Another wheel day (and so on...). But first.
A tangent unrelated to the main story.
The image above is the latest generation Dura-Ace rear wheel,
with a 10-speed "dedicated" freebody.
When trying to install the previous generation 9-speed sprocket onto this,
it catches where the spline teeth get taller,
so you can't install it.
I don't think Shimano is so small a company that they need to resort to
this kind of petty anti-consumer nonsense
to drive component replacement.
(A pretty big asshole for the company size)
Being able to install a previous-generation sprocket onto
the latest rear wheel
wouldn't cause Shimano to lose profits, I'd argue.
I wish they'd apply the brainpower they waste on this stuff
toward designing actually better wheels instead.
And don't you dare pull this crap again, you hear me.
The latest Dura-Ace 12-speed "dedicated" freebody doesn't accept
11-speed sprockets! No way!
Another wheel day (and so on...).
Continuing from yesterday.
I'm rebuilding the rear wheel on the WH-R9270 C50 tubular.
Unlike the front wheel, this rear wheel wasn't a loose example.
Actually, the Optibalance (Optibalsystem) isn't bad design
for a 2:1 lacing pattern.
The spokes going in the opposing direction from those coming out of the same
flange pair are nearly in a straight line with the porcupine direction spokes,
which means the porcupine direction spokes
are arranged nearly tangent to the hub flange.
It uses J-lacing for rim holes without offset phase,
and the non-freewheel side isn't tangent-laced—two points that make it
far superior to Rovar rear wheels.
Looking at the wheel from the side,
the non-freewheel side 0-cross spokes don't pass through
the final cross of the freewheel side because
the hub flanges have offset phase.
I wondered if the spoke trajectory was intentionally offset from radial
to consider torsional rigidity against stress during disc brake application,
but since the rim-brake version rear wheels have offset phase too,
maybe they're considering the stress of the freewheel being twisted forward during pedaling instead.
The 16-hole 0-cross front wheels for rim-brake also have offset phase,
which might be considering anti-torsional rigidity too.
Though the 16-hole spoke count itself is such a negative factor
that any rigidity benefit from offset phase is utterly blown away.
The Chris King R45D center-lock rear hub
doesn't support internal-thread type disc rotor lock rings
(the kind that use the sprocket lock ring tool).
First you remove the cone adjustment nut,
then secure the rotor with an external-thread type
lock ring (the kind that uses the original Hollowtech II BB tool),
and then install the cone adjustment nut back on.
Built it.
Chris King R45D hub, 24-hole, black half-comp 4-cross JIS lacing.
I'll tie the spokes later.
The SRAM XDR freebody spec is interesting.
I should mention—I reused the original nipples for both wheels.
They have a hexagonal grip on the outer end,
and the pocket depth (where the inner threads start) is similar to standard nipples,
but the outer thread length is longer,
yet the spoke threads protruded two or more turns from the nipple end face
on all sides, in the stock configuration—
while the spoke thread length was standard spoke length.
This means this off-the-shelf wheel used up almost the entire spoke thread length,
so there's probably almost no room to increase tension from the factory state.
The hub shell has markings at two locations in 180° phase,
and they look identical at first glance,
but the marking below "Chris King" differs:
one side says "Made in USA,"
the other is a serial number, so
I unified the marking visible from the valve hole
to the "Made in USA" side on both wheels.
I know who manufactures this rim,
but the embedded rim label has QR codes on both sides,
the top row is a string of numbers starting with 21
(I've considered whether the recent 22 and 23 starters might indicate
20XX year of manufacture in the last two digits,
but given how common 21 is, that's probably not it),
and the bottom row is alphanumerics starting with CD.
Examples from other brands (→here)
But on this rim it was TD instead of CD,
so C means clincher and T means tubular.
Maybe on rim-brake rims the second letter is R instead of D.
This tubular rim was quite light for its rim height.
It was lighter than I expected,
but given that the front wheel's list price is ¥176,902 including tax,
I wouldn't buy it just to pull out the rim.
For reference, when this wheel first came out
the front wheel's list price was ¥107,690 including tax.
This rim's outer tire bed surface was clean,
with no rim cement or anything on it,
so even calling it "actual measured rim weight" was fine.
Being able to measure a rim in a condition
where I didn't have to call it "reference weight"
is rare for me—lucky!
Not that I'm sharing that luck with anyone, of course.
↑wow what a jerk
Sorry to keep you waiting! Please look at this image!
Front rim!
Rear rim!
↑Stop it!
A tangent unrelated to the main story.
The image above is the latest generation Dura-Ace rear wheel,
with a 10-speed "dedicated" freebody.
When trying to install the previous generation 9-speed sprocket onto this,
it catches where the spline teeth get taller,
so you can't install it.
I don't think Shimano is so small a company that they need to resort to
this kind of petty anti-consumer nonsense
to drive component replacement.
Being able to install a previous-generation sprocket onto
the latest rear wheel
wouldn't cause Shimano to lose profits, I'd argue.
I wish they'd apply the brainpower they waste on this stuff
toward designing actually better wheels instead.
And don't you dare pull this crap again, you hear me.
The latest Dura-Ace 12-speed "dedicated" freebody doesn't accept
11-speed sprockets! No way!
Another wheel day (and so on...).
Continuing from yesterday.
I'm rebuilding the rear wheel on the WH-R9270 C50 tubular.
Unlike the front wheel, this rear wheel wasn't a loose example.
Actually, the Optibalance (Optibalsystem) isn't bad design
for a 2:1 lacing pattern.
The spokes going in the opposing direction from those coming out of the same
flange pair are nearly in a straight line with the porcupine direction spokes,
which means the porcupine direction spokes
are arranged nearly tangent to the hub flange.
It uses J-lacing for rim holes without offset phase,
and the non-freewheel side isn't tangent-laced—two points that make it
far superior to Rovar rear wheels.
Looking at the wheel from the side,
the non-freewheel side 0-cross spokes don't pass through
the final cross of the freewheel side because
the hub flanges have offset phase.
I wondered if the spoke trajectory was intentionally offset from radial
to consider torsional rigidity against stress during disc brake application,
but since the rim-brake version rear wheels have offset phase too,
maybe they're considering the stress of the freewheel being twisted forward during pedaling instead.
The 16-hole 0-cross front wheels for rim-brake also have offset phase,
which might be considering anti-torsional rigidity too.
Though the 16-hole spoke count itself is such a negative factor
that any rigidity benefit from offset phase is utterly blown away.
The Chris King R45D center-lock rear hub
doesn't support internal-thread type disc rotor lock rings
(the kind that use the sprocket lock ring tool).
First you remove the cone adjustment nut,
then secure the rotor with an external-thread type
lock ring (the kind that uses the original Hollowtech II BB tool),
and then install the cone adjustment nut back on.
Built it.
Chris King R45D hub, 24-hole, black half-comp 4-cross JIS lacing.
I'll tie the spokes later.
The SRAM XDR freebody spec is interesting.
I should mention—I reused the original nipples for both wheels.
They have a hexagonal grip on the outer end,
and the pocket depth (where the inner threads start) is similar to standard nipples,
but the outer thread length is longer,
yet the spoke threads protruded two or more turns from the nipple end face
on all sides, in the stock configuration—
while the spoke thread length was standard spoke length.
This means this off-the-shelf wheel used up almost the entire spoke thread length,
so there's probably almost no room to increase tension from the factory state.
The hub shell has markings at two locations in 180° phase,
and they look identical at first glance,
but the marking below "Chris King" differs:
one side says "Made in USA,"
the other is a serial number, so
I unified the marking visible from the valve hole
to the "Made in USA" side on both wheels.
I know who manufactures this rim,
but the embedded rim label has QR codes on both sides,
the top row is a string of numbers starting with 21
(I've considered whether the recent 22 and 23 starters might indicate
20XX year of manufacture in the last two digits,
but given how common 21 is, that's probably not it),
and the bottom row is alphanumerics starting with CD.
Examples from other brands (→here)
But on this rim it was TD instead of CD,
so C means clincher and T means tubular.
Maybe on rim-brake rims the second letter is R instead of D.
This tubular rim was quite light for its rim height.
It was lighter than I expected,
but given that the front wheel's list price is ¥176,902 including tax,
I wouldn't buy it just to pull out the rim.
For reference, when this wheel first came out
the front wheel's list price was ¥107,690 including tax.
This rim's outer tire bed surface was clean,
with no rim cement or anything on it,
so even calling it "actual measured rim weight" was fine.
Being able to measure a rim in a condition
where I didn't have to call it "reference weight"
is rare for me—lucky!
Not that I'm sharing that luck with anyone, of course.
↑wow what a jerk
Sorry to keep you waiting! Please look at this image!
Front rim!
Rear rim!
↑Stop it!