Another wheel day (and so on).
A customer brought in a rear wheel from a ZIPP 303 Firecrest for us to work on.
I've taped plastic string to both the sprocket and rim with duct tape,
and the reason I'm doing this is
to show that the freebody is free-spinning in both directions in a still image.
The freebody is a pawl spring type with six pawls.
The pawls are rusted and lying flat.
When the wheel first arrived, the rust had seized the freebody completely,
but after applying force to get it rotating again,
it became free-spinning in both directions.
The Tni Evolite hub—or Novatec 482SL hub as it's actually called—
had a design change in the later version where the freebody went from three pawls to four pawls,
and the pawl size was also reduced slightly.
Since the spring power of a single C-clip is divided among more pawls,
with three pawls, even when you pack grease between the pawls and ratchet,
the pawls don't stay flat,
but with four pawls doing that, the pawls don't pop up as strongly.
Growing impatient with the long-term shortage of Evolite hubs,
we started stocking a hub called Reef hub,
which originally divided a single spring's power among six pawls,
then later became a three-pawl design (using every other position),
and eventually the pawl mounting seats themselves were reduced to three locations.
The type where all pawls share a single spring's power
appears to have the fewest problems with the three-pawl configuration.
Regarding the image above,
the round metal ring attached is a pawl retention ring,
not a pawl return spring.
I straightened out the rusted pawls.
This type has individual coil springs (spiral springs) attached to each pawl.
The Mavic FTS-L freebody uses this method with two pawls,
and cases of pawls staying flat with the FTS-L freebody are virtually nonexistent.
The Delrin material on the back surface of the freebody
and the bellows-like rubber seal
are in light compression contact at all times,
so the thick liquid freewheel oil doesn't leak,
maintaining lubrication around the pawls for the long term.
As for ZIPP hubs, whether pawl spring or cognition type,
the waterproofing of the seal between the hub body and freebody is extremely poor,
and water easily gets in during wet weather riding.
This causes grease and oil to wash out, which leads to bearings failing quickly
or the freebody ratchet mechanism becoming non-functional—I see this happen all the time.
This rear wheel is a race-only special wheel,
meaning it's not used regularly.
The last race it was used in had rain,
and it's been sitting idle ever since, so the ratchet area has rusted.
So while it's not entirely the user's fault to say
"maintenance is lacking against this crappy hub's poor waterproofing,"
even if we properly degrease, rust-proof, oil, and re-grease it from here,
there's no guarantee that the freebody won't free-spin forward again in the future,
so we decided to swap out the hub and rebuild the wheel.
If this wheel were a regular all-purpose wheel used "for" racing as well,
there's a possibility the rust wouldn't have progressed this far.
The case where it was last used in a rainy race and then abandoned, only to discover freebody forward-spin at the next race venue,
happens with other brands too besides ZIPP—there was a period when Colima hubs did this—
and for the manufacturer's elegant answer to that (→see here).
This is an ordinary 303 (not a Firecrest) that happened to come in today on someone's bike,
and it's the same generation as this Firecrest we're working on.
On this one, the pawl spring mechanism
uses leaf springs (flat springs) on each pawl, in a three-pawl configuration.
This rear wheel had its bearings destroyed by water intrusion about a year ago,
with condensation inside the hub body and
bearing debris mixed with grease forming a clay-like sludge,
which we fixed by cleaning and replacing the bearings.
At that time, because metal debris was trapped between the bearing and left end cup while still being ridden,
the inside of the left end cup got nicely worn down.
The anodizing on the surface of the bearing's inner race contact area isn't peeling,
so we're continuing to use it.
Also, this 303 owner switched from the wheels that came on their complete bike
to these coveted ZIPP wheels, and while they definitely noticed the rims got lighter,
they also noticed the bike definitely doesn't go faster,
so we're rebuilding and lacing it here at the shop.
Back to the 303 Firecrest.
Rebuilding the rear wheel with a hub change,
even if the black CX-RAY bent-elbow spokes on both sides happen to be the right length and reusable,
we won't reuse them.
We need them in case this becomes a warranty case,
so we're returning the original hub and spokes to the customer.
The nipples have an excellent design so we reused those.
There was considerable gunk packed into the nipple's grooves.
The rim's sidewall was also quite dirty, especially on the right side where sprocket oil splashes,
so we cleaned it while the rim was still separate.
We degreased and cleaned the nipples and nipple washers.
Starting in the next generation, these washers were discontinued,
replaced by special nipples with larger contact area with the rim.
It's built.
Revoldy disc hub, 24H, black half CX Sprint,
46 JIS lacing.
Lacing will be done later.
Regarding ZIPP wheels,
unlike in the past, there's no single rim available for sale,
so the only way to measure rim weight is to disassemble a complete wheel...
～Entrance announcement cut～
Sorry for the wait!
Please look at this image!
Stop it!
A customer brought in a rear wheel from a ZIPP 303 Firecrest for us to work on.
I've taped plastic string to both the sprocket and rim with duct tape,
and the reason I'm doing this is
to show that the freebody is free-spinning in both directions in a still image.
The freebody is a pawl spring type with six pawls.
The pawls are rusted and lying flat.
When the wheel first arrived, the rust had seized the freebody completely,
but after applying force to get it rotating again,
it became free-spinning in both directions.
The Tni Evolite hub—or Novatec 482SL hub as it's actually called—
had a design change in the later version where the freebody went from three pawls to four pawls,
and the pawl size was also reduced slightly.
Since the spring power of a single C-clip is divided among more pawls,
with three pawls, even when you pack grease between the pawls and ratchet,
the pawls don't stay flat,
but with four pawls doing that, the pawls don't pop up as strongly.
Growing impatient with the long-term shortage of Evolite hubs,
we started stocking a hub called Reef hub,
which originally divided a single spring's power among six pawls,
then later became a three-pawl design (using every other position),
and eventually the pawl mounting seats themselves were reduced to three locations.
The type where all pawls share a single spring's power
appears to have the fewest problems with the three-pawl configuration.
Regarding the image above,
the round metal ring attached is a pawl retention ring,
not a pawl return spring.
I straightened out the rusted pawls.
This type has individual coil springs (spiral springs) attached to each pawl.
The Mavic FTS-L freebody uses this method with two pawls,
and cases of pawls staying flat with the FTS-L freebody are virtually nonexistent.
The Delrin material on the back surface of the freebody
and the bellows-like rubber seal
are in light compression contact at all times,
so the thick liquid freewheel oil doesn't leak,
maintaining lubrication around the pawls for the long term.
As for ZIPP hubs, whether pawl spring or cognition type,
the waterproofing of the seal between the hub body and freebody is extremely poor,
and water easily gets in during wet weather riding.
This causes grease and oil to wash out, which leads to bearings failing quickly
or the freebody ratchet mechanism becoming non-functional—I see this happen all the time.
This rear wheel is a race-only special wheel,
meaning it's not used regularly.
The last race it was used in had rain,
and it's been sitting idle ever since, so the ratchet area has rusted.
So while it's not entirely the user's fault to say
"maintenance is lacking against this crappy hub's poor waterproofing,"
even if we properly degrease, rust-proof, oil, and re-grease it from here,
there's no guarantee that the freebody won't free-spin forward again in the future,
so we decided to swap out the hub and rebuild the wheel.
If this wheel were a regular all-purpose wheel used "for" racing as well,
there's a possibility the rust wouldn't have progressed this far.
The case where it was last used in a rainy race and then abandoned, only to discover freebody forward-spin at the next race venue,
happens with other brands too besides ZIPP—there was a period when Colima hubs did this—
and for the manufacturer's elegant answer to that (→see here).
This is an ordinary 303 (not a Firecrest) that happened to come in today on someone's bike,
and it's the same generation as this Firecrest we're working on.
On this one, the pawl spring mechanism
uses leaf springs (flat springs) on each pawl, in a three-pawl configuration.
This rear wheel had its bearings destroyed by water intrusion about a year ago,
with condensation inside the hub body and
bearing debris mixed with grease forming a clay-like sludge,
which we fixed by cleaning and replacing the bearings.
At that time, because metal debris was trapped between the bearing and left end cup while still being ridden,
the inside of the left end cup got nicely worn down.
The anodizing on the surface of the bearing's inner race contact area isn't peeling,
so we're continuing to use it.
Also, this 303 owner switched from the wheels that came on their complete bike
to these coveted ZIPP wheels, and while they definitely noticed the rims got lighter,
they also noticed the bike definitely doesn't go faster,
so we're rebuilding and lacing it here at the shop.
Back to the 303 Firecrest.
Rebuilding the rear wheel with a hub change,
even if the black CX-RAY bent-elbow spokes on both sides happen to be the right length and reusable,
we won't reuse them.
We need them in case this becomes a warranty case,
so we're returning the original hub and spokes to the customer.
The nipples have an excellent design so we reused those.
There was considerable gunk packed into the nipple's grooves.
The rim's sidewall was also quite dirty, especially on the right side where sprocket oil splashes,
so we cleaned it while the rim was still separate.
We degreased and cleaned the nipples and nipple washers.
Starting in the next generation, these washers were discontinued,
replaced by special nipples with larger contact area with the rim.
It's built.
Revoldy disc hub, 24H, black half CX Sprint,
46 JIS lacing.
Lacing will be done later.
Regarding ZIPP wheels,
unlike in the past, there's no single rim available for sale,
so the only way to measure rim weight is to disassemble a complete wheel...
～Entrance announcement cut～
Sorry for the wait!
Please look at this image!
Stop it!