Another wheel day (and so on).
A customer brought in a wheel built with a Stan's Grail rim.
Today I'm only doing the rear wheel, though.
Both wheels are built with Shimano CX75 hubs,
28-hole all-black CX-RAY 444 JIS pattern.
This hub is quick-release spec, but
they want it rebuilt with a through-axle spec hub.
And since it's right before (or already in) the cyclocross season,
they name-dropped one of our regulars and said "they know you, so just do it fast."
With Shimano hubs, the RS470 or RS770 have identical hub shell dimensions,
so all spokes can be reused.
In the 9-speed 7700 Dura-Ace era,
only the Dura-Ace rear hub had a subtle high-low flange
with flange hole diameters of 45/44mm (freewheel side / non-freewheel side),
while everything below that had 45mm on both sides.
This 45/44mm hub shell gradually trickled down to lower grades,
and the RS770 hub—being the top of the 700-series in the RS (Road Series) above-grade category—
naturally has the 45/44 flange, but
the RS470 hub also has a 45/44 flange.
Well, sharing hub shell materials before anodizing is more rational for production anyway.
By the way, the HB/FH-RS770 hub is classified as SHIMANO series on Shimano's website,
but the WH-RS770 complete wheel is listed as Altegra grade.
Meanwhile, the HB/FH-470 hub belongs to the 4700-series Tiagra grade,
so nowadays the RS product numbers aren't entirely above-grade either.
Since budget was a concern,
we went with the RS470 hub.
For a "better rebuild" I could suggest half-competition or half-CX sprint lacing,
but on both wheels, the sides where spokes angle steeper compared to the original CX-RAY
can't be reused due to different gauges, and
the sides where spokes angle shallower can't be reused due to different lengths,
so the original CX-RAY spokes would be completely scrapped.
I didn't want the customer to think this suggestion was just me
trying to squeeze money out of them by pushing parts,
so (though I did suggest it)
I respected the customer's budget priority
and went with a standard rebuild.
Basically, since it's just a regular wheel build,
I said "you could go anywhere for this, really"—
but here we are.
The original wheel's condition: dead-center perfect,
with the freewheel side tensioned extremely tight—
absolutely rock-hard.
By contrast, the non-freewheel side flexes and creaks noticeably when squeezed.
Typical of non-offset rims with same-length, same-number-of-spokes lacing on both sides—
basically a rear wheel held up almost entirely by freewheel-side tension.
Actually, the freewheel-side tension was, in 2nd-order ST terms,
even tighter than my competition-laced freewheel side when I build half-comp.
If this were an Iron Cross, the rim holes would burst
(Iron Cross limit tension is 95 kgf;
this Grail's limit is 125 kgf, by the way).
The nipples are 14mm aluminum Sapim nipples that came with the CX-RAY,
and I'm reusing these too.
I almost never build wheels with these nipples myself,
and that's because compared to DT's 12mm aluminum nipples,
the statistical likelihood of spoke-end fracture is noticeably higher,
and silver nipples are prone to corrosion.
But if I start insisting on replacing nipples that haven't broken yet,
it looks like the same fraudulent practice as those crooked shops
spouting "Racing Zero rim replacement requires complete spoke replacement!"
So I'm respecting the budget this time.
Never mind that I always replace all aluminum nipples when doing rebuilds or rim swaps with aged DT 12mm—
don't think about that.
I thought about leaving the rim tape on to avoid looking like I was tearing it off
to pocket the rim tape fee—it'd be extra work—
but the condition didn't warrant that much respect,
so I peeled it off.
The valve hole setup—even with something like this,
if you crank down a tubeless valve hard enough,
it apparently seals fine.
↑Freewheel side
↑Non-freewheel side
↑Freewheel side
↑Non-freewheel side
The non-freewheel side spokes are a bit shorter.
Generally in cases like this,
you see the same length used on both sides, but
these did have different lengths on each side.
This rear wheel was built reverse-rim orientation.
My guess is the original builder
has a habit of "left-drop for tangent lacing."
If you only ever build front and rear rim-brake wheels
with same-number-of-spokes-on-both-sides lacing,
you'd never run into trouble (except in velodromes).
When you thread left-drop spokes through the hub and try to lace JIS pattern,
the bundle of four spokes in the final cross
straddles the valve hole, and once you notice that,
you switch from normal rim to reverse rim orientation.
The builder might not have realized what caused the issue in the first place—
if they had, they'd just flip all the inpokes and outpokes on one flange during test-fitting.
The reason I suspected they only knew left-drop was
because the front wheel was built reverse-Italian lacing with normal rim orientation.
With same-number-of-spokes-on-both-sides (where the spoke bundle doesn't straddle the valve hole),
both Italian and reverse-Italian lacing start left-drop.
↑This is the rear wheel from this job—
left-drop JIS lacing.
If this were just a rim replacement (keeping the hub),
I'd probably respect the spoke neck indent marks in the flange (haha)
and continue with left-drop JIS in reverse-rim orientation.
For example, with a rim swap to another Grail,
I wouldn't even unthread the spokes from the hub.
This Grail is the same vintage as the Iron Cross, so
I doubt a new one exists anymore, but anyway—
the RS470 hub I'm using is brand new
with no spoke indent marks on the flange, so
I'm changing to right-drop against the original wheel's state,
just on this one point.
↑This is a brand new Grail rim from our inventory, but
this rim had no left-right hole offset.
So reverse-rim orientation isn't an issue "this time around."
I can pin down the manufacturing year of a rim from certain clues,
and this inventory rim is 2015, while
the rear wheel's rim is 2014.
So the wheel probably got built around then.
The nipples were reused, but that was the result of
deep consideration, so don't think twice.
Oh, I could also check the hub manufacturing date.
I'll verify that when I do the front wheel.
Fine sand was packed in the spoke threads.
↑These are the seven freewheel-side outpokes, but
after cleaning the spokes, I applied threadlocker to the threads
(what I used is proprietary info, so
the photo above is from 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 one spot she held him by—the heel—
remained mortal, so
he was later shot there with an arrow and died.
Source of the term "Achilles tendon."
Sapim black spokes have a similar thing:
the spot where the goddess apparently grabbed them during manufacturing
lacks the black finish.
Both sides of these spokes have that, but
sometimes the flat end face of the rounded section is painted jet black.
It's either unpainted on the end, or completely black—one or the other.
This tells me these spokes haven't been cut with a spoke cutter.
If you cut unpainted-end spokes, depending on the length,
the unpainted section disappears or you're left with roughly one thread showing—
distinctive look. And if you cut all-black spokes,
the end face won't be black anymore, so you can tell.
Plus, looking at the plain section length on the thread end
lets you nearly confirm it anyway.
I transferred the seven freewheel-side outpokes
to the RS470 hub with threadlocker applied.
I distinguish between inpokes and outpokes when reusing
because spoke neck deformation under tension
differs between inpokes and outpokes.
The color of the threadlocker is shown in the photo above.
Wait, that one's cut off (using the wrong meaning there, oops). Sorry, sorry.
Next, which spokes to transfer would make this article
most valuable? Choose from below. (20 points)
1. Freewheel-side inpokes
2. Non-freewheel-side inpokes
3. Non-freewheel-side outpokes
The answer is 2: Non-freewheel-side inpokes.
Because it lets me explain right-drop versus left-drop.
Orient the hub with left and right as top and bottom
(either way is fine),
thread a spoke through the upper flange,
and hang it parallel to the hub shell. Then
the spoke you thread through the lower flange hole
will be phase-shifted to the right or left of
the spoke hanging from the upper flange.
Threading it to the right is right-drop;
to the left is left-drop.
The photo above shows the rebuilt RS470 hub—
looking at the spoke in the center of the image,
you can see it's right-drop.
Similarly, looking at the spokes left on the original CX75 hub,
you can see it was left-drop.
↑This is the final outpoke I transferred from the CX75 hub,
and there were wear marks in the final cross section.
All built.
FH-RS470, all-black CX-RAY 444 JIS pattern,
right-drop, normal rim orientation.
No tying and soldering.
That was a condition of taking this job.
Since the original wheel didn't have it,
it'd be presumptuous of me to add it.
I didn't dimple the rim holes to reduce nipple friction
(a micro-drilling treatment equivalent)—the original didn't have that either—
but I tensioned it to match the original wheel's level anyway.
A customer brought in a wheel built with a Stan's Grail rim.
Today I'm only doing the rear wheel, though.
Both wheels are built with Shimano CX75 hubs,
28-hole all-black CX-RAY 444 JIS pattern.
This hub is quick-release spec, but
they want it rebuilt with a through-axle spec hub.
And since it's right before (or already in) the cyclocross season,
they name-dropped one of our regulars and said "they know you, so just do it fast."
With Shimano hubs, the RS470 or RS770 have identical hub shell dimensions,
so all spokes can be reused.
In the 9-speed 7700 Dura-Ace era,
only the Dura-Ace rear hub had a subtle high-low flange
with flange hole diameters of 45/44mm (freewheel side / non-freewheel side),
while everything below that had 45mm on both sides.
This 45/44mm hub shell gradually trickled down to lower grades,
and the RS770 hub—being the top of the 700-series in the RS (Road Series) above-grade category—
naturally has the 45/44 flange, but
the RS470 hub also has a 45/44 flange.
Well, sharing hub shell materials before anodizing is more rational for production anyway.
By the way, the HB/FH-RS770 hub is classified as SHIMANO series on Shimano's website,
but the WH-RS770 complete wheel is listed as Altegra grade.
Meanwhile, the HB/FH-470 hub belongs to the 4700-series Tiagra grade,
so nowadays the RS product numbers aren't entirely above-grade either.
Since budget was a concern,
we went with the RS470 hub.
For a "better rebuild" I could suggest half-competition or half-CX sprint lacing,
but on both wheels, the sides where spokes angle steeper compared to the original CX-RAY
can't be reused due to different gauges, and
the sides where spokes angle shallower can't be reused due to different lengths,
so the original CX-RAY spokes would be completely scrapped.
I didn't want the customer to think this suggestion was just me
trying to squeeze money out of them by pushing parts,
so (though I did suggest it)
I respected the customer's budget priority
and went with a standard rebuild.
Basically, since it's just a regular wheel build,
I said "you could go anywhere for this, really"—
but here we are.
The original wheel's condition: dead-center perfect,
with the freewheel side tensioned extremely tight—
absolutely rock-hard.
By contrast, the non-freewheel side flexes and creaks noticeably when squeezed.
Typical of non-offset rims with same-length, same-number-of-spokes lacing on both sides—
basically a rear wheel held up almost entirely by freewheel-side tension.
Actually, the freewheel-side tension was, in 2nd-order ST terms,
even tighter than my competition-laced freewheel side when I build half-comp.
If this were an Iron Cross, the rim holes would burst
(Iron Cross limit tension is 95 kgf;
this Grail's limit is 125 kgf, by the way).
The nipples are 14mm aluminum Sapim nipples that came with the CX-RAY,
and I'm reusing these too.
I almost never build wheels with these nipples myself,
and that's because compared to DT's 12mm aluminum nipples,
the statistical likelihood of spoke-end fracture is noticeably higher,
and silver nipples are prone to corrosion.
But if I start insisting on replacing nipples that haven't broken yet,
it looks like the same fraudulent practice as those crooked shops
spouting "Racing Zero rim replacement requires complete spoke replacement!"
So I'm respecting the budget this time.
Never mind that I always replace all aluminum nipples when doing rebuilds or rim swaps with aged DT 12mm—
don't think about that.
I thought about leaving the rim tape on to avoid looking like I was tearing it off
to pocket the rim tape fee—it'd be extra work—
but the condition didn't warrant that much respect,
so I peeled it off.
The valve hole setup—even with something like this,
if you crank down a tubeless valve hard enough,
it apparently seals fine.
↑Freewheel side
↑Non-freewheel side
↑Freewheel side
↑Non-freewheel side
The non-freewheel side spokes are a bit shorter.
Generally in cases like this,
you see the same length used on both sides, but
these did have different lengths on each side.
This rear wheel was built reverse-rim orientation.
My guess is the original builder
has a habit of "left-drop for tangent lacing."
If you only ever build front and rear rim-brake wheels
with same-number-of-spokes-on-both-sides lacing,
you'd never run into trouble (except in velodromes).
When you thread left-drop spokes through the hub and try to lace JIS pattern,
the bundle of four spokes in the final cross
straddles the valve hole, and once you notice that,
you switch from normal rim to reverse rim orientation.
The builder might not have realized what caused the issue in the first place—
if they had, they'd just flip all the inpokes and outpokes on one flange during test-fitting.
The reason I suspected they only knew left-drop was
because the front wheel was built reverse-Italian lacing with normal rim orientation.
With same-number-of-spokes-on-both-sides (where the spoke bundle doesn't straddle the valve hole),
both Italian and reverse-Italian lacing start left-drop.
↑This is the rear wheel from this job—
left-drop JIS lacing.
If this were just a rim replacement (keeping the hub),
I'd probably respect the spoke neck indent marks in the flange (haha)
and continue with left-drop JIS in reverse-rim orientation.
For example, with a rim swap to another Grail,
I wouldn't even unthread the spokes from the hub.
This Grail is the same vintage as the Iron Cross, so
I doubt a new one exists anymore, but anyway—
the RS470 hub I'm using is brand new
with no spoke indent marks on the flange, so
I'm changing to right-drop against the original wheel's state,
just on this one point.
↑This is a brand new Grail rim from our inventory, but
this rim had no left-right hole offset.
So reverse-rim orientation isn't an issue "this time around."
I can pin down the manufacturing year of a rim from certain clues,
and this inventory rim is 2015, while
the rear wheel's rim is 2014.
So the wheel probably got built around then.
deep consideration, so don't think twice.
Oh, I could also check the hub manufacturing date.
I'll verify that when I do the front wheel.
Fine sand was packed in the spoke threads.
↑These are the seven freewheel-side outpokes, but
after cleaning the spokes, I applied threadlocker to the threads
(what I used is proprietary info, so
the photo above is from 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 one spot she held him by—the heel—
remained mortal, so
he was later shot there with an arrow and died.
Source of the term "Achilles tendon."
Sapim black spokes have a similar thing:
the spot where the goddess apparently grabbed them during manufacturing
lacks the black finish.
Both sides of these spokes have that, but
sometimes the flat end face of the rounded section is painted jet black.
It's either unpainted on the end, or completely black—one or the other.
This tells me these spokes haven't been cut with a spoke cutter.
If you cut unpainted-end spokes, depending on the length,
the unpainted section disappears or you're left with roughly one thread showing—
distinctive look. And if you cut all-black spokes,
the end face won't be black anymore, so you can tell.
Plus, looking at the plain section length on the thread end
lets you nearly confirm it anyway.
I transferred the seven freewheel-side outpokes
to the RS470 hub with threadlocker applied.
I distinguish between inpokes and outpokes when reusing
because spoke neck deformation under tension
differs between inpokes and outpokes.
The color of the threadlocker is shown in the photo above.
Wait, that one's cut off (using the wrong meaning there, oops). Sorry, sorry.
Next, which spokes to transfer would make this article
most valuable? Choose from below. (20 points)
1. Freewheel-side inpokes
2. Non-freewheel-side inpokes
3. Non-freewheel-side outpokes
The answer is 2: Non-freewheel-side inpokes.
Because it lets me explain right-drop versus left-drop.
Orient the hub with left and right as top and bottom
(either way is fine),
thread a spoke through the upper flange,
and hang it parallel to the hub shell. Then
the spoke you thread through the lower flange hole
will be phase-shifted to the right or left of
the spoke hanging from the upper flange.
Threading it to the right is right-drop;
to the left is left-drop.
The photo above shows the rebuilt RS470 hub—
looking at the spoke in the center of the image,
you can see it's right-drop.
Similarly, looking at the spokes left on the original CX75 hub,
you can see it was left-drop.
↑This is the final outpoke I transferred from the CX75 hub,
and there were wear marks in the final cross section.
All built.
FH-RS470, all-black CX-RAY 444 JIS pattern,
right-drop, normal rim orientation.
No tying and soldering.
That was a condition of taking this job.
Since the original wheel didn't have it,
it'd be presumptuous of me to add it.
I didn't dimple the rim holes to reduce nipple friction
(a micro-drilling treatment equivalent)—the original didn't have that either—
but I tensioned it to match the original wheel's level anyway.