Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer—or rather, a senior in the industry and fellow mechanic—
left me a rear wheel built with a rim from the 4ZA brand.
They wanted me to rebuild it with a different hub,
but I thought, "Why not just do it yourself?"
Still, I went ahead and took the job.
The rim says "4ZA,"
but this is read as "Forza."
Similar examples include
ITM's two-bolt stem "Millennium" that became the four-bolt "Millennium 4EVER" (Forever),
and Cinelli's frame "XLR8R" (Accelerator).
4ZA is Ridley's parts brand, so
my Ridley cyclocross bike's front fork has the same logo.
But this rear wheel is definitely not
an off-the-shelf wheel that came stock on a Ridley complete bike.
The hub uses a PMP (PMP) Shimano freebody,
so its history is unclear, but
it's a hand-built wheel assembled with a 4ZA rim.
Though judging by the freebody, it shows virtually no signs of use.
They want me to rebuild it with a hub that has a Campagnolo freebody.
Originally they asked me to use a Campagnolo Record 32-hole hub
with this 24-hole rim, but I had to decline—
it's not feasible.
Plus, it would be wasteful to use such a nice Campagnolo hub for that.
Building a 2:1 pattern with a 32-hole hub on a 24-hole rim is technically possible.
This won't create phase twist.
Alternatively, you could do a 36-hole hub with skip-hole tangent lacing on both sides,
which causes minimal phase twist and is also possible.
With this particular rim, the latter is just barely feasible, but the former isn't.
This is an internal nipple rim,
and while there was some hole offset on the inner diameter side,
there's considerable offset on the outer diameter side.
Because of this strong offset,
you can't insert a tool from the opposite direction to turn the nipple.
So if you did a 2:1 pattern with a 32-hole hub,
you'd end up with spokes going the opposite direction to the rim hole orientation,
and the wheel couldn't be built.
The PMP hub's freebody has a thread pitch diameter
different from Shimano or Campagnolo lockrings—
it uses proprietary lockrings, so you're stuck using
the supplied part. Plus, it needs a special tool
that grips two of four holes, which is a pain.
It was put in a bag
and taped to the spoke area.
↑ That's the one.
The original lacing was 24-hole 4:0 lacing,
and the spokes were Richey's #14 plain spokes.
I've mentioned this before: among spoke brands that stamp their name,
Richey makes the lowest-grade spokes. They're based in the same location as Pillar.
The #14 plain spoke can be cut to any length with a spoke cutter,
so you only need to stock the longest length—
we only stock DT's Champion in 315mm.
But these spokes' threads didn't look finished properly.
Richey's plain spokes were stocked in various lengths.
I have no idea where they sell them.
It makes no sense to use such a crummy brand for hand-built wheel spokes.
Star spokes would honestly be better than Richey.
In its original state, the rim had shifted off-center,
loosened toward the non-drive side.
With equal-spoke-number non-drive-side radial lacing,
the #14 plain spoke has slack on the non-drive side anyway.
As mentioned, the hub shows no signs of use,
so this PMP hub is just sad—it only has the impression marks
from being built once with Richey spokes in 4:0 lacing.
I rebuilt it.
Customer-supplied Evolite hub
Campagnolo freebody spec, 24-hole,
semi-comp 4:6 lacing.
I'll do the wire-tying later.
Like Corima rims, this one is filled with polyurethane foam,
but not throughout the entire rim—just down to around the brake zone.
ZIPP had a similar rim design in the past.
Since I didn't feel this had much value as a post,
I'll just leave it as is.
This wheel had threadlocker compound applied excessively,
which made it difficult to loosen, and it was also tough
pulling the old spokes out of the rim.
Then the new spokes wouldn't fit into the rim holes.
With no prior experience of this, I suspected maybe
it was a rim with holes only for #15 spokes,
but checking the old spoke revealed it was definitely #14 plain.
The threadlocker around the nipples had leaked out
and clogged the rim holes.
After loosening about half the wheel's nipples to release tension,
I cut the spokes.
The spoke in the image above—one where I haven't loosened the nipple at all—
is way too long.
The hexagonal internal nipple has a washer attached,
and when you peel off the washer, solid threadlocker residue
remains like this.
Here are the original nipple and washer.
↑ This is the face that was pointing outward,
with a rounded nipple end, so it doesn't go straight
from the rim into the thread. This side should go
toward the inside of the rim.
↑ This is the face that was pointing inward in the original state.
It's a clean-cut surface where the thread starts immediately,
so orienting this toward the inside makes the spoke length tolerance
very tight. But if you use a washer, it becomes a recess dimension
and pairs well with this sharp edge—that seems to be the thinking.
That's fine in itself.
What's wrong is the spoke being excessively long
and the threadlocker being applied like crazy.
Since the spoke length was wrong, the threads were almost completely used up.
↑ This is the original internal nipple that came with
EDGE/ENVE rims.
The outer side has a nylon lock ring to prevent loosening,
so no one would get the orientation wrong.
This nipple has no recess dimension on the inside,
and EDGE/ENVE's inner rim hole wall is also thin,
so even at the very narrow proper spoke length
where the threads fully engage the nylon nut without bottoming out,
2 or so threads of the spoke often show from the rim.
People sometimes think the spoke length was chosen incorrectly short.
↑ This is the second-generation EDGE/ENVE internal nipple,
with the rounded side facing outward,
and a recess dimension on the inside.
This nipple is often installed backwards
when wheels are built.
Since the spokes wouldn't fit through the rim holes,
I took the cut #14 plain spoke from before, used it as a drill bit,
and reamed out the inner rim hole.
One more thing specific to this wheel:
the rim has buckled and warped in multiple places.
For example, at the location in the image above,
the rim profile is clearly not circular.
I went ahead and built the wheel anyway.
A customer—or rather, a senior in the industry and fellow mechanic—
left me a rear wheel built with a rim from the 4ZA brand.
They wanted me to rebuild it with a different hub,
but I thought, "Why not just do it yourself?"
Still, I went ahead and took the job.
The rim says "4ZA,"
but this is read as "Forza."
Similar examples include
ITM's two-bolt stem "Millennium" that became the four-bolt "Millennium 4EVER" (Forever),
and Cinelli's frame "XLR8R" (Accelerator).
4ZA is Ridley's parts brand, so
my Ridley cyclocross bike's front fork has the same logo.
But this rear wheel is definitely not
an off-the-shelf wheel that came stock on a Ridley complete bike.
The hub uses a PMP (PMP) Shimano freebody,
so its history is unclear, but
it's a hand-built wheel assembled with a 4ZA rim.
Though judging by the freebody, it shows virtually no signs of use.
They want me to rebuild it with a hub that has a Campagnolo freebody.
Originally they asked me to use a Campagnolo Record 32-hole hub
with this 24-hole rim, but I had to decline—
it's not feasible.
Plus, it would be wasteful to use such a nice Campagnolo hub for that.
Building a 2:1 pattern with a 32-hole hub on a 24-hole rim is technically possible.
This won't create phase twist.
Alternatively, you could do a 36-hole hub with skip-hole tangent lacing on both sides,
which causes minimal phase twist and is also possible.
With this particular rim, the latter is just barely feasible, but the former isn't.
This is an internal nipple rim,
and while there was some hole offset on the inner diameter side,
there's considerable offset on the outer diameter side.
Because of this strong offset,
you can't insert a tool from the opposite direction to turn the nipple.
So if you did a 2:1 pattern with a 32-hole hub,
you'd end up with spokes going the opposite direction to the rim hole orientation,
and the wheel couldn't be built.
The PMP hub's freebody has a thread pitch diameter
different from Shimano or Campagnolo lockrings—
it uses proprietary lockrings, so you're stuck using
the supplied part. Plus, it needs a special tool
that grips two of four holes, which is a pain.
It was put in a bag
and taped to the spoke area.
↑ That's the one.
The original lacing was 24-hole 4:0 lacing,
and the spokes were Richey's #14 plain spokes.
I've mentioned this before: among spoke brands that stamp their name,
Richey makes the lowest-grade spokes. They're based in the same location as Pillar.
The #14 plain spoke can be cut to any length with a spoke cutter,
so you only need to stock the longest length—
we only stock DT's Champion in 315mm.
But these spokes' threads didn't look finished properly.
Richey's plain spokes were stocked in various lengths.
I have no idea where they sell them.
It makes no sense to use such a crummy brand for hand-built wheel spokes.
Star spokes would honestly be better than Richey.
In its original state, the rim had shifted off-center,
loosened toward the non-drive side.
With equal-spoke-number non-drive-side radial lacing,
the #14 plain spoke has slack on the non-drive side anyway.
As mentioned, the hub shows no signs of use,
so this PMP hub is just sad—it only has the impression marks
from being built once with Richey spokes in 4:0 lacing.
I rebuilt it.
Customer-supplied Evolite hub
Campagnolo freebody spec, 24-hole,
semi-comp 4:6 lacing.
I'll do the wire-tying later.
Like Corima rims, this one is filled with polyurethane foam,
but not throughout the entire rim—just down to around the brake zone.
ZIPP had a similar rim design in the past.
Since I didn't feel this had much value as a post,
I'll just leave it as is.
This wheel had threadlocker compound applied excessively,
which made it difficult to loosen, and it was also tough
pulling the old spokes out of the rim.
Then the new spokes wouldn't fit into the rim holes.
With no prior experience of this, I suspected maybe
it was a rim with holes only for #15 spokes,
but checking the old spoke revealed it was definitely #14 plain.
The threadlocker around the nipples had leaked out
and clogged the rim holes.
After loosening about half the wheel's nipples to release tension,
I cut the spokes.
The spoke in the image above—one where I haven't loosened the nipple at all—
is way too long.
The hexagonal internal nipple has a washer attached,
and when you peel off the washer, solid threadlocker residue
remains like this.
Here are the original nipple and washer.
↑ This is the face that was pointing outward,
with a rounded nipple end, so it doesn't go straight
from the rim into the thread. This side should go
toward the inside of the rim.
↑ This is the face that was pointing inward in the original state.
It's a clean-cut surface where the thread starts immediately,
so orienting this toward the inside makes the spoke length tolerance
very tight. But if you use a washer, it becomes a recess dimension
and pairs well with this sharp edge—that seems to be the thinking.
That's fine in itself.
What's wrong is the spoke being excessively long
and the threadlocker being applied like crazy.
Since the spoke length was wrong, the threads were almost completely used up.
↑ This is the original internal nipple that came with
EDGE/ENVE rims.
The outer side has a nylon lock ring to prevent loosening,
so no one would get the orientation wrong.
This nipple has no recess dimension on the inside,
and EDGE/ENVE's inner rim hole wall is also thin,
so even at the very narrow proper spoke length
where the threads fully engage the nylon nut without bottoming out,
2 or so threads of the spoke often show from the rim.
People sometimes think the spoke length was chosen incorrectly short.
↑ This is the second-generation EDGE/ENVE internal nipple,
with the rounded side facing outward,
and a recess dimension on the inside.
This nipple is often installed backwards
when wheels are built.
Since the spokes wouldn't fit through the rim holes,
I took the cut #14 plain spoke from before, used it as a drill bit,
and reamed out the inner rim hole.
One more thing specific to this wheel:
the rim has buckled and warped in multiple places.
For example, at the location in the image above,
the rim profile is clearly not circular.
I went ahead and built the wheel anyway.