A customer brought in the front and rear wheels of a Vision Metron 40 tubular.
First, the front wheel.
It has the name of a certain complete bike brand on it,
and while the decal tried to cover it up,
there's a sticker on the other side too
so it couldn't be completely covered.
This is less like
"Complete coverage power!" and more like
"Stupid coverage!"
This spec wasn't some unofficial fan-made thing—
wheels like this were officially released.
Miyata tubular tape remains on the rim.
The customer owns multiple bikes from the maker of the additional sticker,
but for tubular wheels they use rim cement,
so this must have been acquired as a second owner.
In fact, they also requested the tire be installed with rim cement.
The front wheel had no centering offset and almost no runout.
The image above shows the temporary centering before work,
but since the state after work was the same, I didn't photograph it again.
Next, the rear wheel.
From DT's Aerolite with white and red painted spokes,
a single red spoke is used as a cosmetic spoke,
but DT instructs that when doing tangent lacing with white and red spokes,
do not cross (make contact) the final crossing.
Especially when the final crossing is between white or red spokes of the same color,
the paint film is thick but adhesion is weak, so
it cracks like eggshell.
This rear wheel is 2:1 laced, but
if you're going to use a cosmetic spoke,
you should do it in radial lacing on the anti-freewheel side.
Well, since the red spokes aren't laced together,
technically it doesn't violate the rule.
I've seen examples of DT complete wheels
that do violate this rule.
I'll show one in the next post.
There were spots where the spoke paint had chipped off.
Based on the direction and location, it was chipped from contact with
the rear derailleur pulley cage when shifting to low gear.
In other words, this is the previous owner's builder's mistake.
Vision was originally an FSA TT bike parts brand, and
initially it was completely devoted to TT-specific equipment—
totally unrelated to anyone who only rides road bikes.
Aero bars, their dedicated brake levers,
saddles with especially thick front padding for extreme forward positioning, etc.
Recently they've released road bike parts that suit aero road designs.
They've even made stem-integrated drop bars,
but this is outside Vision's original scope.
Easton had a ridiculously speced TT-specific wheel called the EC90TT.
The rim height is 90mm.
Despite being 90mm height, the 90 in the model name
signifies a grade level—higher than 70 or 50—and that's just coincidence.
The spoke count is absurdly 12H front and
16H rear, and the most ridiculous aspect is
that the front hub flange width is abnormally narrow.
↑This one
A selfie shot.
It's from an old post and the size is different, but.
The left and right dropouts have an airfoil cross-section, and
when you tighten the quick release horizontally,
it's locked in an aerodynamically favorable shape.
Even with 90mm rim height, the spoke count is too few and
the front hub flange width is narrow, so
under hard standing climbs or pulling hard on the drop bars
you could feel the wheel flex, but
when mounted on a TT or triathlon bike and
you're gripping the aero bars,
the low lateral stiffness isn't as noticeable, and
the aerodynamic benefits of the low spoke count and
minimal lateral spoke extension would
likely be advantageous in specific situations.
So when I say "ridiculously speced," I'm strictly talking about
using a wheel specialized for TT bikes—not for road bikes—on a road bike,
which is admittedly off-base criticism.
As for Vision's wheels specialized for TT bikes,
the rear hub flange width is
a "ridiculous" narrow flange, and
when you install it on a road bike and do even light standing climbs
it easily rubs the seatstay—a rear wheel with terrible lateral stiffness.
↑That's the crappy hub!
... wait, I don't think that's it.
This hub is 2:1 laced, but it has equal hole counts on both sides,
from back when Vision was a TT bike–dedicated parts brand.
↑This one
When you line them up, with the crappy hub it's
not so much the flange width that stands out as the length of the left dropout.
These days Vision is simply an FSA wheel brand and
an aero drop bar brand, no longer
a TT bike–dedicated parts brand.
The rim was shifted abnormally far to the right.
It had both radial and lateral runout.
There were multiple nipples starting to strip,
and it had the kind of runout you'd get from
randomly fiddling with nipples blindfolded.
It's like someone tried to fix something but
couldn't get it back to a proper state.
The fact that the rim didn't have rim cement on it
confirms the current owner isn't using this wheel in that condition.
I removed both radial and lateral runout and centered it.
It's work that comes very close to wheel building.
The decal abandoned its duties.
I removed the tubular tape and installed the tire with rim cement.
While waiting for the rim cement to dry,
another customer showed up, so the cement dried too much.
I applied a second coat, which unexpectedly
made the bed sufficiently strong.
First, the front wheel.
It has the name of a certain complete bike brand on it,
and while the decal tried to cover it up,
there's a sticker on the other side too
so it couldn't be completely covered.
This is less like
"Complete coverage power!" and more like
"Stupid coverage!"
This spec wasn't some unofficial fan-made thing—
wheels like this were officially released.
Miyata tubular tape remains on the rim.
The customer owns multiple bikes from the maker of the additional sticker,
but for tubular wheels they use rim cement,
so this must have been acquired as a second owner.
In fact, they also requested the tire be installed with rim cement.
The front wheel had no centering offset and almost no runout.
The image above shows the temporary centering before work,
but since the state after work was the same, I didn't photograph it again.
Next, the rear wheel.
From DT's Aerolite with white and red painted spokes,
a single red spoke is used as a cosmetic spoke,
but DT instructs that when doing tangent lacing with white and red spokes,
do not cross (make contact) the final crossing.
Especially when the final crossing is between white or red spokes of the same color,
the paint film is thick but adhesion is weak, so
it cracks like eggshell.
This rear wheel is 2:1 laced, but
if you're going to use a cosmetic spoke,
you should do it in radial lacing on the anti-freewheel side.
Well, since the red spokes aren't laced together,
technically it doesn't violate the rule.
I've seen examples of DT complete wheels
that do violate this rule.
I'll show one in the next post.
There were spots where the spoke paint had chipped off.
Based on the direction and location, it was chipped from contact with
the rear derailleur pulley cage when shifting to low gear.
In other words, this is the previous owner's builder's mistake.
Vision was originally an FSA TT bike parts brand, and
initially it was completely devoted to TT-specific equipment—
totally unrelated to anyone who only rides road bikes.
Aero bars, their dedicated brake levers,
saddles with especially thick front padding for extreme forward positioning, etc.
Recently they've released road bike parts that suit aero road designs.
They've even made stem-integrated drop bars,
but this is outside Vision's original scope.
Easton had a ridiculously speced TT-specific wheel called the EC90TT.
The rim height is 90mm.
Despite being 90mm height, the 90 in the model name
signifies a grade level—higher than 70 or 50—and that's just coincidence.
The spoke count is absurdly 12H front and
16H rear, and the most ridiculous aspect is
that the front hub flange width is abnormally narrow.
↑This one
A selfie shot.
It's from an old post and the size is different, but.
The left and right dropouts have an airfoil cross-section, and
when you tighten the quick release horizontally,
it's locked in an aerodynamically favorable shape.
Even with 90mm rim height, the spoke count is too few and
the front hub flange width is narrow, so
under hard standing climbs or pulling hard on the drop bars
you could feel the wheel flex, but
when mounted on a TT or triathlon bike and
you're gripping the aero bars,
the low lateral stiffness isn't as noticeable, and
the aerodynamic benefits of the low spoke count and
minimal lateral spoke extension would
likely be advantageous in specific situations.
So when I say "ridiculously speced," I'm strictly talking about
using a wheel specialized for TT bikes—not for road bikes—on a road bike,
which is admittedly off-base criticism.
As for Vision's wheels specialized for TT bikes,
the rear hub flange width is
a "ridiculous" narrow flange, and
when you install it on a road bike and do even light standing climbs
it easily rubs the seatstay—a rear wheel with terrible lateral stiffness.
↑That's the crappy hub!
... wait, I don't think that's it.
This hub is 2:1 laced, but it has equal hole counts on both sides,
from back when Vision was a TT bike–dedicated parts brand.
↑This one
When you line them up, with the crappy hub it's
not so much the flange width that stands out as the length of the left dropout.
These days Vision is simply an FSA wheel brand and
an aero drop bar brand, no longer
a TT bike–dedicated parts brand.
The rim was shifted abnormally far to the right.
It had both radial and lateral runout.
There were multiple nipples starting to strip,
and it had the kind of runout you'd get from
randomly fiddling with nipples blindfolded.
It's like someone tried to fix something but
couldn't get it back to a proper state.
The fact that the rim didn't have rim cement on it
confirms the current owner isn't using this wheel in that condition.
I removed both radial and lateral runout and centered it.
It's work that comes very close to wheel building.
The decal abandoned its duties.
I removed the tubular tape and installed the tire with rim cement.
While waiting for the rim cement to dry,
another customer showed up, so the cement dried too much.
I applied a second coat, which unexpectedly
made the bed sufficiently strong.