Another wheel day (and so on).
A customer brought in an Easton tubeless-ready rim,
the R90SL.
When I've built wheels with this rim in the past,
the weight has been exposed (→here)（→here）,
but that's not the value of this article,
so I'll reveal it upfront.
Built it.
PowerTap G3 hub, 24H, black half-comp 1.5x build
Wired with black aluminum nipples.
If this wheel had internal nipple design,
I might not be able to do a radial build on the non-drive side
(not that I normally would, but radial on the drive side either).
Going back in time, here's the rim alone,
but as I've mentioned in past posts,
the holes on the outer edge of the rim are significantly offset left and right in proper radial alignment.
And that's not all—
when looking at the rim from the side, starting from the valve hole going clockwise,
the next rim hole one position over, and
the rim hole three positions over show
tangent-lacing directionality on the outer holes
relative to the inner holes.
Since it's properly radially offset, these are
non-drive-side spokes (assuming the bottom of the image is the drive side).
Similarly, two positions clockwise from the valve hole and
four positions over also show
offset outer holes relative to the inner holes.
If you try to use an external nipple wrench for
radial lacing or tangent lacing that goes against the rim hole orientation,
the wrench shaft will continuously scrape against the edge of the rim hole,
or the wrench won't grip the nipple at all.
With a standard nipple that grips from the inner side,
the inner holes have no orientation,
so as long as you thread the nipple through,
you can build the wheel with radial lacing or
incorrect rim hole orientation.
In that case, either the inner holes or outer holes should be
at equal spacing, with the other following a specific pattern
with varying gaps. Naturally, the inner holes are equally spaced.
I've already stated earlier that
"the outer holes have tangent-lacing directionality
relative to the inner holes."
This means that when viewing this rim from
the drive side (right), the two final-crossing spokes
for non-drive-side tangent lacing relative to the
radial line from the hub center through the inner rim holes
will pass through holes where the outer holes are offset like this:
one position clockwise from the valve hole is offset counter-clockwise,
and three positions over is offset clockwise.
Similarly, if I add the outer rim holes for the
two final-crossing spokes on the drive side, it looks like this.
So I measured the shortest distance between the
outer hole edges from the valve hole to the first and second adjacent holes
with calipers and saved that dimension (diagram ① above).
Trying to do the same between the second and third holes,
one of the caliper jaws wouldn't fit in the hole (diagram ② above).
After building the wheel,
I verified this.
The image above shows the ① position from earlier.
↑Like this.
Next, keeping that dimension, I
tried ②:
When I place it on the edge of the hole two positions over,
it barely catches the edge of the hole three positions over.
Quite an elaborate design.
As long as you thread the nipple through,
this "front-to-back hole offset" doesn't matter when
adjusting with the inner grip, but
it made dishing extremely difficult on this rim.
Starting clockwise from the valve hole, the spokes
offset to the far side and left, then near side and left,
then far side and right, then near side and right,
repeating in a pattern that covers both final-crossing spoke pairs
(six repetitions for 24H).
I had to angle the dishing tool significantly
to catch the inner holes properly.
A customer brought in an Easton tubeless-ready rim,
the R90SL.
When I've built wheels with this rim in the past,
the weight has been exposed (→here)（→here）,
but that's not the value of this article,
so I'll reveal it upfront.
Built it.
PowerTap G3 hub, 24H, black half-comp 1.5x build
Wired with black aluminum nipples.
If this wheel had internal nipple design,
I might not be able to do a radial build on the non-drive side
(not that I normally would, but radial on the drive side either).
Going back in time, here's the rim alone,
but as I've mentioned in past posts,
the holes on the outer edge of the rim are significantly offset left and right in proper radial alignment.
And that's not all—
when looking at the rim from the side, starting from the valve hole going clockwise,
the next rim hole one position over, and
the rim hole three positions over show
tangent-lacing directionality on the outer holes
relative to the inner holes.
Since it's properly radially offset, these are
non-drive-side spokes (assuming the bottom of the image is the drive side).
Similarly, two positions clockwise from the valve hole and
four positions over also show
offset outer holes relative to the inner holes.
If you try to use an external nipple wrench for
radial lacing or tangent lacing that goes against the rim hole orientation,
the wrench shaft will continuously scrape against the edge of the rim hole,
or the wrench won't grip the nipple at all.
With a standard nipple that grips from the inner side,
the inner holes have no orientation,
so as long as you thread the nipple through,
you can build the wheel with radial lacing or
incorrect rim hole orientation.
In that case, either the inner holes or outer holes should be
at equal spacing, with the other following a specific pattern
with varying gaps. Naturally, the inner holes are equally spaced.
I've already stated earlier that
"the outer holes have tangent-lacing directionality
relative to the inner holes."
This means that when viewing this rim from
the drive side (right), the two final-crossing spokes
for non-drive-side tangent lacing relative to the
radial line from the hub center through the inner rim holes
will pass through holes where the outer holes are offset like this:
one position clockwise from the valve hole is offset counter-clockwise,
and three positions over is offset clockwise.
Similarly, if I add the outer rim holes for the
two final-crossing spokes on the drive side, it looks like this.
So I measured the shortest distance between the
outer hole edges from the valve hole to the first and second adjacent holes
with calipers and saved that dimension (diagram ① above).
Trying to do the same between the second and third holes,
one of the caliper jaws wouldn't fit in the hole (diagram ② above).
After building the wheel,
I verified this.
The image above shows the ① position from earlier.
↑Like this.
Next, keeping that dimension, I
tried ②:
When I place it on the edge of the hole two positions over,
it barely catches the edge of the hole three positions over.
As long as you thread the nipple through,
this "front-to-back hole offset" doesn't matter when
adjusting with the inner grip, but
it made dishing extremely difficult on this rim.
Starting clockwise from the valve hole, the spokes
offset to the far side and left, then near side and left,
then far side and right, then near side and right,
repeating in a pattern that covers both final-crossing spoke pairs
(six repetitions for 24H).
I had to angle the dishing tool significantly
to catch the inner holes properly.