Another day with wheels (and so on).
A customer brought in a front wheel from a Dura-Ace C36 tubular rim model
that we rebuilt here at the shop some time ago.
You can tell at a glance that it's been rebuilt, thanks to the silver spokes.
The original spokes had slightly lower spoke weight compared to
Sapim CX-RAY or DT Aerolite spokes,
and were built with equal-diameter spoke design on both sides. But since they had
unnecessarily low spoke weight and exhibited Shimano wheels' characteristic symptom of
rust eating through the black coating, I rebuilt the front wheel as well
with silver half-CX Sprint spokes.
Since this wheel uses tubular tires, it's probably not in regular use
even for training, let alone commuting, but the hub rotation
has a slight grinding feel to it, and while not catastrophic,
the hub ball race appears to have developed some pitting.
This is a later observation, but with cup-and-cone hubs designed for hooked spokes,
the ball seat tends to feel slightly tight when there's no spoke tension applied,
and the rotation becomes a bit smoother once the wheel is built up. However,
with this straight-spoke hub as well, despite its robust flange design,
when disassembled from the wheel state to just the bare hub,
the grinding sensation in the hub rotation actually increased.
The rear wheel paired with this front wheel
had its spoke weight changed the other day (→here), but
that was originally a front wheel that we rebuilt as a rear wheel,
and since I had an unused front hub left over from that job,
I decided to swap it in this time.
(The Optibarvé rear wheel has a terrible reputation, but
we knew that from the start anyway—we've never sold one as-is from stock.
Selling it would be shameful.)
The half-CX Sprint—that is, the CX Sprint / CX-RAY
the non-laced CX Sprint side
was threaded onto the new hub and temporarily built with the rim.
As for the laced CX-RAY side,
with silver spokes, unlacing isn't impossible.
↑I'm taking this photo from the side that's unrelated to the lacing details.
The real hassle is dealing with the spoke side after removing the lacing.
A wheel where the number of thread wraps on the nipple threads is clearly defined
is extremely easy to build. It was like running a carefully documented
disassembly in reverse—everything flowed smoothly
right through to the final state.
Hub replaced and rebuilt.
I'll re-lace it later.
A customer brought in a front wheel from a Dura-Ace C36 tubular rim model
that we rebuilt here at the shop some time ago.
You can tell at a glance that it's been rebuilt, thanks to the silver spokes.
The original spokes had slightly lower spoke weight compared to
Sapim CX-RAY or DT Aerolite spokes,
and were built with equal-diameter spoke design on both sides. But since they had
unnecessarily low spoke weight and exhibited Shimano wheels' characteristic symptom of
rust eating through the black coating, I rebuilt the front wheel as well
with silver half-CX Sprint spokes.
Since this wheel uses tubular tires, it's probably not in regular use
even for training, let alone commuting, but the hub rotation
has a slight grinding feel to it, and while not catastrophic,
the hub ball race appears to have developed some pitting.
This is a later observation, but with cup-and-cone hubs designed for hooked spokes,
the ball seat tends to feel slightly tight when there's no spoke tension applied,
and the rotation becomes a bit smoother once the wheel is built up. However,
with this straight-spoke hub as well, despite its robust flange design,
when disassembled from the wheel state to just the bare hub,
the grinding sensation in the hub rotation actually increased.
The rear wheel paired with this front wheel
had its spoke weight changed the other day (→here), but
that was originally a front wheel that we rebuilt as a rear wheel,
and since I had an unused front hub left over from that job,
I decided to swap it in this time.
(The Optibarvé rear wheel has a terrible reputation, but
we knew that from the start anyway—we've never sold one as-is from stock.
Selling it would be shameful.)
The half-CX Sprint—that is, the CX Sprint / CX-RAY
the non-laced CX Sprint side
was threaded onto the new hub and temporarily built with the rim.
As for the laced CX-RAY side,
with silver spokes, unlacing isn't impossible.
↑I'm taking this photo from the side that's unrelated to the lacing details.
The real hassle is dealing with the spoke side after removing the lacing.
A wheel where the number of thread wraps on the nipple threads is clearly defined
is extremely easy to build. It was like running a carefully documented
disassembly in reverse—everything flowed smoothly
right through to the final state.
Hub replaced and rebuilt.
I'll re-lace it later.