Wheels again today (and so on).
A customer dropped off the front and rear wheels of a Roval Alpinist CL.
They came on a complete Ethos bike, but compared to the Bora WTO33
on their separate rim-brake Tarmac, they feel like they're rolling
over something too soft, so they want them rebuilt.
Today I'm working on the front wheel.
On the outside of the rim it says "Inner tube required,"
and underneath the opaque black rim tape that's already applied at point of sale,
there's a warning label that's absolutely impossible to read saying
"Not tubeless compatible."
The newer successor model is now the Alpinist CL II,
but since it became tubeless compatible (the rim probably got heavier)
and the front wheel went from equal spoke count on both sides to 2:1,
the old version here is actually superior as a material
for a wheel rebuild project.
The right side with shallow spoke angle feels mushy,
but that's just how it is.
The left side on the high-tension side also feels soft.
I checked the rear wheel beforehand too,
and both wheels were soft examples.
I drew the short straw on stiffness.
By the way, all the spokes on this wheel are Aero Lite,
but the Alpinist CL II uses all Aero Comp spokes.
The temporary center was spot on.
I checked the wheel center not because I wanted to know
about assembly precision.
I rebuilt it.
I went with CX Sprint on the left side.
The build pattern is forced 2-cross for a straight-pull hub.
I'll do the final cross lacing on the right side later.
Naturally, I got the wheel perfectly centered during the rebuild,
but even though the right side spokes are the same spokes as before,
the spoke tension meter readings
(Hozan's first spoke tension meter, so H1ST)
went up dramatically.
This is partly because the original was a soft example,
but the different diameter build on each side also plays a role.
I checked the temporary center before taking the wheel apart because
whether there was center drift or not in the received condition
determines whether I can simply compare it to the final perfectly centered
rebuild state.
A customer dropped off the front and rear wheels of a Roval Alpinist CL.
They came on a complete Ethos bike, but compared to the Bora WTO33
on their separate rim-brake Tarmac, they feel like they're rolling
over something too soft, so they want them rebuilt.
Today I'm working on the front wheel.
On the outside of the rim it says "Inner tube required,"
and underneath the opaque black rim tape that's already applied at point of sale,
there's a warning label that's absolutely impossible to read saying
"Not tubeless compatible."
The newer successor model is now the Alpinist CL II,
but since it became tubeless compatible (the rim probably got heavier)
and the front wheel went from equal spoke count on both sides to 2:1,
the old version here is actually superior as a material
for a wheel rebuild project.
The right side with shallow spoke angle feels mushy,
but that's just how it is.
The left side on the high-tension side also feels soft.
I checked the rear wheel beforehand too,
and both wheels were soft examples.
I drew the short straw on stiffness.
By the way, all the spokes on this wheel are Aero Lite,
but the Alpinist CL II uses all Aero Comp spokes.
The temporary center was spot on.
I checked the wheel center not because I wanted to know
about assembly precision.
I rebuilt it.
I went with CX Sprint on the left side.
The build pattern is forced 2-cross for a straight-pull hub.
I'll do the final cross lacing on the right side later.
Naturally, I got the wheel perfectly centered during the rebuild,
but even though the right side spokes are the same spokes as before,
the spoke tension meter readings
(Hozan's first spoke tension meter, so H1ST)
went up dramatically.
This is partly because the original was a soft example,
but the different diameter build on each side also plays a role.
I checked the temporary center before taking the wheel apart because
whether there was center drift or not in the received condition
determines whether I can simply compare it to the final perfectly centered
rebuild state.