Late last year when a customer from far away
came directly to the shop,
they knocked over the front wheel of a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5
and it got bent, so they said
they'd send it in for repair.
At that time they told me things like,
your assembled wheels run better than Gasoline Alley's wheels,
Gasoline Alley's wheels are soldered but they're totally soft,
and it's a shame you're not doing better marketing,
sort of comments.
I see, so I need to become more notorious.
Anyway, a few days later a wheel box arrived
but inside it wasn't the Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5
but a Gasoline Alley wheel that needed rebuilding.
Apparently they wanted me to do that one first.
So today it's wheels again (et cetera).
A customer entrusted me with
a front wheel built with a Stans ZTR Alpha 340 rim.
Evo hub, 24H, black, 4-cross Italian lacing.
At the time this wheel was built,
when the DT distributor we were dealing with
was in a different period than now,
the nipples that came with DT spokes
for Champion were silver brass nipples
whether they were silver or black spokes.
For Competition,
silver spokes came with silver brass,
black spokes came with black aluminum nipples.
The price difference between DT's brass nipples and aluminum nipples
is extremely large, but
the price difference between silver and black Competition at that time
considering the nipple spec difference
worked out to where you could get
black aluminum nipples cheaper than
buying nipples alone.
For Revolution,
silver spokes come with silver aluminum,
black spokes come with black aluminum nipples.
By the way, Champion and Competition
were sold in boxes of 100 spokes,
but Revolution came in boxes of 72
and always had aluminum nipple specs,
so the box weight was completely different.
Because of the difference in quantity, it felt lighter than it actually was.
Now with this wheel,
for some reason it was built with
14mm long silver aluminum nipples that come with Sapim CX-RAY.
Speaking of Sapim, I remember that
Gasoline Alley, for a 20-spoke bag of CX-RAY
when ordering just 12 spokes for one side of a 24H rear wheel,
they'd have to order in units of 20 spokes, so
they'd charge the customer for 20 spokes,
and the shop would pocket the unused 8 spokes—
a pretty shady move.
There is lacing, but when I wiggle it
there are spots where the final cross position wavers,
so it doesn't mean much.
At our shop we call it getting "squiggly"
when spokes undergo plastic deformation in the elongation direction due to yielding,
but Gasoline Alley once
used that term from our shop
and bragged that "our wheels don't get squiggly."
Most of those simply weren't tensioned
up to the squiggly threshold,
and this wheel was the same.
Even accounting for possible tension loss over time, it's way too soft,
and without lacing it seems like it wouldn't even meet
the minimum threshold to function as a wheel.
Separately, this rim can't handle much tension.
The manufacturer says it can go up to 125 kgf, but that's impossible.
Even if you build it at 125 kgf, you won't crack the rim holes
at the time of assembly,
but cracks will definitely develop eventually.
Now, is the original state of this wheel
intentionally built soft with that in mind?
No, that's not it either.
Simply, they just can't build a decent wheel.
This rim is the late-type model with large "Alpha 340" markings
so it's somewhat more durable,
but still can't handle as much tension as a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5.
For information on the rim hole thickness differences between early and late models
（→see here）.
There was one spot with a noticeable runout,
so I positioned the truing gauge 90° away from that
and it was slightly off.
The reason I'm shooting from further back than usual is
because Italian lacing provides left-right reference.
Something like a thread-locking compound had been applied—
not the super-hard kind though.
This just fills the gingival pockets of the nipple
to make initial loosening less likely,
and as you can see, hardly any remains on the threads.
After just breaking initial looseness with a nipple wrench,
I could unscrew it afterward with just finger pressure.
Built.
CX-RAY, 4-cross Italian lacing.
I'm not doing lacing.
Unless you absolutely want maximum stiffness on a track wheel,
there's no need for lacing on a front wheel without eyelets.
The nipples are DT 12mm aluminum.
Oddly enough, before and after rebuilding,
the spoke and nipple manufacturers reversed.
before
after
The original spoke length was
a bit short of the nipple slot opening,
and I lengthened the spoke by just 0.5mm more than the original,
but because the nipple seating depth is different,
it ended up assembled roughly flush with the end face.
This was expected.
came directly to the shop,
they knocked over the front wheel of a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5
and it got bent, so they said
they'd send it in for repair.
At that time they told me things like,
your assembled wheels run better than Gasoline Alley's wheels,
Gasoline Alley's wheels are soldered but they're totally soft,
and it's a shame you're not doing better marketing,
sort of comments.
I see, so I need to become more notorious.
Anyway, a few days later a wheel box arrived
but inside it wasn't the Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5
but a Gasoline Alley wheel that needed rebuilding.
Apparently they wanted me to do that one first.
So today it's wheels again (et cetera).
A customer entrusted me with
a front wheel built with a Stans ZTR Alpha 340 rim.
Evo hub, 24H, black, 4-cross Italian lacing.
At the time this wheel was built,
when the DT distributor we were dealing with
was in a different period than now,
the nipples that came with DT spokes
for Champion were silver brass nipples
whether they were silver or black spokes.
For Competition,
silver spokes came with silver brass,
black spokes came with black aluminum nipples.
The price difference between DT's brass nipples and aluminum nipples
is extremely large, but
the price difference between silver and black Competition at that time
considering the nipple spec difference
worked out to where you could get
black aluminum nipples cheaper than
buying nipples alone.
For Revolution,
silver spokes come with silver aluminum,
black spokes come with black aluminum nipples.
By the way, Champion and Competition
were sold in boxes of 100 spokes,
but Revolution came in boxes of 72
and always had aluminum nipple specs,
so the box weight was completely different.
Because of the difference in quantity, it felt lighter than it actually was.
Now with this wheel,
for some reason it was built with
14mm long silver aluminum nipples that come with Sapim CX-RAY.
Speaking of Sapim, I remember that
Gasoline Alley, for a 20-spoke bag of CX-RAY
when ordering just 12 spokes for one side of a 24H rear wheel,
they'd have to order in units of 20 spokes, so
they'd charge the customer for 20 spokes,
and the shop would pocket the unused 8 spokes—
a pretty shady move.
There is lacing, but when I wiggle it
there are spots where the final cross position wavers,
so it doesn't mean much.
At our shop we call it getting "squiggly"
when spokes undergo plastic deformation in the elongation direction due to yielding,
but Gasoline Alley once
used that term from our shop
and bragged that "our wheels don't get squiggly."
Most of those simply weren't tensioned
up to the squiggly threshold,
and this wheel was the same.
Even accounting for possible tension loss over time, it's way too soft,
and without lacing it seems like it wouldn't even meet
the minimum threshold to function as a wheel.
Separately, this rim can't handle much tension.
The manufacturer says it can go up to 125 kgf, but that's impossible.
Even if you build it at 125 kgf, you won't crack the rim holes
at the time of assembly,
but cracks will definitely develop eventually.
Now, is the original state of this wheel
intentionally built soft with that in mind?
No, that's not it either.
Simply, they just can't build a decent wheel.
This rim is the late-type model with large "Alpha 340" markings
so it's somewhat more durable,
but still can't handle as much tension as a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5.
For information on the rim hole thickness differences between early and late models
（→see here）.
There was one spot with a noticeable runout,
so I positioned the truing gauge 90° away from that
and it was slightly off.
The reason I'm shooting from further back than usual is
because Italian lacing provides left-right reference.
Something like a thread-locking compound had been applied—
not the super-hard kind though.
This just fills the gingival pockets of the nipple
to make initial loosening less likely,
and as you can see, hardly any remains on the threads.
After just breaking initial looseness with a nipple wrench,
I could unscrew it afterward with just finger pressure.
Built.
CX-RAY, 4-cross Italian lacing.
I'm not doing lacing.
Unless you absolutely want maximum stiffness on a track wheel,
there's no need for lacing on a front wheel without eyelets.
The nipples are DT 12mm aluminum.
Oddly enough, before and after rebuilding,
the spoke and nipple manufacturers reversed.
before
after
The original spoke length was
a bit short of the nipple slot opening,
and I lengthened the spoke by just 0.5mm more than the original,
but because the nipple seating depth is different,
it ended up assembled roughly flush with the end face.
This was expected.