A while back, I did an inspection on the first-generation New Cleon, also known as Nucleon, including rim cement bed removal,
and the same customer also left me a Hyperon,
so I was planning to service it after the Nucleon, but
my 5mm hex nipple wrench broke,
so I had to wait for the new tool (same as the original) to arrive
before I could get to work.
The image above is the new one I picked up.
The Park Tool driver-type nipple wrench
has handles that deteriorate over time.
↑compared to the deteriorated one, it looks like this
The size printed on the tip end is
a relatively recent addition.
Among the driver-type nipple wrenches we have in stock,
except for the newly acquired 5mm version,
none of them have this printing.
Park Tool driver-type nipple wrenches
come in five sizes,
and they're managed under the acronym SW for SpokeWrench.
SW-16 is a 3.2mm square for inverted-style nipples,
SW-17 is 5mm hex,
SW-18 is 5.5mm hex,
and SW-19 is 6mm hex.
SW-16.3 is for 3/16-inch hex,
which converts to 4.7625mm,
and this applies to the first and second generation hex nipples that came with EDGE/ENVE rims.
On this subject, I didn't intentionally cut corners—
I mistakenly thought "these are 5mm hex but have loose tolerances,"
and apparently a lot of wheels have been built with 5mm hex
without anyone realizing the actual difference.
In reality, if you're careful, it's possible to build a wheel using a 5mm SW-17
without leaving marks from a wrench slipping.
As for SW-16, there are more user-friendly tools for 3.2mm square,
so I don't use it anymore.
Also, if it looks like there are six tools in the picture,
that's just a visual illusion.
The plastic tape applied tightly and positioned like a flag
is a rotation angle guide.
Especially when you need to turn it exactly n rotations,
having this marker makes a huge difference in work accuracy.
Vinyl tape would slip, so I use plastic tape bonded with instant adhesive.
Getting back to the Hyperon,
before inspection, I checked the consistency of label orientation.
The image above shows the left side of the Hyperon's rear rim,
which has an extremely pronounced offset shape with a sharp brake zone,
so the WARNING sticker, which is usually applied to the left side,
is always applied to the right side on the Hyperon.
Campagnolo wheels from this era have
the manufacturer/model name markings at the same phase on both sides,
so viewing the rear wheel from the right side (freewheel side)
at the top, 12 o'clock position on a clock face,
Campagnolo reads correctly oriented,
then at the bottom, 6 o'clock position,
Hyperon reads correctly oriented.
From here, checking the valve hole position,
it was at the 3 o'clock position.
Next, I removed both dust caps from the front wheel,
treating the side without the cone locknut as the right side.
The cone locknut side is treated as the left side.
When viewing the front wheel from the right side and aligning
the Campagnolo/Hyperon markings on both wheels
to read correctly,
the front wheel valve hole is at the 9 o'clock position.
Viewing the rear rim from the right side,
the rim specification sticker is
correctly oriented, but
when viewing the front rim from the right side,
it's backwards.
This could be solved by swapping the hub axle orientation,
but
the carbon front hubs on Hyperons and Boras from this era
have a cutout on the cone locknut fixing bolt
for Allen key access,
so the hub axle sides cannot be swapped
(even though the bolt torque isn't very high, and technically I could loosen it with a ball-point wrench
to reverse the sides, but I'd rather not).
Well, in that case, if I just install the dust caps,
the hub internals become indistinguishable,
so treating the front wheel's cone locknut side as the right side
would put WARNING on the right for both wheels,
and the rim markings would also align,
so this might actually be the better compromise
with more consistency overall.
Also, if I were to flip the front wheel while keeping the Campagnolo/Hyperon markings correctly oriented,
I'd rotate it around a horizontal axis through the 3 and 9 o'clock positions,
so the front wheel valve hole would still be at 9 o'clock.
So even if I completely disassembled and rebuilt the front wheel,
perfect alignment of the rear wheel's rim markings and valve hole positions
is impossible with this wheel combination.
I could change the rim sticker, but that's not ideal...
↑this is the second time I'm showing the same image in this post, but
this sticker is a single piece covering both sides,
applied over the rim holes when the rim is still separate,
and the holes are opened later with spokes during wheel building,
so replacing it would require disassembling part of the wheel.
Treating the front wheel's cone locknut side as
the right side, with the valve hole at 12 o'clock,
the right WARNING sticker and
valve hole positions align,
and at 3 o'clock, it looks like this.
As I mentioned before,
this seems like a reasonable compromise.
The dust caps had become brittle with age, so
both cracked.
Since this is my blunder,
I won't charge the customer for the replacement.
Well, I have spares in stock,
so I can proceed without hesitation.
On the front wheel, the rim was slightly offset to the opposite side of the cone locknut.
What concerned me more was that there was radial runout
and the spoke tension was abnormally low.
If the radial runout was a result of amateur truing attempts,
that would mean someone was truing by loosening—
but that's pretty much impossible.
This was definitely tension loss over time, with different rates of loss on different spokes,
which resulted in the radial runout.
Rather than tensioning excessively,
I just brought it back to match a new Hyperon's hanging tension,
but even then I tightened all the nipples by exactly one full rotation as a baseline.
Then after fine-tuning for radial and lateral truing,
luckily, centering came out perfect.
I installed the dust caps.
In this image,
you can't tell which side has the cone locknut,
or which positions the valve hole and WARNING sticker are at
outside the frame.
Next, the rear wheel.
The rear wheel didn't have tension loss nearly as dramatic as the front.
I did tighten nipples, but didn't go around doing a full rotation on all of them.
There's a center offset toward the right side that appears to be from age,
but if the tension had dropped like the front,
it would have been much more pronounced.
Also, there was almost no radial runout.
This Hyperon rear wheel has an extremely pronounced asymmetric spoke build,
with a higher spoke weight ratio on the freewheel side,
which might be related to why the tension loss differs from the front.
I completed the truing and centering.
and the same customer also left me a Hyperon,
so I was planning to service it after the Nucleon, but
my 5mm hex nipple wrench broke,
so I had to wait for the new tool (same as the original) to arrive
before I could get to work.
The image above is the new one I picked up.
The Park Tool driver-type nipple wrench
has handles that deteriorate over time.
↑compared to the deteriorated one, it looks like this
The size printed on the tip end is
a relatively recent addition.
Among the driver-type nipple wrenches we have in stock,
except for the newly acquired 5mm version,
none of them have this printing.
Park Tool driver-type nipple wrenches
come in five sizes,
and they're managed under the acronym SW for SpokeWrench.
SW-16 is a 3.2mm square for inverted-style nipples,
SW-17 is 5mm hex,
SW-18 is 5.5mm hex,
and SW-19 is 6mm hex.
SW-16.3 is for 3/16-inch hex,
which converts to 4.7625mm,
and this applies to the first and second generation hex nipples that came with EDGE/ENVE rims.
On this subject, I didn't intentionally cut corners—
I mistakenly thought "these are 5mm hex but have loose tolerances,"
and apparently a lot of wheels have been built with 5mm hex
without anyone realizing the actual difference.
In reality, if you're careful, it's possible to build a wheel using a 5mm SW-17
without leaving marks from a wrench slipping.
As for SW-16, there are more user-friendly tools for 3.2mm square,
so I don't use it anymore.
Also, if it looks like there are six tools in the picture,
that's just a visual illusion.
The plastic tape applied tightly and positioned like a flag
is a rotation angle guide.
Especially when you need to turn it exactly n rotations,
having this marker makes a huge difference in work accuracy.
Vinyl tape would slip, so I use plastic tape bonded with instant adhesive.
Getting back to the Hyperon,
before inspection, I checked the consistency of label orientation.
The image above shows the left side of the Hyperon's rear rim,
which has an extremely pronounced offset shape with a sharp brake zone,
so the WARNING sticker, which is usually applied to the left side,
is always applied to the right side on the Hyperon.
Campagnolo wheels from this era have
the manufacturer/model name markings at the same phase on both sides,
so viewing the rear wheel from the right side (freewheel side)
at the top, 12 o'clock position on a clock face,
Campagnolo reads correctly oriented,
then at the bottom, 6 o'clock position,
Hyperon reads correctly oriented.
From here, checking the valve hole position,
it was at the 3 o'clock position.
Next, I removed both dust caps from the front wheel,
treating the side without the cone locknut as the right side.
The cone locknut side is treated as the left side.
When viewing the front wheel from the right side and aligning
the Campagnolo/Hyperon markings on both wheels
to read correctly,
the front wheel valve hole is at the 9 o'clock position.
Viewing the rear rim from the right side,
the rim specification sticker is
correctly oriented, but
when viewing the front rim from the right side,
it's backwards.
This could be solved by swapping the hub axle orientation,
but
the carbon front hubs on Hyperons and Boras from this era
have a cutout on the cone locknut fixing bolt
for Allen key access,
so the hub axle sides cannot be swapped
(even though the bolt torque isn't very high, and technically I could loosen it with a ball-point wrench
to reverse the sides, but I'd rather not).
Well, in that case, if I just install the dust caps,
the hub internals become indistinguishable,
so treating the front wheel's cone locknut side as the right side
would put WARNING on the right for both wheels,
and the rim markings would also align,
so this might actually be the better compromise
with more consistency overall.
Also, if I were to flip the front wheel while keeping the Campagnolo/Hyperon markings correctly oriented,
I'd rotate it around a horizontal axis through the 3 and 9 o'clock positions,
so the front wheel valve hole would still be at 9 o'clock.
So even if I completely disassembled and rebuilt the front wheel,
perfect alignment of the rear wheel's rim markings and valve hole positions
is impossible with this wheel combination.
I could change the rim sticker, but that's not ideal...
↑this is the second time I'm showing the same image in this post, but
this sticker is a single piece covering both sides,
applied over the rim holes when the rim is still separate,
and the holes are opened later with spokes during wheel building,
so replacing it would require disassembling part of the wheel.
Treating the front wheel's cone locknut side as
the right side, with the valve hole at 12 o'clock,
the right WARNING sticker and
valve hole positions align,
and at 3 o'clock, it looks like this.
As I mentioned before,
this seems like a reasonable compromise.
The dust caps had become brittle with age, so
both cracked.
Since this is my blunder,
I won't charge the customer for the replacement.
Well, I have spares in stock,
so I can proceed without hesitation.
On the front wheel, the rim was slightly offset to the opposite side of the cone locknut.
What concerned me more was that there was radial runout
and the spoke tension was abnormally low.
If the radial runout was a result of amateur truing attempts,
that would mean someone was truing by loosening—
but that's pretty much impossible.
This was definitely tension loss over time, with different rates of loss on different spokes,
which resulted in the radial runout.
Rather than tensioning excessively,
I just brought it back to match a new Hyperon's hanging tension,
but even then I tightened all the nipples by exactly one full rotation as a baseline.
Then after fine-tuning for radial and lateral truing,
luckily, centering came out perfect.
I installed the dust caps.
In this image,
you can't tell which side has the cone locknut,
or which positions the valve hole and WARNING sticker are at
outside the frame.
Next, the rear wheel.
The rear wheel didn't have tension loss nearly as dramatic as the front.
I did tighten nipples, but didn't go around doing a full rotation on all of them.
There's a center offset toward the right side that appears to be from age,
but if the tension had dropped like the front,
it would have been much more pronounced.
Also, there was almost no radial runout.
This Hyperon rear wheel has an extremely pronounced asymmetric spoke build,
with a higher spoke weight ratio on the freewheel side,
which might be related to why the tension loss differs from the front.
I completed the truing and centering.