Wheels again today (and so on).
A customer left me a wheel built with a Mavic Record Mond rim.
It came from a vintage bike that used to hang on the wall of an old shop,
and the customer got it along with the whole bike
by asking the shop owner to sell it to them.
Regarding the rim name,
some might say it should be read as "Record du Monde,"
but "Record Mond" is how it was written in katakana in catalogs from that era,
and that's how the name has stuck.
The sprocket is a Regina (Italian chainring maker) Oro 6-speed,
with a 13-14-15-17-19-21T configuration.
This is exactly the kind of gearing you'd see on a road racer
from before the term "road bike" was even used.
I've had windsurfers ask me,
"Wait, bicycles have Neil Pryde too?"
and skiers ask,
"Wait, bicycles have POC helmets too?"
The latter example also applies to Uvex.
I haven't been asked by equestrians
if bicycles have LAS helmets,
but that would be the same idea.
When it comes to the motorcycle industry,
brands like Suomy helmets and Sidi shoes
(though they're boots on motorcycles)
fit the pattern of "they also make bicycle gear,"
but Regina, a chain and sprocket maker,
has exited the bicycle business
while still being active in the motorcycle world.
There, they're now commonly written as "Regina" in katakana.
The customer asked me to remove the freewheel.
The Regina freewheel with its two-claw design—
not fine splines—
can be tricky to remove without stripping the notches
when it's seized, but this one came off very easily.
Once the threads lock in the tightening direction from even one pedal stroke,
this wheel is clearly an unused original.
I've removed the freewheel cog.
Some people might think it looks similar to SRAM's XD.
The XD is kind of a best-of-both-worlds
hybrid between the old freewheel and the freehub.
The similarity is that "the number of sprocket teeth
doesn't depend on the thread depth of the hub"—
that's the same principle as SRAM's XD.
With SRAM's XD, if you widen the hub axle spacing,
(setting aside chainline and other issues)
you can make sprockets with 14 speeds or 15 speeds.
With Shimano's freehub body,
the number of gears is limited by spline depth.
But the old boss-type freewheel hub had tight bearing spacing,
and especially on cheap hubs,
the axle would frequently snap right below the right end of the hub body,
which is one reason why Shimano invented the freehub
to widen the bearing spacing.
Where the boss-type freewheel cog
(including SRAM's XD)
differs from the freehub plus sprocket system is:
the freewheel mechanism (coasting function)
is located on the sprocket side.
The hub is a Dura-Ace HB-7110-R.
By the way, if the model number is 7120,
it's a large-flange hub.
The frame this came on is estimated to be from around 1979,
but looking at the manufacturing date stamp on the hub,
it reads "ZD," where D is April
and Z could be 1975, 2001, or 2027,
so the answer is self-evident.
The rim has proper spoke hole alignment, with spokes threaded correctly according to the hole pattern.
So looking at the wheel from the right side,
clockwise from the valve hole, the next spoke
is on the non-drive side.
Looking at the rim holes clockwise from the outside:
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
The spokes from the drive side are way too short,
and on top of that, they used the same spoke length
on both sides to build the wheel—a real shortcut job.
I'm shooting with the valve hole visible,
and looking at the nipples clockwise from there
like before, the upper image shows the non-drive side:
↑drive side
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
As you can see, the non-drive side spokes are noticeably short.
Furthermore, this wheel has
the valve hole sitting right in the middle of the final cross's spoke bundle—
an awkward situation.
With equal-length spoke builds:
A. First step: thread spokes through on the left drop
B. Use Italian cross pattern
C. Thread spokes following the rim's proper hole orientation
D. If A, B, and C are all satisfied,
then the valve hole's phase should be either outside the final cross bundle
or two holes away from it—choose the former
This wheel satisfies condition A (left drop),
but uses JIS crossing instead of Italian (condition B),
so it can't satisfy condition C (proper hole orientation).
Instead, condition D becomes "valve hole phase is offset by 1 or 3 holes from the bundle,"
which is exactly what you see in the image above.
The timeline jumps around here—
the freewheel is still attached in the image above.
I'm placing a black spoke against the hole
on the non-crossed side of the drive-side flange
(or "freewheel side" hub, if you'll forgive the imprecision of that term).
When looking from one side, the crossed spoke on the non-drive side
that looks the same as the non-crossed spoke on the drive side
being on the left is called a "left drop"—
and that's the state of the image above.
If it were the opposite, it'd be a "right drop."
In other words, this wheel started with Italian crossing
but was then built with JIS pattern,
which is why the valve hole position is messed up.
Maybe it was a temporary build just to hold the frame in the air?
The customer told me to just do an inspection
out of respect for the shop owner,
but I can't respect these spoke lengths and this construction method,
so I'm rebuilding the wheel.
The thought of being "the last one who touched it"
and handing it back in this condition is too scary.
I put tape where the non-drive side's final cross pinches
and squeezed the spokes:
They're remarkably loose.
But this isn't something to get upset about—
it's just the result of a wheel sitting undisturbed
for decades.
The spokes are Hoshi #15-based stainless steel round-butted spokes.
If the spoke head stamp says "H," it's Starlight;
if it's a ★ mark, it's Stainless.
As I've written before,
even Starlight is fundamentally stainless steel,
and Hoshi's "Stainless" spokes aren't a generic term—
it's a specific product name.
Hoshi's ★-stamped Stainless spokes
are virtually non-magnetic to a magnet,
like they're rubber or plastic,
and won't stick at all.
But these spokes stuck to the magnet.
Though I should mention,
the magnet in the image above is the very powerful one
I use to guide nipples on rims
that don't have a hole besides the valve hole on the outer side.
If they were the "fake Starlight" or "crap Starlight"
that barely respond to magnets even though they should be
highly magnetic Starlight,
I won't call them "crap Stainless"—
I'll just call them "fake Stainless,"
since that level of magnetism is actually
mechanically preferable for strength.
Now I understand why the spoke length is so short.
Hoshi's longest standard spoke length is
basically 305mm.
For anything longer than that, current offerings include
DT's Champion at 315mm
and Sapim's CX Sprint at 310mm.
305mm is the only length Hoshi makes
for NJS track spokes in round-butted or flat-butted Starlight,
and it's the length that works
for 8-spoke builds with the Araya 16B Gold rim (36H)
regardless of whether the hub is small-flange or large-flange.
The rim inner diameter of the most low-profile pipe rim
doesn't vary much between manufacturers.
Whether it's Mavic Record Mond, Araya 16B Gold,
Super Champion Métador Oro, Campagnolo Victory, Fiamme Ilide,
or Niji Countach—if the hub and building method are the same,
spoke length stays within 1mm of tolerance.
So why was this wheel's spoke length short?
Because the hole count isn't 36H—it's 32H.
Did someone build it thinking "low-profile pipe rim, 8-spoke, so 305mm"
and just go on autopilot?
I disassembled the wheel.
I pulled one spoke each from the left and right flanges,
and they were indeed the same length.
Also, there's no threadlocker or similar compound applied.
Once I released the tension until the nipple contact pressure was gone,
I could then loosen it by hand with just a finger.
Even though these stick to a magnet,
#15-based "Stainless" is the condition most prone to spoke breakage,
so I didn't reuse the original spokes.
Instead, I ordered (or rather, went and picked up from the supplier)
Hoshi #15 plain Starlight (SB) spokes.
I was worried we'd get the non-magnetic fake Starlight,
but we got the genuine article—
it sticks very well to the magnet.
All the current stock at the supplier should be legitimate Starlight.
The management number written on the paper in the image above
is from an era when Hoshi Industries said
"We're doing this right" in response to my question about
"non-magnetic Starlight keeps showing up,"
which turned out not to be true.
That was back when
I had told someone from Hoshi:
"Because of this, I have zero trust in Hoshi Industries,
and I won't buy your spokes unless I have a good reason."
If we'd gotten the fake Starlight this time,
I was planning to use either
Sapim's Leader #15 plain
or Sapim's Race #14-based round-butted instead.
DT's Silver Competition's longest readily available length is only 298mm,
which would be too short for this wheel even at 6-spoke.
The proper length for this hub and rim at 8-spoke
turned out to be 309mm and 310mm.
It's done.
HB-7110-R 32H Starlight #15 plain spokes,
six-six Italian crossing with included brass nipples,
left drop on first cross, following the rim's proper hole orientation,
valve hole outside the final cross bundle,
and threadlocker applied to the spoke threads.
I didn't cable-tie the spokes.
I've rebuilt a straightforward wheel for once.
The drive side is quite tight,
while the non-drive side is looser—
but that's the normal state of a normal wheel.
Since I'm building a cable-tied wheel
for this customer separately,
this one is fine as-is.
For a rim of this era,
this isn't exceptionally light.
There's a gold Record Mond Oro 7
that weighs under 300g.
If this were current production andI could afford to pay for any damage I caused,
I would've tensioned it a bit more,
but I got a bit nervous.
Still, it's tensioned far better than the original state.
Perfect centering.
Looking at the wheel from the right side
and going clockwise from the valve hole:
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
The small protrusion on the end of the nipple, like a support foot on the back of a watch dial,
is there to distinguish it as a #15 nipple.
Regarding Hoshi's "Stainless" spokes:
I've looked at a statistically significant number of wheels,
and compared to Starlight,
they clearly have higher spoke breakage risk.
In terms of relative importance,
even #14 Stainless and #15 Starlight—
I'd say #15 Starlight is still stronger.
When you compare large batches of Stainless and Starlight,
Stainless definitely has better polish and shine.
But looking at a single spoke without checking the head stamp,
I can't tell them apart (and I don't think most people can).
Starlight doesn't rust brown like a department store bike's steel spokes
over the years, which is why
I honestly can't see any merit to stainless spokes.
A customer left me a wheel built with a Mavic Record Mond rim.
It came from a vintage bike that used to hang on the wall of an old shop,
and the customer got it along with the whole bike
by asking the shop owner to sell it to them.
Regarding the rim name,
some might say it should be read as "Record du Monde,"
but "Record Mond" is how it was written in katakana in catalogs from that era,
and that's how the name has stuck.
The sprocket is a Regina (Italian chainring maker) Oro 6-speed,
with a 13-14-15-17-19-21T configuration.
This is exactly the kind of gearing you'd see on a road racer
from before the term "road bike" was even used.
I've had windsurfers ask me,
"Wait, bicycles have Neil Pryde too?"
and skiers ask,
"Wait, bicycles have POC helmets too?"
The latter example also applies to Uvex.
I haven't been asked by equestrians
if bicycles have LAS helmets,
but that would be the same idea.
When it comes to the motorcycle industry,
brands like Suomy helmets and Sidi shoes
(though they're boots on motorcycles)
fit the pattern of "they also make bicycle gear,"
but Regina, a chain and sprocket maker,
has exited the bicycle business
while still being active in the motorcycle world.
There, they're now commonly written as "Regina" in katakana.
The customer asked me to remove the freewheel.
The Regina freewheel with its two-claw design—
not fine splines—
can be tricky to remove without stripping the notches
when it's seized, but this one came off very easily.
Once the threads lock in the tightening direction from even one pedal stroke,
this wheel is clearly an unused original.
I've removed the freewheel cog.
Some people might think it looks similar to SRAM's XD.
The XD is kind of a best-of-both-worlds
hybrid between the old freewheel and the freehub.
The similarity is that "the number of sprocket teeth
doesn't depend on the thread depth of the hub"—
that's the same principle as SRAM's XD.
With SRAM's XD, if you widen the hub axle spacing,
(setting aside chainline and other issues)
you can make sprockets with 14 speeds or 15 speeds.
With Shimano's freehub body,
the number of gears is limited by spline depth.
But the old boss-type freewheel hub had tight bearing spacing,
and especially on cheap hubs,
the axle would frequently snap right below the right end of the hub body,
which is one reason why Shimano invented the freehub
to widen the bearing spacing.
Where the boss-type freewheel cog
(including SRAM's XD)
differs from the freehub plus sprocket system is:
the freewheel mechanism (coasting function)
is located on the sprocket side.
The hub is a Dura-Ace HB-7110-R.
By the way, if the model number is 7120,
it's a large-flange hub.
The frame this came on is estimated to be from around 1979,
but looking at the manufacturing date stamp on the hub,
it reads "ZD," where D is April
and Z could be 1975, 2001, or 2027,
so the answer is self-evident.
The rim has proper spoke hole alignment, with spokes threaded correctly according to the hole pattern.
So looking at the wheel from the right side,
clockwise from the valve hole, the next spoke
is on the non-drive side.
Looking at the rim holes clockwise from the outside:
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
The spokes from the drive side are way too short,
and on top of that, they used the same spoke length
on both sides to build the wheel—a real shortcut job.
I'm shooting with the valve hole visible,
and looking at the nipples clockwise from there
like before, the upper image shows the non-drive side:
↑drive side
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
As you can see, the non-drive side spokes are noticeably short.
Furthermore, this wheel has
the valve hole sitting right in the middle of the final cross's spoke bundle—
an awkward situation.
With equal-length spoke builds:
A. First step: thread spokes through on the left drop
B. Use Italian cross pattern
C. Thread spokes following the rim's proper hole orientation
D. If A, B, and C are all satisfied,
then the valve hole's phase should be either outside the final cross bundle
or two holes away from it—choose the former
This wheel satisfies condition A (left drop),
but uses JIS crossing instead of Italian (condition B),
so it can't satisfy condition C (proper hole orientation).
Instead, condition D becomes "valve hole phase is offset by 1 or 3 holes from the bundle,"
which is exactly what you see in the image above.
The timeline jumps around here—
the freewheel is still attached in the image above.
I'm placing a black spoke against the hole
on the non-crossed side of the drive-side flange
(or "freewheel side" hub, if you'll forgive the imprecision of that term).
When looking from one side, the crossed spoke on the non-drive side
that looks the same as the non-crossed spoke on the drive side
being on the left is called a "left drop"—
and that's the state of the image above.
If it were the opposite, it'd be a "right drop."
In other words, this wheel started with Italian crossing
but was then built with JIS pattern,
which is why the valve hole position is messed up.
Maybe it was a temporary build just to hold the frame in the air?
The customer told me to just do an inspection
out of respect for the shop owner,
but I can't respect these spoke lengths and this construction method,
so I'm rebuilding the wheel.
The thought of being "the last one who touched it"
and handing it back in this condition is too scary.
I put tape where the non-drive side's final cross pinches
and squeezed the spokes:
They're remarkably loose.
But this isn't something to get upset about—
it's just the result of a wheel sitting undisturbed
for decades.
The spokes are Hoshi #15-based stainless steel round-butted spokes.
If the spoke head stamp says "H," it's Starlight;
if it's a ★ mark, it's Stainless.
As I've written before,
even Starlight is fundamentally stainless steel,
and Hoshi's "Stainless" spokes aren't a generic term—
it's a specific product name.
Hoshi's ★-stamped Stainless spokes
are virtually non-magnetic to a magnet,
like they're rubber or plastic,
and won't stick at all.
But these spokes stuck to the magnet.
Though I should mention,
the magnet in the image above is the very powerful one
I use to guide nipples on rims
that don't have a hole besides the valve hole on the outer side.
If they were the "fake Starlight" or "crap Starlight"
that barely respond to magnets even though they should be
highly magnetic Starlight,
I won't call them "crap Stainless"—
I'll just call them "fake Stainless,"
since that level of magnetism is actually
mechanically preferable for strength.
Now I understand why the spoke length is so short.
Hoshi's longest standard spoke length is
basically 305mm.
For anything longer than that, current offerings include
DT's Champion at 315mm
and Sapim's CX Sprint at 310mm.
305mm is the only length Hoshi makes
for NJS track spokes in round-butted or flat-butted Starlight,
and it's the length that works
for 8-spoke builds with the Araya 16B Gold rim (36H)
regardless of whether the hub is small-flange or large-flange.
The rim inner diameter of the most low-profile pipe rim
doesn't vary much between manufacturers.
Whether it's Mavic Record Mond, Araya 16B Gold,
Super Champion Métador Oro, Campagnolo Victory, Fiamme Ilide,
or Niji Countach—if the hub and building method are the same,
spoke length stays within 1mm of tolerance.
So why was this wheel's spoke length short?
Because the hole count isn't 36H—it's 32H.
Did someone build it thinking "low-profile pipe rim, 8-spoke, so 305mm"
and just go on autopilot?
I disassembled the wheel.
I pulled one spoke each from the left and right flanges,
and they were indeed the same length.
Also, there's no threadlocker or similar compound applied.
Once I released the tension until the nipple contact pressure was gone,
I could then loosen it by hand with just a finger.
Even though these stick to a magnet,
#15-based "Stainless" is the condition most prone to spoke breakage,
so I didn't reuse the original spokes.
Instead, I ordered (or rather, went and picked up from the supplier)
Hoshi #15 plain Starlight (SB) spokes.
I was worried we'd get the non-magnetic fake Starlight,
but we got the genuine article—
it sticks very well to the magnet.
All the current stock at the supplier should be legitimate Starlight.
The management number written on the paper in the image above
is from an era when Hoshi Industries said
"We're doing this right" in response to my question about
"non-magnetic Starlight keeps showing up,"
which turned out not to be true.
That was back when
I had told someone from Hoshi:
"Because of this, I have zero trust in Hoshi Industries,
and I won't buy your spokes unless I have a good reason."
If we'd gotten the fake Starlight this time,
I was planning to use either
Sapim's Leader #15 plain
or Sapim's Race #14-based round-butted instead.
DT's Silver Competition's longest readily available length is only 298mm,
which would be too short for this wheel even at 6-spoke.
The proper length for this hub and rim at 8-spoke
turned out to be 309mm and 310mm.
It's done.
HB-7110-R 32H Starlight #15 plain spokes,
six-six Italian crossing with included brass nipples,
left drop on first cross, following the rim's proper hole orientation,
valve hole outside the final cross bundle,
and threadlocker applied to the spoke threads.
I didn't cable-tie the spokes.
I've rebuilt a straightforward wheel for once.
The drive side is quite tight,
while the non-drive side is looser—
but that's the normal state of a normal wheel.
Since I'm building a cable-tied wheel
for this customer separately,
this one is fine as-is.
For a rim of this era,
this isn't exceptionally light.
There's a gold Record Mond Oro 7
that weighs under 300g.
If this were current production and
I would've tensioned it a bit more,
but I got a bit nervous.
Still, it's tensioned far better than the original state.
Perfect centering.
Looking at the wheel from the right side
and going clockwise from the valve hole:
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
↑non-drive side
↑drive side
The small protrusion on the end of the nipple, like a support foot on the back of a watch dial,
is there to distinguish it as a #15 nipple.
Regarding Hoshi's "Stainless" spokes:
I've looked at a statistically significant number of wheels,
and compared to Starlight,
they clearly have higher spoke breakage risk.
In terms of relative importance,
even #14 Stainless and #15 Starlight—
I'd say #15 Starlight is still stronger.
When you compare large batches of Stainless and Starlight,
Stainless definitely has better polish and shine.
But looking at a single spoke without checking the head stamp,
I can't tell them apart (and I don't think most people can).
Starlight doesn't rust brown like a department store bike's steel spokes
over the years, which is why
I honestly can't see any merit to stainless spokes.