actually right in the middle of—cyclocross season.
With Shimano hubs, if I use either RS470 or RS770,
the hub body dimensions are the same, so I can reuse all the spokes.
Back in the 9-speed Dura-Ace 7700 era,
only the Dura-Ace rear hub had a subtle high-low flange
with a flange hole diameter difference of 45/44mm between free and non-free sides,
while lower grades were 45mm on both sides.
This 45/44mm hub body gradually spread to lower grades over the years,
and the RS770 hub, being the top of the 700 series in the RS (Road Series) tier,
makes sense to have 45/44 flanges.
However, the RS470 hub also had 45/44 flanges.
Well, it's more cost-efficient for production to share hub body material before anodizing.
Incidentally, the HB/FH-RS770 hub is classified as the SHIMANO series on Shimano's website,
but the complete WH-RS770 wheel is categorized as Altegra grade.
And the HB/FH-470 hub belongs to the 4700-series Tiagra tier,
so nowadays not all RS part numbers are exactly outside-grade.
Going the budget route,
we decided on RS470 hubs.
As proposals for better respooking, there's semi-competé or semi-CX sprint lacing,
but for both wheels, compared to the original CX-RAY,
the spokes on the side with steeper angles can't be reused due to different gauge,
and the spokes on the side with shallower angles can't be reused due to different length,
so the original CX-RAY gets completely scrapped.
I had to be careful that this proposal wouldn't be seen as me just trying to squeeze money out of the customer by pushing parts changes—I did make the proposal—
so I decided to fully respect the customer's budget-conscious preference.
Basically, it's just normal wheel building, so I even said
"you don't really need us for this, you could take it somewhere else"... but anyway.
As for the condition of the original wheel, it was perfectly centered,
but the free side was tensioned incredibly tight.
In contrast, the non-free side made creaking sounds when squeezed and deflected quite a bit.
Yeah, pretty typical of a non-offset rim with identical left-right diameter and same lacing count,
basically a rear wheel that's held together almost entirely by free-side tension alone.
Actually, the free-side tension was so high that, by second-stage standards,
it was even tighter than my competitive-laced free side.
If this were an Arlen Ness Iron Cross, the rim holes would explode
(by the way, the Iron Cross's limit tension is 95 kgf,
while this Grail's limit tension is 125 kgf).
The nipples are Sapim 14mm aluminum nipples that came with the CX-RAY,
and I'm reusing those too.
I almost never build wheels with these nipples myself,
and that's because compared to DT's 12mm aluminum nipples,
the risk of spoke-end breakage is statistically clearly higher,
and with silver nipples, corrosion is more likely.
That said, if I start talking about how like those dodgy shops that claim
"spoke replacement is mandatory for Racing Zero rim swaps!"—spouting fraudulent sales tactics—
it would look bad if I forced replacement of nipples that haven't even broken yet,
so this time I'll respect the budget approach.
That said, I always replace all aluminum nipples when respoking or doing rim swaps on wheels
that have been in use over time, even DT 12mm ones, but let's not worry about that.
I thought maybe I'd respoke it while keeping the rim tape on,
so it wouldn't look like I was peeling it off to pocket the rim tape fee—
even though it's more work—but the condition wasn't worth respecting that much,
so I peeled it off.
The valve hole situation—even like this,
you can get an airtight seal if you crank down a tubeless valve hard enough.
↑Free side
↑Non-free side
↑Free side
↑Non-free side
The non-free side spokes are noticeably shorter.
Generally in these cases,
both sides often use the same length spokes,
but this one actually had different lengths for each side.
This rear wheel was built in reverse rim orientation.
I'm guessing the wheel builder had the habit of
"with tangent lacing, drop on the left side."
If you only build front and rear rim brake wheels
with symmetrical lacing on both sides, you'll never run into problems from this (except in velodrome racing).
If you try to thread the spokes left-drop from the hub into JIS lacing,
the bundle of four spokes in the final crossover on both sides
straddles the valve hole, so I think the builder noticed this
and switched from normal rim orientation to reverse rim orientation.
Or they might not have realized what caused the issue.
If they had realized, they could've just flipped all the non-spoke and anti-spoke holes
on one flange during initial assembly.
The reason I wonder if they only know left-drop is because
the front wheel was built with reverse-Italian lacing in normal rim orientation.
If it's symmetrical lacing on both sides (the spoke bundle doesn't straddle the valve hole),
both Italian and reverse-Italian lacing start with left-drop.
↑This is the current rear wheel,
built left-drop in JIS lacing.
If this were about reusing the hub for something like a collapsed rim swap,
I would've probably continued with left-drop JIS lacing
in reverse rim orientation, respecting the spoke-end bite marks on the hub flanges (ha).
For example, if it were moving to another Grail rim,
I'd do it without pulling a single spoke from the hub flanges.
This Grail is from the same era as the Iron Cross,
so I doubt any new ones exist anymore.
The RS470 hub I'm using for the rebuild is brand new
with no spoke bite marks on the flanges,
so this one point—and only this—I'll change from the original wheel's spec
and switch to right-drop.
↑This is a new Grail rim from our shop inventory,
and this rim had no left-right hole offset.
So reverse rim orientation is "not a problem this time."
I can identify the rim's manufacturing year from certain clues,
and this shop inventory rim is 2015,
while the customer's rear wheel rim is 2014.
So the wheel was probably built around that time.
but that's the result of careful consideration, so don't worry about it.
Oh, I could also check the hub manufacturing date.
I'll verify that when I do the front wheel.
Fine sand was packed into the spoke threads.
↑These are seven anti-spokes on the free side,
and I cleaned the spokes and applied threadlocker to the threads
(what I applied is classified information,
so the image above is just the cleaning stage).
In Greek mythology, Achilles was
dipped in the River Styx by his mother as a baby
and gained an immortal body,
but the heel his mother Thetis held onto during the dipping
was not immortal,
and he died years later from an arrow wound there.
The Achilles tendon is named after this.
Similarly, Sapim black spokes have a part where the color isn't applied
on what we'd presume to be the spot Thetis grabbed.
This batch of spokes has that on both sides,
though sometimes even the flat end of the round edge on the thread end
is painted solid black.
So the end is either unpainted or completely black—one or the other.
This indicates that these spokes weren't cut with a spoke cutter.
If you cut unpainted-end spokes, depending on the length,
the unpainted section either disappears or leaves just one thread pitch
with a distinctive look,
and if only black remains, there won't be a black end, or if you cut an all-black spoke,
the cut surface won't be black—either way, you can tell.
Even before that, you can pretty much confirm it just by looking at
the plain section length on the thread end side.
I moved the seven anti-spokes from the free side
to the RS470 hub after applying threadlocker.
The reason I distinguish between spokes and anti-spokes when reusing them is
because the spoke-end deformation from tension differs
between spoke and anti-spoke positions.
The threadlocker color is as shown in the image above.
Oh, I got cut off there (wrong usage lol). My bad.
Next, which spokes should I move
to get maximum article value?
Choose one of the following. (20 points)
1. Free-side spokes
2. Non-free-side spokes
3. Non-free-side anti-spokes
The answer is 2. Non-free-side spokes.
The reason is
it lets me explain right-drop versus left-drop.
Orient the hub so its left-right becomes up-down
(either side can be up or down),
thread a spoke through the upper flange
and hang it so it's parallel to the hub body,
and the spoke you thread through the lower flange
will be offset in phase from the spoke hanging from the upper flange
toward either its right or left.
Threading to the right is right-drop,
and threading to the left is left-drop.
The image above shows the RS470 hub after rebuilding,
and looking at the center spoke in the image,
you can see it's right-drop.
Similarly, looking at the spokes left on the CX75 hub before rebuilding,
you can see it was left-drop.
↑This is the CX75 hub's anti-spoke I moved last,
and there was wear marks on the final crossover section.
Built.
FH-RS470, all-black CX-RAY in JIS 4x lacing
right-drop, normal rim orientation.
I'm not lacing them.
Not doing it was a condition of taking this job.
The original wheel didn't have them laced,
so how could I, of all people, presume to lace them?
The original rim also had no treatment equivalent to
drilling the rim holes or using a flange reamer to reduce nipple friction,
but respecting that original condition,
I tensioned it up to the same point as the original wheel.