Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 is a wheel built with
Tni's AL22W rim—a brake zone-free,
all-black anodized rim—
↑this one
I haven't announced the price until now.
Our shop first stocked the AL22W disc-brake rim back in February 2019,
and it was before it was listed on the general retail site,
so it was the fastest arrival batch.
Then, I wrote in September 2019 that wheels built with the AL22W disc-brake rim
might henceforth be called Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8.
Regarding the price, I've received many inquiries like "tell us the price already, you idiot"
and "do you even want to do business, you moron,"
but there were two major reasons I deliberately didn't announce it.
The first reason is:
"If I announce the price of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8,
I'll have to raise the prices of the other Nomu Lab Wheels too."
Currently, the Nomu Lab Wheel pricing structure is
internally called the "third pricing," which I implemented on April 2, 2018.
I didn't do it on April 1st because I didn't want people to think
the price increase was an April Fools' joke.
Since 2018, wheel component prices have been raised
an uncountable number of times,
but I've kept Nomu Lab Wheel prices unchanged.
For the past two years or so, frankly speaking,
the pricing has been at a charitable level.
Until now, when I received orders for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8,
I calculated them based on third pricing,
but I'm planning to raise all Nomu Lab Wheels soon—
in other words, switch to fourth pricing—
and I'll announce the price then.
The second reason is that
parts supply wasn't stable.
The effects of that global pandemic certainly played a role.
There were times when Tni's Revo Disc hubs didn't arrive for six months,
or Sapim's CX Sprint spokes were out of stock for ten months,
making it impossible to build wheels even when I wanted to for extended periods.
Currently, that issue is resolved, at least for now.
As I write this,
Black CX Sprint butted
Black CX Sprint straight
Revo Disc rear hub for Shimano 11-speed
AL22W disc-brake rim 24H
and similar items are out of stock at the distributors
but we have them in our shop.
Regarding the freebody of the Revo Disc rear hub,
there are three specifications: Shimano 11-speed, Shimano 12-speed exclusive, and SRAM XDR.
The Shimano 11-speed version
doesn't come with the hub as standard,
but if you install a 1.85mm spacer,
it also works with 8-, 9-, and 10-speed.
In other words, it has backward compatibility.
Also, we've confirmed that this hub works with Shimano 12-speed cassettes,
and there are already numerous examples of this.
So it has forward compatibility too.
This is a Revo Disc hub with
the Shimano 12-speed exclusive freebody,
and only Shimano 12-speed cassettes can be installed on it.
There's a step near the beginning of the spline, but
11-speed cassettes can't fit through the spline itself before that step.
This isn't a major reason, but
the rim for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6 is
the same carbon tubular rim as Reynolds' 32,
and since Reynolds discontinued the 32,
we were able to get the unbranded version.
Reynolds' complete carbon rim wheels come with
blue brake pads marked "BRAKCO" (Brakco brand),
and officially you're supposed to use only those,
with no warranty for heat damage from other pads.
As a side note, I've never seen this brake pad brand called Brakco
anywhere except on Reynolds brake pads,
so I thought it was a brand created by Reynolds
specifically for complete wheels
(like the "Tactic Racing" hub on Princeton Wheels),
but since I've seen Brakco-branded disc rotors
at distributors unrelated to Reynolds,
it seems Brakco is actually a brake parts brand
independent of Reynolds.
When selling Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6,
I couldn't exactly say "it only works with Reynolds brake pads,"
so I gave a certain athlete who climbs Mt. Rokkō
dozens of times a year
(meaning he descends the same number of times)
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6 (tentative name),
Shimano carbon brake pads, and Swiss Stop Black Prince pads
to test the braking performance.
The result confirmed those two brake pads would work—
but that testing took about a year.
I recently built a disc brake bike for my own use,
partly because I wanted to build Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 myself
and verify various things.
Even from just test-riding customer bikes in front of the shop,
you notice a certain kind of quirk in the front wheel—
different handling in right corners versus left corners,
and that distinct, sluggish feel exacerbated by the stiffness of the carbon frame—
none of that exists in my personal Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 (self-praise).
My personal rear wheel deviates from the standard spec
(28H with Campagnolo/CX Sprint),
but the front wheel is almost identical (hub is an old Shimano R8170 Ultegra, not Revo Disc).
The aluminum rim models of Nomu Lab Wheels select rims with
excellent height-to-weight ratio for the price.
But if you ask whether Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 is
"the disc brake version of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5,"
the answer is no.
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5's rim is extremely narrow by today's standards
and doesn't support tubeless, but as a rim
"with a brake zone" in the clincher category,
it has the strength of being the lightest available
among current products (excluding discontinued items),
even compared to carbon rims.
However, Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8's rim is 22mm high and 445g,
so the height-to-weight ratio isn't exceptionally excellent.
Roval's CLX50 rim is 50mm high and 435g,
so the AL22W rim is slightly heavier
while being much lower in profile,
making it inferior in height-to-weight ratio.
As a complete wheel rather than rim alone,
Roval's CLX50 has such shoddy engineering between hub and rim
that Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 is frankly superior
in responsiveness and stiffness.
Tni has a 35mm carbon tubeless rim,
and this rim weighs about the same as the AL22W.
Yet the price is seven times higher,
so you certainly can't call it "excellent for the price."
That's why we'd never adopt such a rim for Nomu Lab Wheels.
I'm aware this isn't universally accepted thinking, but
I do believe: "If the rim is reasonably light and the wheel structure is stiff,
does it really matter if it looks like an aluminum rim?"
Customers often ask for "carbon rims" or "around 50mm height,"
and sometimes I respond by asking, "So as long as it looks like a carbon rim
or is 50mm high, weight doesn't matter?" Sometimes I don't say that,
because I don't think I should impose
my personal view or "Nomu Lab wheel philosophy"
on people who feel differently.
That said, I understand there are people willing to pay
seven times more for a Tni TL35 carbon rim
simply because it "looks like carbon"
despite weighing the same as an aluminum rim.
Later on, I've often seen customers buy expensive wheels
(by the "Nomu Lab wheel philosophy" standard)
that have neither light rims nor sound engineering as complete wheels.
My heart doesn't particularly ache about that.
When we ran a sale on Bora WTO wheels previously,
I didn't express my personal preference for the 33,
so I first stocked two of the supposedly more popular 45 disc in the shop.
Then the follow-up orders were one disc 33 and four rim 33s—
a 100% 33 rate—and seeing that made me think,
"Okay, these customers have decent taste."
Zonda rim brake wheels are,
aside from the slightly heavy rim due to the safety margins
needed for riders up to 100kg,
like "Bora with excellent braking but a heavy rim,"
and they're an excellent wheel.
I've often wondered why everyone buys wheels that don't roll as well as Zonda
and cost more than Zonda—though again, that's just my opinion.
With rim brakes, Bora One (35 or 50, depending on preference) and Zonda alone
should cover all your cycling needs,
and spoke supply is stable so you can fix them quickly.
Beyond that, if you don't hate exceptional stiffness,
Shamal Ultra or Racing Zero are decent options.
That said, I'll be somewhat underhanded about it:
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5 is marketed as "the strongest in its price range"
because among wheels at the same price point,
no other wheel exists with a lighter rim or
higher rear wheel stiffness (as complete wheels)
when excluding discontinued products.
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 also aims for a price where we can say
"there's no cheaper wheel that rolls better."
I personally would install Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8
even on a carbon road frame costing over 500,000 yen retail
(if I were buying one; with a complete wheel,
I'd choose Bora (non-Ultra) WTO 33 or Racing 25),
but as I mentioned, I'm aware that mindset isn't mainstream,
so I also recommend building wheels with rims that have
excellent height-to-weight ratio but are otherwise
identical to Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8.
The RR411db from the previous post
fits into this category.
The image above shows a front wheel
with Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 and RR411db rim,
and the specs aside from the rim are identical.
Though spoke length differs.
So whether I have candidates for lightweight carbon low-profile rims
or reasonably light 40mm or 50mm rims
to fit this "Nomu Lab method"... well,
I do have some prospects from Chinese carbon manufacturers,
but their quality control is questionable,
so it's impossible to release them as Nomu Lab Wheels.
Even with models 6 and 7 from LEW sources, it took over a year to bring them to market
Beyond that, I can recommend carbon rims sold through
Japanese import distributors or branded systems,
and recently everyone seems to be bringing in Gro-Tac rims.
↑Like when you ask a pachinko parlor employee where the exchange counter is
and they don't directly say but hint, "everyone tends to go that way"
The six-digit number is the rim's outer width/inner width/height
in millimeters lined up,
and the zero inner width in the 280030 shown above
indicates it's a tubular rim.
↑an example built with that tubular rim and Revo Disc hub
This wheel's specs aside from the rim
are identical to Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8.
If you want to refine rim lightness, spec, aero, appearance, etc. further,
the Revo Disc hubs come only in 24H for both wheels,
so please bring in a 24H rim of your choosing.
So, soon I'll announce the price of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8
and a rim-excluded version price
along with the Nomu Lab Wheel price increase.
Tni's AL22W rim—a brake zone-free,
all-black anodized rim—
↑this one
I haven't announced the price until now.
Our shop first stocked the AL22W disc-brake rim back in February 2019,
and it was before it was listed on the general retail site,
so it was the fastest arrival batch.
Then, I wrote in September 2019 that wheels built with the AL22W disc-brake rim
might henceforth be called Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8.
Regarding the price, I've received many inquiries like "tell us the price already, you idiot"
and "do you even want to do business, you moron,"
but there were two major reasons I deliberately didn't announce it.
The first reason is:
"If I announce the price of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8,
I'll have to raise the prices of the other Nomu Lab Wheels too."
Currently, the Nomu Lab Wheel pricing structure is
internally called the "third pricing," which I implemented on April 2, 2018.
I didn't do it on April 1st because I didn't want people to think
the price increase was an April Fools' joke.
Since 2018, wheel component prices have been raised
an uncountable number of times,
but I've kept Nomu Lab Wheel prices unchanged.
For the past two years or so, frankly speaking,
the pricing has been at a charitable level.
Until now, when I received orders for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8,
I calculated them based on third pricing,
but I'm planning to raise all Nomu Lab Wheels soon—
in other words, switch to fourth pricing—
and I'll announce the price then.
The second reason is that
parts supply wasn't stable.
The effects of that global pandemic certainly played a role.
There were times when Tni's Revo Disc hubs didn't arrive for six months,
or Sapim's CX Sprint spokes were out of stock for ten months,
making it impossible to build wheels even when I wanted to for extended periods.
Currently, that issue is resolved, at least for now.
As I write this,
Black CX Sprint butted
Black CX Sprint straight
Revo Disc rear hub for Shimano 11-speed
AL22W disc-brake rim 24H
and similar items are out of stock at the distributors
but we have them in our shop.
Regarding the freebody of the Revo Disc rear hub,
there are three specifications: Shimano 11-speed, Shimano 12-speed exclusive, and SRAM XDR.
The Shimano 11-speed version
doesn't come with the hub as standard,
but if you install a 1.85mm spacer,
it also works with 8-, 9-, and 10-speed.
In other words, it has backward compatibility.
Also, we've confirmed that this hub works with Shimano 12-speed cassettes,
and there are already numerous examples of this.
So it has forward compatibility too.
This is a Revo Disc hub with
the Shimano 12-speed exclusive freebody,
and only Shimano 12-speed cassettes can be installed on it.
There's a step near the beginning of the spline, but
11-speed cassettes can't fit through the spline itself before that step.
This isn't a major reason, but
the rim for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6 is
the same carbon tubular rim as Reynolds' 32,
and since Reynolds discontinued the 32,
we were able to get the unbranded version.
Reynolds' complete carbon rim wheels come with
blue brake pads marked "BRAKCO" (Brakco brand),
and officially you're supposed to use only those,
with no warranty for heat damage from other pads.
As a side note, I've never seen this brake pad brand called Brakco
anywhere except on Reynolds brake pads,
so I thought it was a brand created by Reynolds
specifically for complete wheels
(like the "Tactic Racing" hub on Princeton Wheels),
but since I've seen Brakco-branded disc rotors
at distributors unrelated to Reynolds,
it seems Brakco is actually a brake parts brand
independent of Reynolds.
When selling Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6,
I couldn't exactly say "it only works with Reynolds brake pads,"
so I gave a certain athlete who climbs Mt. Rokkō
dozens of times a year
(meaning he descends the same number of times)
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 6 (tentative name),
Shimano carbon brake pads, and Swiss Stop Black Prince pads
to test the braking performance.
The result confirmed those two brake pads would work—
but that testing took about a year.
I recently built a disc brake bike for my own use,
partly because I wanted to build Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 myself
and verify various things.
Even from just test-riding customer bikes in front of the shop,
you notice a certain kind of quirk in the front wheel—
different handling in right corners versus left corners,
and that distinct, sluggish feel exacerbated by the stiffness of the carbon frame—
none of that exists in my personal Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 (self-praise).
My personal rear wheel deviates from the standard spec
(28H with Campagnolo/CX Sprint),
but the front wheel is almost identical (hub is an old Shimano R8170 Ultegra, not Revo Disc).
The aluminum rim models of Nomu Lab Wheels select rims with
excellent height-to-weight ratio for the price.
But if you ask whether Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 is
"the disc brake version of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5,"
the answer is no.
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5's rim is extremely narrow by today's standards
and doesn't support tubeless, but as a rim
"with a brake zone" in the clincher category,
it has the strength of being the lightest available
among current products (excluding discontinued items),
even compared to carbon rims.
However, Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8's rim is 22mm high and 445g,
so the height-to-weight ratio isn't exceptionally excellent.
Roval's CLX50 rim is 50mm high and 435g,
so the AL22W rim is slightly heavier
while being much lower in profile,
making it inferior in height-to-weight ratio.
As a complete wheel rather than rim alone,
Roval's CLX50 has such shoddy engineering between hub and rim
that Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 is frankly superior
in responsiveness and stiffness.
Tni has a 35mm carbon tubeless rim,
and this rim weighs about the same as the AL22W.
Yet the price is seven times higher,
so you certainly can't call it "excellent for the price."
That's why we'd never adopt such a rim for Nomu Lab Wheels.
I'm aware this isn't universally accepted thinking, but
I do believe: "If the rim is reasonably light and the wheel structure is stiff,
does it really matter if it looks like an aluminum rim?"
Customers often ask for "carbon rims" or "around 50mm height,"
and sometimes I respond by asking, "So as long as it looks like a carbon rim
or is 50mm high, weight doesn't matter?" Sometimes I don't say that,
because I don't think I should impose
my personal view or "Nomu Lab wheel philosophy"
on people who feel differently.
That said, I understand there are people willing to pay
seven times more for a Tni TL35 carbon rim
simply because it "looks like carbon"
despite weighing the same as an aluminum rim.
Later on, I've often seen customers buy expensive wheels
(by the "Nomu Lab wheel philosophy" standard)
that have neither light rims nor sound engineering as complete wheels.
My heart doesn't particularly ache about that.
When we ran a sale on Bora WTO wheels previously,
I didn't express my personal preference for the 33,
so I first stocked two of the supposedly more popular 45 disc in the shop.
Then the follow-up orders were one disc 33 and four rim 33s—
a 100% 33 rate—and seeing that made me think,
"Okay, these customers have decent taste."
Zonda rim brake wheels are,
aside from the slightly heavy rim due to the safety margins
needed for riders up to 100kg,
like "Bora with excellent braking but a heavy rim,"
and they're an excellent wheel.
I've often wondered why everyone buys wheels that don't roll as well as Zonda
and cost more than Zonda—though again, that's just my opinion.
With rim brakes, Bora One (35 or 50, depending on preference) and Zonda alone
should cover all your cycling needs,
and spoke supply is stable so you can fix them quickly.
Beyond that, if you don't hate exceptional stiffness,
Shamal Ultra or Racing Zero are decent options.
That said, I'll be somewhat underhanded about it:
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5 is marketed as "the strongest in its price range"
because among wheels at the same price point,
no other wheel exists with a lighter rim or
higher rear wheel stiffness (as complete wheels)
when excluding discontinued products.
Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 also aims for a price where we can say
"there's no cheaper wheel that rolls better."
I personally would install Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8
even on a carbon road frame costing over 500,000 yen retail
(if I were buying one; with a complete wheel,
I'd choose Bora (non-Ultra) WTO 33 or Racing 25),
but as I mentioned, I'm aware that mindset isn't mainstream,
so I also recommend building wheels with rims that have
excellent height-to-weight ratio but are otherwise
identical to Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8.
The RR411db from the previous post
fits into this category.
The image above shows a front wheel
with Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 and RR411db rim,
and the specs aside from the rim are identical.
Though spoke length differs.
So whether I have candidates for lightweight carbon low-profile rims
or reasonably light 40mm or 50mm rims
to fit this "Nomu Lab method"... well,
I do have some prospects from Chinese carbon manufacturers,
but their quality control is questionable,
so it's impossible to release them as Nomu Lab Wheels.
Beyond that, I can recommend carbon rims sold through
Japanese import distributors or branded systems,
and recently everyone seems to be bringing in Gro-Tac rims.
↑Like when you ask a pachinko parlor employee where the exchange counter is
and they don't directly say but hint, "everyone tends to go that way"
The six-digit number is the rim's outer width/inner width/height
in millimeters lined up,
and the zero inner width in the 280030 shown above
indicates it's a tubular rim.
↑an example built with that tubular rim and Revo Disc hub
This wheel's specs aside from the rim
are identical to Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8.
If you want to refine rim lightness, spec, aero, appearance, etc. further,
the Revo Disc hubs come only in 24H for both wheels,
so please bring in a 24H rim of your choosing.
So, soon I'll announce the price of Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8
and a rim-excluded version price
along with the Nomu Lab Wheel price increase.