A customer brought in a front wheel for the Prime Attacker
disc brake model wheel for me to service.
Just to be clear,
the Attacker also comes in a rim brake model.
This is the disc brake version of the Attacker specifically.
Straight-pull spoke hub, 24H
built with forced 2-cross lacing on both sides
Looking at the spoke head, I can tell
these are DT spokes.
According to what I've heard, they're all Aero Lites.
One spoke is broken,
and the customer says this is the third time,
so they want a complete spoke replacement.
They did the repairs themselves
the previous two times.
The two previous repair locations are marked with yellow tape,
and for a wheel built with all Aero Lites,
they used CX-RAY spokes of the same weight rating, but
the length doesn't match.
The nipple grip area is stripped,
and even the nipples on the spokes that weren't replaced
had many stripped trying to true the wheel.
↑DT spoke broken at the head
The customer says this wheel is all Aero Lite,
so when rebuilding, I suggested making the left side (rotor side) CX Sprint spokes—
a half-CX Sprint setup would make the wheel stiffer
and the spokes would be cheaper. But they said
they didn't need it to be stiffer,
so we decided to rebuild it all with CX-RAY, but...
When I examined the original DT spokes,
it turned out this wheel was built with different diameter spokes left and right.
Oh man.
In the Campagnolo spoke press tool's B groove,
the bottom image (fits all the way in) is Aero Lite,
and the top image (doesn't go all the way in) is Aero Comp.
So to restore it as close to original as possible,
we decided to rebuild it with half-CX Sprint.
The previous two repairs on the left side were CX-RAY,
so I had mixed 65% with the 78% weight class side.
Even if the left side CX-RAY repair spokes were the correct length,
I couldn't reuse them on the right side which needs 1–2mm longer,
and since they're already shorter than the proper left side length anyway,
there's no way to reuse them.
I'm not trying to nitpick what the customer did themselves,
but I filled in the broken spoke location with CX Sprint
and true the wheel as much as possible
by adjusting only this spoke's nipple.
What I wanted to do was recreate
the "state just before spoke breakage"
so I could check whether
the wheel center was properly dialed in.
After that, I replaced the spokes one at a time with the originals,
so in this job there was never a moment
where the wheel was completely taken apart to just the rim.
But since it requires more work than a normal wheel build,
I decided it counts as wheel building work,
so today I can claim the title (you know the rest).
The original nipples were Squorx nipples.
Prime often does "raw Squorx builds"—
using Squorx nipples directly without PHR washers,
whether on aluminum or carbon rims.
Squorx nipples have a short vertical grip width
on the inner side and oddly rounded corners,
so once it's past the mock-up stage,
when the wheel has real tension,
even I can't grab the inner part to true it—
the nipple grip area strips immediately.
It's built.
Left side black CX Sprint, right side black CX-RAY,
with DT black aluminum universal nipples.
↑The replaced spokes and nipples
disc brake model wheel for me to service.
Just to be clear,
the Attacker also comes in a rim brake model.
This is the disc brake version of the Attacker specifically.
Straight-pull spoke hub, 24H
built with forced 2-cross lacing on both sides
Looking at the spoke head, I can tell
these are DT spokes.
According to what I've heard, they're all Aero Lites.
One spoke is broken,
and the customer says this is the third time,
so they want a complete spoke replacement.
They did the repairs themselves
the previous two times.
The two previous repair locations are marked with yellow tape,
and for a wheel built with all Aero Lites,
they used CX-RAY spokes of the same weight rating, but
the length doesn't match.
The nipple grip area is stripped,
and even the nipples on the spokes that weren't replaced
had many stripped trying to true the wheel.
↑DT spoke broken at the head
The customer says this wheel is all Aero Lite,
so when rebuilding, I suggested making the left side (rotor side) CX Sprint spokes—
a half-CX Sprint setup would make the wheel stiffer
and the spokes would be cheaper. But they said
they didn't need it to be stiffer,
so we decided to rebuild it all with CX-RAY, but...
When I examined the original DT spokes,
it turned out this wheel was built with different diameter spokes left and right.
Oh man.
In the Campagnolo spoke press tool's B groove,
the bottom image (fits all the way in) is Aero Lite,
and the top image (doesn't go all the way in) is Aero Comp.
So to restore it as close to original as possible,
we decided to rebuild it with half-CX Sprint.
The previous two repairs on the left side were CX-RAY,
so I had mixed 65% with the 78% weight class side.
Even if the left side CX-RAY repair spokes were the correct length,
I couldn't reuse them on the right side which needs 1–2mm longer,
and since they're already shorter than the proper left side length anyway,
there's no way to reuse them.
I'm not trying to nitpick what the customer did themselves,
but I filled in the broken spoke location with CX Sprint
and true the wheel as much as possible
by adjusting only this spoke's nipple.
What I wanted to do was recreate
the "state just before spoke breakage"
so I could check whether
the wheel center was properly dialed in.
After that, I replaced the spokes one at a time with the originals,
so in this job there was never a moment
where the wheel was completely taken apart to just the rim.
But since it requires more work than a normal wheel build,
I decided it counts as wheel building work,
so today I can claim the title (you know the rest).
The original nipples were Squorx nipples.
Prime often does "raw Squorx builds"—
using Squorx nipples directly without PHR washers,
whether on aluminum or carbon rims.
Squorx nipples have a short vertical grip width
on the inner side and oddly rounded corners,
so once it's past the mock-up stage,
when the wheel has real tension,
even I can't grab the inner part to true it—
the nipple grip area strips immediately.
It's built.
Left side black CX Sprint, right side black CX-RAY,
with DT black aluminum universal nipples.
↑The replaced spokes and nipples