Another day working on wheels (and so on).
A customer brought in a rear wheel built with a Tni 38mm high carbon tubular rim
(the non-wide version).
It's the same rim as Nomu Lab Wheel #2.
According to the customer, it was built at a local shop nearby,
but compared to a Bora One tubular
the spoke tension wasn't as good,
so they asked if I could rebuild it to improve it.
FH-9000, 24H, all CX-RAY, 6-cross Italian lacing.
When building 24H with equal numbers on both sides,
4-cross lacing is usually the standard,
so I'm not sure what the intention was for 6-cross.
However, it worked out well for us with minimal waste when rebuilding.
If it were all CX-RAY 4-cross,
going to half-competizione 4-6 lacing would mean
different gauge on the freewheel side and different length on the non-freewheel side,
requiring complete spoke replacement on both sides.
But with all CX-RAY 6-cross,
we can reuse the non-freewheel side spokes as-is,
as long as the length matches.
The original wheel build was almost perfectly centered,
with the rim drifted about a paper's thickness to the right,
but this appears to be wear from use—it was probably
perfectly centered when originally built.
The tension was a bit loose,
but with the all CX-RAY 6-cross lacing remaining as-is,
even after re-tensioning,
there's only so much runout correction and spoke flex we can achieve.
When I pulled out one freewheel-side spoke to check,
it was about 2mm longer than my calculated length,
and was appropriate for the 6-spoke non-freewheel side.
This raised two possibilities:
・Building with the same length spokes on both sides,
using the non-freewheel side length as the standard
・Using different lengths on each side, but both about 2mm longer
When I checked the non-freewheel side spokes, it was the latter.
This meant the original freewheel-side spokes could be reused
as non-freewheel-side spokes in the rebuild.
The original non-freewheel-side spokes, if trimmed 2mm,
can be used as replacement spokes for the
non-freewheel side of the rebuilt wheel, so I'm returning them to the customer.
I carefully disassembled the wheel almost completely,
and toward the end pulled out nipples that hadn't been loosened at all
from outside the rim. Since the spokes are on the longer side,
the threads are almost completely used up—
I made sure to show this to the customer as well.
Oh, I forgot to mention—this wheel was
rebuilt right in front of a customer who had come from Shizuoka Prefecture.
Built.
FH-9000, 24H, half-competizione 4-6 lacing with lacing wire.
The spoke tension on the non-freewheel side (technically, resistance to deformation)
was slightly higher than before the rebuild, and I confirmed with the customer
that it was nearly perfectly centered radially and laterally.
However, in that state the rim was drifting significantly to the right.
From there, using only non-freewheel-side re-tensioning to center it was the
re-tensioning bonus from changing from equal-diameter, equal-spoke lacing
to unequal-diameter, unequal-spoke lacing—
I explained this to the customer
(the result was re-tensioning the nipple by about 1.75 turns).
After finishing the wheel build,
I added a lacing wire at just one location on the final non-freewheel-side crossing,
and we confirmed that even without lacing wire there was a dramatic difference
from before the rebuild,
and with or without the lacing wire there was also a dramatic difference.
A customer brought in a rear wheel built with a Tni 38mm high carbon tubular rim
(the non-wide version).
It's the same rim as Nomu Lab Wheel #2.
According to the customer, it was built at a local shop nearby,
but compared to a Bora One tubular
the spoke tension wasn't as good,
so they asked if I could rebuild it to improve it.
FH-9000, 24H, all CX-RAY, 6-cross Italian lacing.
When building 24H with equal numbers on both sides,
4-cross lacing is usually the standard,
so I'm not sure what the intention was for 6-cross.
However, it worked out well for us with minimal waste when rebuilding.
If it were all CX-RAY 4-cross,
going to half-competizione 4-6 lacing would mean
different gauge on the freewheel side and different length on the non-freewheel side,
requiring complete spoke replacement on both sides.
But with all CX-RAY 6-cross,
we can reuse the non-freewheel side spokes as-is,
as long as the length matches.
The original wheel build was almost perfectly centered,
with the rim drifted about a paper's thickness to the right,
but this appears to be wear from use—it was probably
perfectly centered when originally built.
The tension was a bit loose,
but with the all CX-RAY 6-cross lacing remaining as-is,
even after re-tensioning,
there's only so much runout correction and spoke flex we can achieve.
When I pulled out one freewheel-side spoke to check,
it was about 2mm longer than my calculated length,
and was appropriate for the 6-spoke non-freewheel side.
This raised two possibilities:
・Building with the same length spokes on both sides,
using the non-freewheel side length as the standard
・Using different lengths on each side, but both about 2mm longer
When I checked the non-freewheel side spokes, it was the latter.
This meant the original freewheel-side spokes could be reused
as non-freewheel-side spokes in the rebuild.
The original non-freewheel-side spokes, if trimmed 2mm,
can be used as replacement spokes for the
non-freewheel side of the rebuilt wheel, so I'm returning them to the customer.
I carefully disassembled the wheel almost completely,
and toward the end pulled out nipples that hadn't been loosened at all
from outside the rim. Since the spokes are on the longer side,
the threads are almost completely used up—
I made sure to show this to the customer as well.
Oh, I forgot to mention—this wheel was
rebuilt right in front of a customer who had come from Shizuoka Prefecture.
Built.
FH-9000, 24H, half-competizione 4-6 lacing with lacing wire.
The spoke tension on the non-freewheel side (technically, resistance to deformation)
was slightly higher than before the rebuild, and I confirmed with the customer
that it was nearly perfectly centered radially and laterally.
However, in that state the rim was drifting significantly to the right.
From there, using only non-freewheel-side re-tensioning to center it was the
re-tensioning bonus from changing from equal-diameter, equal-spoke lacing
to unequal-diameter, unequal-spoke lacing—
I explained this to the customer
(the result was re-tensioning the nipple by about 1.75 turns).
After finishing the wheel build,
I added a lacing wire at just one location on the final non-freewheel-side crossing,
and we confirmed that even without lacing wire there was a dramatic difference
from before the rebuild,
and with or without the lacing wire there was also a dramatic difference.