Wheels again today (and so on).
A customer dropped off a small-diameter rim
with unusually wide rim width.
Apparently several shops refused to build
a wheel with it.
The rim seam has poor tolerances—this never got fully resolved.
The hub came to me with spokes
already threaded through it.
When I asked if the spoke length was correct,
they said they'd disassembled the original wheel
to repaint both the hub and rim—
so there's no reason these spokes shouldn't work.
Since it was a left-drop configuration
and a 6-hole disc brake hub,
I decided to build it reverse Italian style.
It's 36H, so I thought it might be a 6-spoke pattern,
but early in the trial build
the hub wasn't centered on the wheel,
which told me the original was a 4-spoke pattern.
On the disc rotor side of the hub,
where the inpokes had been resting for so long—
the paint was chipped off.
Just noting: this was already like that when it arrived.
There were about two more spots like that.
The spokes are #12 plain (2.6mm diameter).
The rim's paint looked pretty fragile too,
so when I trial-built the wheel,
I worried the spoke threads might scratch the rim,
and tried to pull the spokes out of the hub—
but they wouldn't come out easily.
So instead, I positioned them parallel
to the hub axle
(no spoke drooping from the hub flange)
and trial-built the wheel that way.
Built.
36H four-four reverse Italian lacing.
Not sure if the original wheel had final cross lacing,
but the rim holes have unusually large hole offset,
which makes them easy enough to lace
even with a small-diameter rim—
so I laced the final cross.
A customer dropped off a small-diameter rim
with unusually wide rim width.
Apparently several shops refused to build
a wheel with it.
The rim seam has poor tolerances—this never got fully resolved.
The hub came to me with spokes
already threaded through it.
When I asked if the spoke length was correct,
they said they'd disassembled the original wheel
to repaint both the hub and rim—
so there's no reason these spokes shouldn't work.
Since it was a left-drop configuration
and a 6-hole disc brake hub,
I decided to build it reverse Italian style.
It's 36H, so I thought it might be a 6-spoke pattern,
but early in the trial build
the hub wasn't centered on the wheel,
which told me the original was a 4-spoke pattern.
On the disc rotor side of the hub,
where the inpokes had been resting for so long—
the paint was chipped off.
Just noting: this was already like that when it arrived.
There were about two more spots like that.
The spokes are #12 plain (2.6mm diameter).
The rim's paint looked pretty fragile too,
so when I trial-built the wheel,
I worried the spoke threads might scratch the rim,
and tried to pull the spokes out of the hub—
but they wouldn't come out easily.
So instead, I positioned them parallel
to the hub axle
(no spoke drooping from the hub flange)
and trial-built the wheel that way.
Built.
36H four-four reverse Italian lacing.
Not sure if the original wheel had final cross lacing,
but the rim holes have unusually large hole offset,
which makes them easy enough to lace
even with a small-diameter rim—
so I laced the final cross.