Another day of wheel building (and so on).
A customer brought in a rim called Solstice from a maker called Astral Cycling.
It's an aluminum rim with a 22mm rim height and 20mm internal width.
The Nomulab Wheel No. 8 rim AL22W has a rim height of 22mm and internal width of 19mm, so similar dimensions, but while the AL22W weighs around 435g, the Solstice is a fairly light 405g according to spec.
Japanese dealers are making vague claims about this 405g weight, saying it rivals carbon rims and is lighter than most carbon rims, but since multiple dealers are using similar language, it's possible they're just translating what the manufacturer itself claims.
There's a sticker with the manufacturer name and model name combined. Since Astral appears first and is printed slightly smaller, it's reasonable to assume that's the manufacturer name, and in fact that's correct.
With Alpine's Lightning wheelset, Alpine and Lightning are marked on opposite sides of the rim, and when minor brands do this, you can't tell which is the manufacturer name and which is the model name. It's like looking at a CD jacket from an unfamiliar band and not being able to tell which is the band name and which is the song title.
At the valve hole, there's a USA flag sticker saying it's hand-made in Eugene, Oregon.
On the opposite side is a sticker with the manufacturer's logo.
Weight of both rims measured together. It's not far off from the 405g spec.
This rim is for rim brakes, but the same company's Radiant, which is for disc brakes and has fully black anodized finish, has the same 20mm internal width but is 32mm height / 495g spec and not particularly light. This is comparable to the Tni AL31W at 31mm height / 490g spec, so the Solstice is indeed on the lighter side to be just a "Radiant with different rim height."
This rim has left and right characteristics in how its stickers are applied, and if you build the front and rear wheels ignoring this, the sticker appearance on the rim could look different when viewing the wheels from the same side. In the image above, I've aligned the rims at the valve hole phase, but
at other phases it can look like this, or
like this. There's a small serial number sticker next to the valve hole, and if you build the wheel so it reads correctly from the right side, the rim sticker orientation will also be aligned. By the way, the serial numbers were sequential.
So I was planning to build a wheel with this rim, but
the customer asked to change to this instead, so I received the Cerakote version of the Astral Solstice. Cerakote isn't a generic term (Cera Coat) that abbreviates ceramic coating, but rather Cerakote, which is a trademarked ceramic-loaded, durable coating. Even to the touch it has a coating feel, and unlike other rims at the same room temperature, it doesn't have that metallic coldness.
On the Cerakote version, the stickers are separated into Astral and Solstice, and the character sizes are similar, so unless you know, you can't tell which is the manufacturer name and which is the model name.
Weight of both rims combined. Compared to the black anodized rim from before, it's 105g heavier, but the Japanese dealer's stated weight is still 405g. I also checked the home country's site, but this rim is listed as Solstice Stealth Limited Edition with a spec of 405g there too (it's sold out in the home country, by the way).
Of course, this doesn't mean the 405g rim is on the heavy side; the Cerakote coating's weight is included, so it's simply heavier. The black anodized rims are probably all around 410g, and the Cerakote rims are probably all around 460g.
Built. Philwood hub 32H all-competition Italian lacing. The hub the customer brought in is a front hub without a disc mount and a fixed/track rear hub, so neither has an occhio connection point.
With DT or Chris King disc front hubs, some hubs have the front hub manufacturer name printed at the top, and when you look at it in the direction of travel (the orientation of sitting on the saddle and viewing the hub shell), the lettering is backwards.
With Philwood's disc front hub and rear hub with a freewheel body, when you orient the hub with the right side on the right and view the hub shell marking (under the same conditions as before), the "Phil" stamping reads correctly, so I've used that as the basis for Italian lacing.
By the way, I've been writing Philwood this whole time, but strictly speaking the manufacturer name is Phil Wood and Company, so "Phil" alone on the hub shell isn't an abbreviation of the word "Philwood."
At the 12 o'clock position is Astral,
at the 3 o'clock position is the USA flag (valve hole),
at the 6 o'clock position is Solstice,
and at the 9 o'clock position is the manufacturer logo sticker.
This rim also has left and right characteristics like the black anodized rim, and if you don't build the front and rear wheels with matching orientation, the stickers at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions will be reversed under the condition of having Astral at 12 o'clock. This rim also has a serial number sticker next to the valve hole (on these two it wasn't sequential), and if I build both front and rear wheels so it reads correctly from the right side, the orientation will match, so I'll follow that.
A customer brought in a rim called Solstice from a maker called Astral Cycling.
It's an aluminum rim with a 22mm rim height and 20mm internal width.
The Nomulab Wheel No. 8 rim AL22W has a rim height of 22mm and internal width of 19mm, so similar dimensions, but while the AL22W weighs around 435g, the Solstice is a fairly light 405g according to spec.
Japanese dealers are making vague claims about this 405g weight, saying it rivals carbon rims and is lighter than most carbon rims, but since multiple dealers are using similar language, it's possible they're just translating what the manufacturer itself claims.
There's a sticker with the manufacturer name and model name combined. Since Astral appears first and is printed slightly smaller, it's reasonable to assume that's the manufacturer name, and in fact that's correct.
With Alpine's Lightning wheelset, Alpine and Lightning are marked on opposite sides of the rim, and when minor brands do this, you can't tell which is the manufacturer name and which is the model name. It's like looking at a CD jacket from an unfamiliar band and not being able to tell which is the band name and which is the song title.
At the valve hole, there's a USA flag sticker saying it's hand-made in Eugene, Oregon.
On the opposite side is a sticker with the manufacturer's logo.
Weight of both rims measured together. It's not far off from the 405g spec.
This rim is for rim brakes, but the same company's Radiant, which is for disc brakes and has fully black anodized finish, has the same 20mm internal width but is 32mm height / 495g spec and not particularly light. This is comparable to the Tni AL31W at 31mm height / 490g spec, so the Solstice is indeed on the lighter side to be just a "Radiant with different rim height."
This rim has left and right characteristics in how its stickers are applied, and if you build the front and rear wheels ignoring this, the sticker appearance on the rim could look different when viewing the wheels from the same side. In the image above, I've aligned the rims at the valve hole phase, but
at other phases it can look like this, or
like this. There's a small serial number sticker next to the valve hole, and if you build the wheel so it reads correctly from the right side, the rim sticker orientation will also be aligned. By the way, the serial numbers were sequential.
So I was planning to build a wheel with this rim, but
the customer asked to change to this instead, so I received the Cerakote version of the Astral Solstice. Cerakote isn't a generic term (Cera Coat) that abbreviates ceramic coating, but rather Cerakote, which is a trademarked ceramic-loaded, durable coating. Even to the touch it has a coating feel, and unlike other rims at the same room temperature, it doesn't have that metallic coldness.
On the Cerakote version, the stickers are separated into Astral and Solstice, and the character sizes are similar, so unless you know, you can't tell which is the manufacturer name and which is the model name.
Weight of both rims combined. Compared to the black anodized rim from before, it's 105g heavier, but the Japanese dealer's stated weight is still 405g. I also checked the home country's site, but this rim is listed as Solstice Stealth Limited Edition with a spec of 405g there too (it's sold out in the home country, by the way).
Of course, this doesn't mean the 405g rim is on the heavy side; the Cerakote coating's weight is included, so it's simply heavier. The black anodized rims are probably all around 410g, and the Cerakote rims are probably all around 460g.
Built. Philwood hub 32H all-competition Italian lacing. The hub the customer brought in is a front hub without a disc mount and a fixed/track rear hub, so neither has an occhio connection point.
With DT or Chris King disc front hubs, some hubs have the front hub manufacturer name printed at the top, and when you look at it in the direction of travel (the orientation of sitting on the saddle and viewing the hub shell), the lettering is backwards.
With Philwood's disc front hub and rear hub with a freewheel body, when you orient the hub with the right side on the right and view the hub shell marking (under the same conditions as before), the "Phil" stamping reads correctly, so I've used that as the basis for Italian lacing.
By the way, I've been writing Philwood this whole time, but strictly speaking the manufacturer name is Phil Wood and Company, so "Phil" alone on the hub shell isn't an abbreviation of the word "Philwood."
At the 12 o'clock position is Astral,
at the 3 o'clock position is the USA flag (valve hole),
at the 6 o'clock position is Solstice,
and at the 9 o'clock position is the manufacturer logo sticker.
This rim also has left and right characteristics like the black anodized rim, and if you don't build the front and rear wheels with matching orientation, the stickers at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions will be reversed under the condition of having Astral at 12 o'clock. This rim also has a serial number sticker next to the valve hole (on these two it wasn't sequential), and if I build both front and rear wheels so it reads correctly from the right side, the orientation will match, so I'll follow that.