Another day of wheel building (and so on).
But before that.
Even wheels assembled with so-called Chinese carbon rims
and hubs from brands you've never heard of,
often have Sapim CX-RAY spokes.
Otherwise they're usually laced with DT or Pillar aero spokes
with similar spoke weight ratios.
Black CX-RAY has a suggested retail price of
500 yen per spoke (before tax) at Japanese distributors,
but I've never heard of
a generic black CX-RAY at 80 yen per spoke
made by Chinese brands going all-out.
This is because spokes are "difficult to manufacture."
This isn't just about material sourcing or manufacturing technology—
it's also about how difficult it is to recoup initial investment.
When you think about how long it would take to reach profitability
if you built a factory as a "generic CX-RAY manufacturer,"
it makes more sense to just buy them.
↑This is a Continental Giro tubular tire.
It's Continental's most budget-friendly model,
and it's also the only one of their tubular tires where
the country of manufacture isn't "Handmade in Germany"
but rather "Made in Thailand."
There's a distinctive green dotted line down the center of the base tape,
but it doesn't function as a guide for mounting the tire—
it's a guide to ensure the base tape is applied centered over the seams,
and it's there for manufacturing purposes.
You can safely assume that 100% of Thai-made tubular tires
are made by a manufacturer called Lion (Lion Tire),
which is part of the Vittoria family,
and is the only tubular tire manufacturer
in Asia that's managed to achieve profitability.
Because tubular tires are unlikely to see
significant widespread adoption going forward,
I don't think any new manufacturers will enter this market
(spokes still have more potential).
Anyway,
back to wheel building.
A customer brought me an XTR tubular rim.
There was a period when the idea that
"MTB pro XC races might see tubular tires become the standard?"
was floating around enough that even Shimano released complete wheelsets.
Based on the date code sticker—"LI"—
according to a conveniently free reference article (here),
it was manufactured in September 2013.
The rim's outer width is 25mm,
whereas modern road hookless rims have
about 25mm inner width,
so there's quite a difference.
Even Gravel Tack's similar-shaped tubular rims
have an outer width of 28mm
(tubular rims don't really have an inner width anyway).
The customer brought this rim to us
disassembled from a brand-new wheel along with the nipples,
and requested that I build a front wheel for cyclocross
using the hub they provided.
Among road, MTB, and cyclocross,
cyclocross has the best compatibility with hand-built wheels
and the highest adoption rate of tubular tires.
When you mount an IRC Shilac CX on a clincher rim
with about 20.5mm inner width and inflate to around 1.6 bar,
the tire width exceeds 33mm,
violating UCI regulations—
so because modern wide road rims can't be used,
we've ended up in the odd situation where
cyclocross rims are actually narrower than road rims.
Since road bikes are now using 28C and 30C tires,
I think cyclocross could bring back
35C sizes without issue.
Built.
HB-470 hub, 28H, black half CX sprint 64-reverse Italian lacing
with rim tape, Challeng tire mounted with rim cement.
The tire model is Chicane,
which is equivalent to the IRC Shilac CX Edge tread pattern.
Because the tire deforms more flexibly than clinchers
(including tubeless),
it can adapt to a wider range of courses than
a clincher tire with a similar tread pattern,
so it's not limited to just dry, packed soil or sand.
There's flash on only one side of the side knobs—
don't worry about it.
The way the blue ink lot number is applied,
the center line on the base tape,
and the "Made in Thailand" marking
all indicate this tire is made by Lion Tire.
From my rough understanding,
Italy's two major tubular tire makers in the 1990s
were Vittoria and Clement,
Vittoria acquired Clement and became the dominant player,
and established manufacturing in Thailand for everything except top-tier models like Corsa CX—that was Lion Tire.
Now, for some bizarre reason, a "brand" owned by the "manufacturer" Lion Tire
has become Vittoria,
and the roles have been reversed.
As for Challenge—I think it was a "challenge" by former Clement engineers
who said "Let's build this devoted tire maker
with our own hands one more time!"
But I'm not sure why they ended up under Lion Tire's banner.
Even "manufacturers" like Soyo sell their budget models
as Lion Tire products,
so not all Challenge tires are necessarily Lion Tire products.
However, this particular tire didn't exhibit
the characteristic symptom specific to Lion Tire,
especially pronounced in budget models:
"gaps appearing between the tire and rim on both sides
of the valve base, with the phase directly below the valve
bulging slightly outward."
Exactly a year ago I built a similar wheel
with the same rim (here),
but this is a different customer
who came to our shop after seeing that article.
Back then I also weighed the actual rim,
but at that time cement bed and bits of base tape
were stuck to the rim,
so it was more of a reference weight.
This time it's a brand new, never-ridden rim
with no mounting history,
so I've taken a more accurate measurement.
...I measured it, but I'm not about to tell you.
Nobody gives away that kind of info for free.
↑Ugh, what a jerk
Thank you for waiting!
Please view this image!
↑Oh come on!
But before that.
Even wheels assembled with so-called Chinese carbon rims
and hubs from brands you've never heard of,
often have Sapim CX-RAY spokes.
Otherwise they're usually laced with DT or Pillar aero spokes
with similar spoke weight ratios.
Black CX-RAY has a suggested retail price of
500 yen per spoke (before tax) at Japanese distributors,
but I've never heard of
a generic black CX-RAY at 80 yen per spoke
made by Chinese brands going all-out.
This is because spokes are "difficult to manufacture."
This isn't just about material sourcing or manufacturing technology—
it's also about how difficult it is to recoup initial investment.
When you think about how long it would take to reach profitability
if you built a factory as a "generic CX-RAY manufacturer,"
it makes more sense to just buy them.
↑This is a Continental Giro tubular tire.
It's Continental's most budget-friendly model,
and it's also the only one of their tubular tires where
the country of manufacture isn't "Handmade in Germany"
but rather "Made in Thailand."
There's a distinctive green dotted line down the center of the base tape,
but it doesn't function as a guide for mounting the tire—
it's a guide to ensure the base tape is applied centered over the seams,
and it's there for manufacturing purposes.
You can safely assume that 100% of Thai-made tubular tires
are made by a manufacturer called Lion (Lion Tire),
which is part of the Vittoria family,
and is the only tubular tire manufacturer
in Asia that's managed to achieve profitability.
Because tubular tires are unlikely to see
significant widespread adoption going forward,
I don't think any new manufacturers will enter this market
(spokes still have more potential).
Anyway,
back to wheel building.
A customer brought me an XTR tubular rim.
There was a period when the idea that
"MTB pro XC races might see tubular tires become the standard?"
was floating around enough that even Shimano released complete wheelsets.
Based on the date code sticker—"LI"—
according to a conveniently free reference article (here),
it was manufactured in September 2013.
The rim's outer width is 25mm,
whereas modern road hookless rims have
about 25mm inner width,
so there's quite a difference.
Even Gravel Tack's similar-shaped tubular rims
have an outer width of 28mm
(tubular rims don't really have an inner width anyway).
The customer brought this rim to us
disassembled from a brand-new wheel along with the nipples,
and requested that I build a front wheel for cyclocross
using the hub they provided.
Among road, MTB, and cyclocross,
cyclocross has the best compatibility with hand-built wheels
and the highest adoption rate of tubular tires.
When you mount an IRC Shilac CX on a clincher rim
with about 20.5mm inner width and inflate to around 1.6 bar,
the tire width exceeds 33mm,
violating UCI regulations—
so because modern wide road rims can't be used,
we've ended up in the odd situation where
cyclocross rims are actually narrower than road rims.
Since road bikes are now using 28C and 30C tires,
I think cyclocross could bring back
35C sizes without issue.
Built.
HB-470 hub, 28H, black half CX sprint 64-reverse Italian lacing
with rim tape, Challeng tire mounted with rim cement.
The tire model is Chicane,
which is equivalent to the IRC Shilac CX Edge tread pattern.
Because the tire deforms more flexibly than clinchers
(including tubeless),
it can adapt to a wider range of courses than
a clincher tire with a similar tread pattern,
so it's not limited to just dry, packed soil or sand.
There's flash on only one side of the side knobs—
don't worry about it.
The way the blue ink lot number is applied,
the center line on the base tape,
and the "Made in Thailand" marking
all indicate this tire is made by Lion Tire.
From my rough understanding,
Italy's two major tubular tire makers in the 1990s
were Vittoria and Clement,
Vittoria acquired Clement and became the dominant player,
and established manufacturing in Thailand for everything except top-tier models like Corsa CX—that was Lion Tire.
Now, for some bizarre reason, a "brand" owned by the "manufacturer" Lion Tire
has become Vittoria,
and the roles have been reversed.
As for Challenge—I think it was a "challenge" by former Clement engineers
who said "Let's build this devoted tire maker
with our own hands one more time!"
But I'm not sure why they ended up under Lion Tire's banner.
Even "manufacturers" like Soyo sell their budget models
as Lion Tire products,
so not all Challenge tires are necessarily Lion Tire products.
However, this particular tire didn't exhibit
the characteristic symptom specific to Lion Tire,
especially pronounced in budget models:
"gaps appearing between the tire and rim on both sides
of the valve base, with the phase directly below the valve
bulging slightly outward."
Exactly a year ago I built a similar wheel
with the same rim (here),
but this is a different customer
who came to our shop after seeing that article.
Back then I also weighed the actual rim,
but at that time cement bed and bits of base tape
were stuck to the rim,
so it was more of a reference weight.
This time it's a brand new, never-ridden rim
with no mounting history,
so I've taken a more accurate measurement.
...I measured it, but I'm not about to tell you.
Nobody gives away that kind of info for free.
↑Ugh, what a jerk
Thank you for waiting!
Please view this image!
↑Oh come on!