Wheels again today (and so on).
Continuing from yesterday.
I built up the rear wheel with an exceptionally light hole-less rim.
Goldix R240 SL hub, 24H
Black half CX sprint straight spokes, forced left-right 2-cross lacing
with black aluminum nipples.
I'll finish the spoke tension later.
Compared to the actual measured rim weight,
this is information I find neither particularly meaningful nor interesting,
but here's the combined weight of both wheels.
The front wheel comes in under 500g, the rear wheel under 600g,
so together they're under 1100g.
Ugh, I hate that kind of thing. It's like those idiots who can't even build wheels themselves,
so they just weigh some ready-made complete wheel
and say "It cuts through the 1100g barrier!"
That's the kind of dumb review I'm talking about.
If you had to choose between
"rim actual measured weight: 285g" and
"combined front and rear wheel actual measured weight: 1083g,"
and could only get one piece of information,
the latter would be the one to pick... but I don't think
any of you readers here would make that choice.
Even with this spec, I'm not just chasing light weight.
If I'd used all CX-RAY spokes instead,
the front and rear wheels would theoretically be about 22.3g lighter.
The reason I don't do that is:
while you probably wouldn't notice a 11g weight savings in the spoke portion
of each wheel if you swapped out a half-CX-sprint wheel
and rebuilt it with all CX-RAY spokes—
there's definitely a real possibility you'd notice improvements
if you went the other direction: swapping an all-CX-RAY wheel down to half-CX-sprint,
you'd feel less wheel wobble up front and better engagement in the rear.
The elements you can actually feel make the biggest difference
and are what truly matter.
Changing specs to optimize some minor element
at the expense of a larger one is a net negative overall.
Since spokes aren't available in 1% weight increments,
you need to think about maximizing wheel performance
using whatever spokes are actually available
by adjusting spoke weight ratios and lacing patterns
(though straight spokes are forced upon you).
The possibility of "just tension CX-RAY as tight as possible" being the optimal solution
is pretty much limited to front wheels for rim brakes.
Continuing from yesterday.
I built up the rear wheel with an exceptionally light hole-less rim.
Goldix R240 SL hub, 24H
Black half CX sprint straight spokes, forced left-right 2-cross lacing
with black aluminum nipples.
I'll finish the spoke tension later.
Compared to the actual measured rim weight,
this is information I find neither particularly meaningful nor interesting,
but here's the combined weight of both wheels.
The front wheel comes in under 500g, the rear wheel under 600g,
so together they're under 1100g.
Ugh, I hate that kind of thing. It's like those idiots who can't even build wheels themselves,
so they just weigh some ready-made complete wheel
and say "It cuts through the 1100g barrier!"
That's the kind of dumb review I'm talking about.
If you had to choose between
"rim actual measured weight: 285g" and
"combined front and rear wheel actual measured weight: 1083g,"
and could only get one piece of information,
the latter would be the one to pick... but I don't think
any of you readers here would make that choice.
Even with this spec, I'm not just chasing light weight.
If I'd used all CX-RAY spokes instead,
the front and rear wheels would theoretically be about 22.3g lighter.
The reason I don't do that is:
while you probably wouldn't notice a 11g weight savings in the spoke portion
of each wheel if you swapped out a half-CX-sprint wheel
and rebuilt it with all CX-RAY spokes—
there's definitely a real possibility you'd notice improvements
if you went the other direction: swapping an all-CX-RAY wheel down to half-CX-sprint,
you'd feel less wheel wobble up front and better engagement in the rear.
The elements you can actually feel make the biggest difference
and are what truly matter.
Changing specs to optimize some minor element
at the expense of a larger one is a net negative overall.
Since spokes aren't available in 1% weight increments,
you need to think about maximizing wheel performance
using whatever spokes are actually available
by adjusting spoke weight ratios and lacing patterns
(though straight spokes are forced upon you).
The possibility of "just tension CX-RAY as tight as possible" being the optimal solution
is pretty much limited to front wheels for rim brakes.