Another day with wheels (you know the rest).
Continuing from yesterday.
Rebuilding the front wheel of the Chikuwa wheel.
Lightweight hub, 24H, all-black CX-RAY straight
Built with a forced left-right 2-cross pattern.
Unlike the rear wheel, the spoke tension on this one was actually decent.
I'm not sure if this is because the philosophy isn't consistent,
the front and rear are built by different people,
or if there's a philosophy of intentionally building the rear wheel slightly loose.
With so few samples, it's hard to tell.
Since the rim is an offset rim,
if we consider that the left-right differences in spoke brace angles
are substantially cancelled out by an amount comparable to a disc front hub,
then equal-sided spoke diameter builds aren't a bad option.
Since the rear wheel uses different spoke diameters left and right,
I definitely thought about what to do for the front wheel,
and it's not like I made the all-CX-RAY choice without thinking—
I believe this was the result of deliberation between
all-CX-RAY and half-CX Sprint.
Ignoring spoke length,
the left-right difference in spoke mass (spoke density × number of spokes)
for an all-CX-RAY equal-sided build is
65:65, so 100:100,
for a half-CX Sprint equal-sided build it's
78:65, which normalizes to roughly 100:83,
and for an unequal-diameter 2:1 build it becomes
100:50.
Unequal-diameter and unequal-number spoke builds
are essentially the same thing in terms of weighting the left-right spoke mass difference,
but since steel spokes with a 50% density ratio don't exist
(the CX-RAY 15-base version, known as CX-Super, is 54%),
the correction factor achieved by a 2:1 build yielding 100:50 with equal diameters
is quite substantial.
With wheels like Campagnolo's Bora WTO,
the front wheel for disc brakes uses
an offset rim—well, not an offset rim actually—
with super high-low flanges and a 2:1 build, so
I think their correction factor is excessive,
but since spokes with larger deformation don't feel weaker,
I don't see a problem.
The point I'm making is that even with an offset rim,
a disc front hub would probably be better served by
half-CX Sprint rather than
all-CX-RAY.
This isn't to say I'm rejecting all-CX-RAY.
Unless the hub dimensions are particularly extreme,
for an offset rim, all-CX-RAY might work fine,
for a non-offset rim, half-CX Sprint would probably be better—
that's the level of my thinking on this.
For my own reference, I have a rough idea of what spoke density
would theoretically be appropriate for a disc front hub with equal-diameter flanges left and right,
a non-offset rim, with CX-RAY on the right side,
but CX Sprint doesn't match that spec,
and there's no spoke with that density
that's stably supplied in specifications like black spokes or straight spokes.
I carefully disassembled the wheel,
leaving only the nipples on both sides of the valve hole
completely untouched.
I cut the spokes.
This is something I'm doing on my own initiative,
so I'm covering the spoke cost for this part.
↑Dropped into the rim as-is and recovered
The spokes are on the short side,
but they were actually longer than I expected.
Since this rim has no holes on the outer side besides the valve hole,
this was the only way to see
the positional relationship between the nipple and spoke tip
(though it would also be possible to guide the nipple section to the valve hole without cutting the spoke and photograph that).
The spoke lengths differed by 2mm left and right.
The reason I'm rebuilding the front wheel is
that since I changed the rear wheel to 12mm black aluminum nipples,
I can't just leave the front wheel as-is.
I won't call the spoke length in the image above "wrong,"
but rather "not to my preference,"
but if I'm going to build all-CX-RAY to my preferred length,
I'd move the original right-side spoke to the left side
and install new CX-RAY on the right.
If I rebuild with half-CX Sprint,
it would be new CX-RAY on the right and CX Sprint on the left,
which would mean the customer bears the cost of replacing all the spokes
(aside from the ones I cut).
After thinking it over, I decided to reuse the right-side CX-RAY as-is
and adjust the left CX Sprint to my preferred length.
As a result, both sides ended up nearly the same length,
and the spoke tip on the CX Sprint side is nearly flush with the nipple once assembled.
↑The rim's actual measured weight.
It occasionally displays 400g,
but 399g is shown more often, so
I timed it to capture that reading.
Rebuilt.
I've changed the left-side spokes to black CX Sprint straight,
and the nipples to DT 12mm black aluminum.
I'll do the truing later.
About the Sapim Secure Lock nipples
I mentioned yesterday,
↑They punch just below the thread
to slightly flatten the threads,
increasing friction with the spoke and making them less likely to loosen.
ENVE specifies using genuine internal nipples as one of the conditions for crash replacement,
and of the four generations of nipples,
the latest, fourth-generation brass nipples
also have this same modification.
Continuing from yesterday.
Rebuilding the front wheel of the Chikuwa wheel.
Lightweight hub, 24H, all-black CX-RAY straight
Built with a forced left-right 2-cross pattern.
Unlike the rear wheel, the spoke tension on this one was actually decent.
I'm not sure if this is because the philosophy isn't consistent,
the front and rear are built by different people,
or if there's a philosophy of intentionally building the rear wheel slightly loose.
With so few samples, it's hard to tell.
Since the rim is an offset rim,
if we consider that the left-right differences in spoke brace angles
are substantially cancelled out by an amount comparable to a disc front hub,
then equal-sided spoke diameter builds aren't a bad option.
Since the rear wheel uses different spoke diameters left and right,
I definitely thought about what to do for the front wheel,
and it's not like I made the all-CX-RAY choice without thinking—
I believe this was the result of deliberation between
all-CX-RAY and half-CX Sprint.
Ignoring spoke length,
the left-right difference in spoke mass (spoke density × number of spokes)
for an all-CX-RAY equal-sided build is
65:65, so 100:100,
for a half-CX Sprint equal-sided build it's
78:65, which normalizes to roughly 100:83,
and for an unequal-diameter 2:1 build it becomes
100:50.
Unequal-diameter and unequal-number spoke builds
are essentially the same thing in terms of weighting the left-right spoke mass difference,
but since steel spokes with a 50% density ratio don't exist
(the CX-RAY 15-base version, known as CX-Super, is 54%),
the correction factor achieved by a 2:1 build yielding 100:50 with equal diameters
is quite substantial.
With wheels like Campagnolo's Bora WTO,
the front wheel for disc brakes uses
an offset rim—well, not an offset rim actually—
with super high-low flanges and a 2:1 build, so
I think their correction factor is excessive,
but since spokes with larger deformation don't feel weaker,
I don't see a problem.
The point I'm making is that even with an offset rim,
a disc front hub would probably be better served by
half-CX Sprint rather than
all-CX-RAY.
This isn't to say I'm rejecting all-CX-RAY.
Unless the hub dimensions are particularly extreme,
for an offset rim, all-CX-RAY might work fine,
for a non-offset rim, half-CX Sprint would probably be better—
that's the level of my thinking on this.
For my own reference, I have a rough idea of what spoke density
would theoretically be appropriate for a disc front hub with equal-diameter flanges left and right,
a non-offset rim, with CX-RAY on the right side,
but CX Sprint doesn't match that spec,
and there's no spoke with that density
that's stably supplied in specifications like black spokes or straight spokes.
I carefully disassembled the wheel,
leaving only the nipples on both sides of the valve hole
completely untouched.
I cut the spokes.
This is something I'm doing on my own initiative,
so I'm covering the spoke cost for this part.
↑Dropped into the rim as-is and recovered
The spokes are on the short side,
but they were actually longer than I expected.
Since this rim has no holes on the outer side besides the valve hole,
this was the only way to see
the positional relationship between the nipple and spoke tip
(though it would also be possible to guide the nipple section to the valve hole without cutting the spoke and photograph that).
The spoke lengths differed by 2mm left and right.
The reason I'm rebuilding the front wheel is
that since I changed the rear wheel to 12mm black aluminum nipples,
I can't just leave the front wheel as-is.
I won't call the spoke length in the image above "wrong,"
but rather "not to my preference,"
but if I'm going to build all-CX-RAY to my preferred length,
I'd move the original right-side spoke to the left side
and install new CX-RAY on the right.
If I rebuild with half-CX Sprint,
it would be new CX-RAY on the right and CX Sprint on the left,
which would mean the customer bears the cost of replacing all the spokes
(aside from the ones I cut).
After thinking it over, I decided to reuse the right-side CX-RAY as-is
and adjust the left CX Sprint to my preferred length.
As a result, both sides ended up nearly the same length,
and the spoke tip on the CX Sprint side is nearly flush with the nipple once assembled.
↑The rim's actual measured weight.
It occasionally displays 400g,
but 399g is shown more often, so
I timed it to capture that reading.
Rebuilt.
I've changed the left-side spokes to black CX Sprint straight,
and the nipples to DT 12mm black aluminum.
I'll do the truing later.
About the Sapim Secure Lock nipples
I mentioned yesterday,
↑They punch just below the thread
to slightly flatten the threads,
increasing friction with the spoke and making them less likely to loosen.
ENVE specifies using genuine internal nipples as one of the conditions for crash replacement,
and of the four generations of nipples,
the latest, fourth-generation brass nipples
also have this same modification.