Today, a customer (sort of) brought in a Mavic open rim and a bundle of spokes.
"Open" refers to a rim model called OPEN that Mavic made as the predecessor to the Open Pro.
They wanted me to measure the inner diameter of that rim and separately figure out the spoke length needed for building wheels with an Arai Aero 4 rim and a 7400 hub.
So I checked the required spoke length and investigated the provenance of the spoke bundle.
This customer (sort of) can build wheels themselves.
The spoke bundle included some DT Revolution based on the #15, but mostly they were Hoshi brand Aero Starbrite (Aero SB) spokes.
↑A bundle of Aero Starbrite Type III, or Aero SB3, from among them.
The Aero SB3 is a square aero spoke that passes through the round hole of universal hubs.
Starbrite has a capital H mark on the spoke head, while stainless has a ☆ (star mark).
Although Aero SB does exist, there is no such thing as Aero stainless.
So the marking is always an H.
However, this Aero SB3 has mixed batches from different eras, and the embossing height of the H differs (see image above).
The lower-height ones aren't just worn down—the vertical stroke of the H is also shorter, suggesting the stamping dies themselves are different.
But the magnetic properties were the same.
Both react powerfully to a magnet—snap right on!
Also, star brand aero spokes only vary in the length of the flattened butted section depending on the machining equipment, so depending on the length, the round spoke sections at both ends of the butted portion can look awkwardly long, or they can differ greatly even with just a 2mm difference in butted section length.
But this bundle of spokes with the different markings had the same butted section range, perhaps because they were the same length.
↑This is Aero Starbrite Type I, or Aero SB1.
The Aero SB1 and SB2 have identical flattened butted section dimensions.
The Aero SB2 has the same H-marked spoke head as the Aero SB3, but can only pass through flanges with slots.
The Aero SB1 has a crank-shaped spoke end that hooks onto the hub flange, allowing wheels to be built with round-hole flanged hubs.
Oh, by the way, the round spoke section of this Aero SB1 on the hub side is "awkwardly long."
I tried threading outpokes through a Toni front hub.
Radial lacing is better done with outpokes.
Tangential lacing is also possible, but you have to accommodate the fairly outward-directed orientation of inpokes.
When I tried to thread inpokes through the freehub flange of a 660 rear hub, they interfered with the hub body.
I suspect there are quite a few hubs where the Aero SB1 can't be used.
The Aero SB1 and SB2 have HOSHI embossed lettering on the butted section, and this is a shot of a relatively better example from today's spokes,
but I noticed several with the HOSHI lettering shifted downward,
and many had the top of the fourth H's horizontal bar unclear, looking like a ladder.
What surprised me is that these spokes barely react to a magnet.
I wrote earlier that star brand aero spokes only come as Aero Starbrite, but that was just my assumption—there seem to be exceptions.
In the case of Type I, since there's no spoke head, I can't confirm that H marking = Starbrite.
Well, I have evidence at my shop of fraudulent spokes with an H marking but stainless material from the same company, so there's no guarantee that Hoshi Spokes will make genuine Starbrrite just because it has an H marking.
↑This is my personal Aero SB2, but
(again, the round section on the hub side is awkwardly long),
with three of the flat sections lined up like a cliff face, a magnet-tipped rod snaps right on!
Actually, even just one sticks, and it sticks not just to the long side of the flattened butted section but also to the short side (the blade side).
But with this Aero stainless I (or whatever we should call it), a magnet-tipped rod showed no attraction at all to the three-spoke cliff face like in the image above.
This magnet-tipped rod is used for nipple or rim replacement on wheels like Racing Zero or Bora, but I also use it to check spoke magnetism.
↑The top image is fake Aero SB1 (I'll call it that), and the bottom is Aero SB3.
The Aero SB3 shows some light rust, whereas the fake Aero SB1 has a stainless-like luster and no rust at all.
↑This is Aero SB3
↑This is also Aero SB3
↑This is my personal Aero SB2, awkward round section aside, with clean marking and good magnet response.
↑This is also my personal Aero SB2.
This one has maximum awkwardness.
But the marking is clean and the magnet sticks (and so on).
↑This is also my personal Aero SB2, but despite being the same spoke length (of course, uncut), the round section length differs—pretty sloppy!
If these go into a radial front wheel, the uneven lighting of the spokes around the hub when the wheel spins is really noticeable, so you have to be careful not to mix them up.
But the marking is clean (and so on).
The so-called Aero SB types 1 and 2 seem to allow you to judge manufacturing era by the sharpness of the HOSHI embossing, especially whether the fourth H is clean, and dirty ones are questionable as genuine Starbrrite.
The bundle of spokes today's customer (sort of) brought was quite substantial, and I've only posted some of it, but the Aero SB2 and SB3 were all genuine Starbrrite, and the only ones with virtually no magnet response were the fake Aero SB1.
Well, I suspect all Hoshi spokes anyway.
Once a maker has done me dirty once, I can never trust them again.
I've even seen rear wheels marked with H on both sides as claimed Starbrrite, with left and right spoke length properly set to 2mm difference, but only one side—say just the freehub side—sticks to a magnet.
This means only the freehub side length was genuine.
To my knowledge, there is one exception where claimed Starbrrite spokes are 100% Starbrrite.
That's NJS-certified spokes for track racing.
On this I have two theories: one is that track racers are generally savvy about equipment and can't be fooled, so they do proper work; the other is that NJS spokes are just selling old stock made in bulk long ago, back when they still did honest manufacturing.
I think the latter scenario is unlikely.
"Open" refers to a rim model called OPEN that Mavic made as the predecessor to the Open Pro.
They wanted me to measure the inner diameter of that rim and separately figure out the spoke length needed for building wheels with an Arai Aero 4 rim and a 7400 hub.
So I checked the required spoke length and investigated the provenance of the spoke bundle.
This customer (sort of) can build wheels themselves.
The spoke bundle included some DT Revolution based on the #15, but mostly they were Hoshi brand Aero Starbrite (Aero SB) spokes.
↑A bundle of Aero Starbrite Type III, or Aero SB3, from among them.
The Aero SB3 is a square aero spoke that passes through the round hole of universal hubs.
Starbrite has a capital H mark on the spoke head, while stainless has a ☆ (star mark).
Although Aero SB does exist, there is no such thing as Aero stainless.
So the marking is always an H.
However, this Aero SB3 has mixed batches from different eras, and the embossing height of the H differs (see image above).
The lower-height ones aren't just worn down—the vertical stroke of the H is also shorter, suggesting the stamping dies themselves are different.
But the magnetic properties were the same.
Both react powerfully to a magnet—snap right on!
Also, star brand aero spokes only vary in the length of the flattened butted section depending on the machining equipment, so depending on the length, the round spoke sections at both ends of the butted portion can look awkwardly long, or they can differ greatly even with just a 2mm difference in butted section length.
But this bundle of spokes with the different markings had the same butted section range, perhaps because they were the same length.
↑This is Aero Starbrite Type I, or Aero SB1.
The Aero SB1 and SB2 have identical flattened butted section dimensions.
The Aero SB2 has the same H-marked spoke head as the Aero SB3, but can only pass through flanges with slots.
The Aero SB1 has a crank-shaped spoke end that hooks onto the hub flange, allowing wheels to be built with round-hole flanged hubs.
Oh, by the way, the round spoke section of this Aero SB1 on the hub side is "awkwardly long."
I tried threading outpokes through a Toni front hub.
Radial lacing is better done with outpokes.
Tangential lacing is also possible, but you have to accommodate the fairly outward-directed orientation of inpokes.
When I tried to thread inpokes through the freehub flange of a 660 rear hub, they interfered with the hub body.
I suspect there are quite a few hubs where the Aero SB1 can't be used.
The Aero SB1 and SB2 have HOSHI embossed lettering on the butted section, and this is a shot of a relatively better example from today's spokes,
but I noticed several with the HOSHI lettering shifted downward,
and many had the top of the fourth H's horizontal bar unclear, looking like a ladder.
What surprised me is that these spokes barely react to a magnet.
I wrote earlier that star brand aero spokes only come as Aero Starbrite, but that was just my assumption—there seem to be exceptions.
In the case of Type I, since there's no spoke head, I can't confirm that H marking = Starbrite.
Well, I have evidence at my shop of fraudulent spokes with an H marking but stainless material from the same company, so there's no guarantee that Hoshi Spokes will make genuine Starbrrite just because it has an H marking.
↑This is my personal Aero SB2, but
(again, the round section on the hub side is awkwardly long),
with three of the flat sections lined up like a cliff face, a magnet-tipped rod snaps right on!
Actually, even just one sticks, and it sticks not just to the long side of the flattened butted section but also to the short side (the blade side).
But with this Aero stainless I (or whatever we should call it), a magnet-tipped rod showed no attraction at all to the three-spoke cliff face like in the image above.
This magnet-tipped rod is used for nipple or rim replacement on wheels like Racing Zero or Bora, but I also use it to check spoke magnetism.
↑The top image is fake Aero SB1 (I'll call it that), and the bottom is Aero SB3.
The Aero SB3 shows some light rust, whereas the fake Aero SB1 has a stainless-like luster and no rust at all.
↑This is Aero SB3
↑This is also Aero SB3
↑This is my personal Aero SB2, awkward round section aside, with clean marking and good magnet response.
↑This is also my personal Aero SB2.
This one has maximum awkwardness.
But the marking is clean and the magnet sticks (and so on).
↑This is also my personal Aero SB2, but despite being the same spoke length (of course, uncut), the round section length differs—pretty sloppy!
If these go into a radial front wheel, the uneven lighting of the spokes around the hub when the wheel spins is really noticeable, so you have to be careful not to mix them up.
But the marking is clean (and so on).
The so-called Aero SB types 1 and 2 seem to allow you to judge manufacturing era by the sharpness of the HOSHI embossing, especially whether the fourth H is clean, and dirty ones are questionable as genuine Starbrrite.
The bundle of spokes today's customer (sort of) brought was quite substantial, and I've only posted some of it, but the Aero SB2 and SB3 were all genuine Starbrrite, and the only ones with virtually no magnet response were the fake Aero SB1.
Well, I suspect all Hoshi spokes anyway.
Once a maker has done me dirty once, I can never trust them again.
I've even seen rear wheels marked with H on both sides as claimed Starbrrite, with left and right spoke length properly set to 2mm difference, but only one side—say just the freehub side—sticks to a magnet.
This means only the freehub side length was genuine.
To my knowledge, there is one exception where claimed Starbrrite spokes are 100% Starbrrite.
That's NJS-certified spokes for track racing.
On this I have two theories: one is that track racers are generally savvy about equipment and can't be fooled, so they do proper work; the other is that NJS spokes are just selling old stock made in bulk long ago, back when they still did honest manufacturing.
I think the latter scenario is unlikely.