A customer brought in a new old stock complete bike — a Time Alpe d'Huez 21 — that they purchased from a shop with a used goods dealer license,
requesting inspection and parts replacement.
When you say "Time complete bike,"
it's not a manufacturer-built complete bike.
The bar tape is Cinelli, the handlebar and stem are FSA,
the wheels are Vision, an FSA wheel and aero parts brand,
and the tires are Hutchinson.
All of these brands are parts brands handled by
Time's distributor,
and this is a complete bike where the distributor decided on the parts configuration.
It's a parts spec that heavily reflects the seller's convenience —
generating sales performance (or meeting sales quotas)
against FSA and other manufacturers
by mounting their products on complete bikes.
For example, the distributor who handles Pinarello exclusively in Japan
also distributes Pirelli, Profile, and Fizik,
but they don't sell Pinarello complete bikes bundled with
Profile handlebars and wheels,
Pirelli tires, and Fizik saddles.
This is getting into the weeds about darker industry stuff
unrelated to the main point of this post,
but I think this is around a 2021 model,
and despite being a used bike,
the Cinelli white bar tape shows absolutely no grime,
and none of the parts show any signs of use.
There's no dust or fading that would come from
about four years of indoor display,
and it looks like it was just pulled from a 70% assembled box right before sale.
So it's certain that whoever brought it to the used shop was either
the distributor or a shop that had it sitting unopened in a box.
I actually know of cases where distributors or shops
took a loss and sold inventory to used shops just to convert it to cash,
even below cost, as long as the damage was deemed minor
（I'm not saying this particular case went through the distributor, mind you）,
and some used bike shops even split their purchase assessments
between individual and corporate sales.
The fact that I think it's lame that bikes can't be
sold through proper distribution channels at proper prices
is probably just arrogance on my part,
since our shop doesn't deal in complete bike sales anyway.
The tires are Hutchinson's budget model Equinox 2,
and not even the Kevlar bead version —
they're steel bead, which doesn't fold and weighs a ton,
showing real effort in cost-cutting.
The tube was Hutchinson too.
I removed the tires to true the wheels and center the brakes,
and Vision's aluminum rim wheels had rim tape attached
that supposedly matches the measured internal rim width,
but it's being pulled into the rim center depression,
resulting in the tape width being too narrow and not fitting properly.
I strongly recommend replacing it with tubeless tape.
I did that with these wheels too.
Even if you're not planning to run tubeless tires,
rim holes can show through from misaligned stretch tape,
and that can cause flats,
so it's not that "you only apply tubeless tape if you're going tubeless."
The Ultegra 11-speed chain CN-HG701 was connected
with a pin typical of bulk chains for complete bike manufacturers.
11-speed also offers quick links as an option,
but the head shape differs on retail connect pins.
I determined the chain was new and unused,
but if it showed slight wear, sometimes when installing
a different new chain, we use the leftover links from the cut section
to adjust the length.
The complete bike spec had a 50T outer chainring
and a 28T low sprocket, which I changed to
52T and 34T respectively,
so I removed 4 links from the chain
and added 10 links using 2 pins,
for a net increase of 6 links.
The image above shows the 4 links I removed,
including the original connect pin.
To run an 11-34T sprocket,
the rear derailleur needs to be GS, not SS,
but for some reason the complete bike's rear derailleur was already GS.
This is Vision's rear wheel for this job.
I had the disc rotor removed for the photo shoot.
"Looking at the wheel from the side, from the valve hole going clockwise,
the spoke at the next rim hole comes from
the far hub flange as viewed from here."
This remains true even if you flip the wheel left to right.
In other words, this is what I call a normal-rim wheel on this blog.
With a normal rim and left-right tangent lacing,
the relationship between one side's final crossing and
the final crossing at the opposite flange that's most similar in phase is:
"relative to the final crossing at the near side as viewed from here,
the final crossing at the far side is slightly offset counterclockwise."
This too remains the same when you flip the wheel left to right.
On the hub flange protrusion directly beneath
the final crossing's radial line,
I marked it with a white pen on the hub flange
with the customer's permission.
Counterintuitively,
when rim holes are evenly spaced,
the hub flange phase offset is not
exactly at the midpoint.
Regarding Tange's utterly stupid hub that positions
the flange protrusion exactly at the midpoint
(→this)
for details on what came of that (→this).
Rim brake Hyperons and
Racing Zero front wheels are reverse-rim,
but they're radially laced, so phase offset and
torsion aren't a problem.
The Hyperon rear wheel is also reverse-rim,
but one side (the anti-freewheel side) is radially laced, so
even when building normal-rim wheels with equal spoke counts on both sides, 24H,
other than Hyperon, you can avoid
building an ugly wheel where the valve hole lands
between the final crossing legs on the freewheel side.
The matching front wheel.
From the valve hole going clockwise, the spoke at the next rim hole
comes from the near flange as viewed from here.
Just to be clear,
this is a 24H equal-spoke-count wheel.
With 2:1 lacing or similar, both neighbors of the valve hole could
come from the near flange from your viewpoint.
The final crossing relationship is opposite the rear wheel —
the far flange is offset clockwise.
In other words, this front wheel, unlike the rear, is reverse-rim.
However, a left-right tangent laced, equal-spoke-count,
straight-spoke hub designed with
hub flange phase offset for reverse-rim shouldn't
exist...
But it does exist.
As far as I know, this is the only
left-right tangent laced, reverse-rim dedicated hub.
Other than reverse-rim, you can build wheels even on rims
with no hole offset specification at all.
Now that I think about it, there was previously a wheel
where the rim was reverse-rim but they forcibly built it
using a DT 180 straight-spoke disc hub
（which obviously is normal-rim only, without exception）,
reversing the spoke holes to prioritize valve hole phase —
a real piece of crap wheel (→this)(→this),
but pulling the hub out of this front wheel
would solve the problem!
That wheel had titanium spokes that kept loosening, so it was
sent back to the builder twice,
giving multiple opportunities between the initial build and subsequent truing
to notice it was reverse-rim
（I figured it out on first sight）,
but whether the builder was just too stupid,
or knew it was reverse-rim and forced the build anyway,
probably the former, but which is it?
I asked, but still haven't gotten a reply.
requesting inspection and parts replacement.
When you say "Time complete bike,"
it's not a manufacturer-built complete bike.
The bar tape is Cinelli, the handlebar and stem are FSA,
the wheels are Vision, an FSA wheel and aero parts brand,
and the tires are Hutchinson.
All of these brands are parts brands handled by
Time's distributor,
and this is a complete bike where the distributor decided on the parts configuration.
It's a parts spec that heavily reflects the seller's convenience —
generating sales performance (or meeting sales quotas)
against FSA and other manufacturers
by mounting their products on complete bikes.
For example, the distributor who handles Pinarello exclusively in Japan
also distributes Pirelli, Profile, and Fizik,
but they don't sell Pinarello complete bikes bundled with
Profile handlebars and wheels,
Pirelli tires, and Fizik saddles.
This is getting into the weeds about darker industry stuff
unrelated to the main point of this post,
but I think this is around a 2021 model,
and despite being a used bike,
the Cinelli white bar tape shows absolutely no grime,
and none of the parts show any signs of use.
There's no dust or fading that would come from
about four years of indoor display,
and it looks like it was just pulled from a 70% assembled box right before sale.
So it's certain that whoever brought it to the used shop was either
the distributor or a shop that had it sitting unopened in a box.
I actually know of cases where distributors or shops
took a loss and sold inventory to used shops just to convert it to cash,
even below cost, as long as the damage was deemed minor
（I'm not saying this particular case went through the distributor, mind you）,
and some used bike shops even split their purchase assessments
between individual and corporate sales.
The fact that I think it's lame that bikes can't be
sold through proper distribution channels at proper prices
is probably just arrogance on my part,
since our shop doesn't deal in complete bike sales anyway.
The tires are Hutchinson's budget model Equinox 2,
and not even the Kevlar bead version —
they're steel bead, which doesn't fold and weighs a ton,
showing real effort in cost-cutting.
The tube was Hutchinson too.
I removed the tires to true the wheels and center the brakes,
and Vision's aluminum rim wheels had rim tape attached
that supposedly matches the measured internal rim width,
but it's being pulled into the rim center depression,
resulting in the tape width being too narrow and not fitting properly.
I strongly recommend replacing it with tubeless tape.
I did that with these wheels too.
Even if you're not planning to run tubeless tires,
rim holes can show through from misaligned stretch tape,
and that can cause flats,
so it's not that "you only apply tubeless tape if you're going tubeless."
The Ultegra 11-speed chain CN-HG701 was connected
with a pin typical of bulk chains for complete bike manufacturers.
11-speed also offers quick links as an option,
but the head shape differs on retail connect pins.
I determined the chain was new and unused,
but if it showed slight wear, sometimes when installing
a different new chain, we use the leftover links from the cut section
to adjust the length.
The complete bike spec had a 50T outer chainring
and a 28T low sprocket, which I changed to
52T and 34T respectively,
so I removed 4 links from the chain
and added 10 links using 2 pins,
for a net increase of 6 links.
The image above shows the 4 links I removed,
including the original connect pin.
To run an 11-34T sprocket,
the rear derailleur needs to be GS, not SS,
but for some reason the complete bike's rear derailleur was already GS.
This is Vision's rear wheel for this job.
I had the disc rotor removed for the photo shoot.
"Looking at the wheel from the side, from the valve hole going clockwise,
the spoke at the next rim hole comes from
the far hub flange as viewed from here."
This remains true even if you flip the wheel left to right.
In other words, this is what I call a normal-rim wheel on this blog.
With a normal rim and left-right tangent lacing,
the relationship between one side's final crossing and
the final crossing at the opposite flange that's most similar in phase is:
"relative to the final crossing at the near side as viewed from here,
the final crossing at the far side is slightly offset counterclockwise."
This too remains the same when you flip the wheel left to right.
On the hub flange protrusion directly beneath
the final crossing's radial line,
I marked it with a white pen on the hub flange
with the customer's permission.
Counterintuitively,
when rim holes are evenly spaced,
the hub flange phase offset is not
exactly at the midpoint.
Regarding Tange's utterly stupid hub that positions
the flange protrusion exactly at the midpoint
(→this)
for details on what came of that (→this).
Rim brake Hyperons and
Racing Zero front wheels are reverse-rim,
but they're radially laced, so phase offset and
torsion aren't a problem.
The Hyperon rear wheel is also reverse-rim,
but one side (the anti-freewheel side) is radially laced, so
even when building normal-rim wheels with equal spoke counts on both sides, 24H,
other than Hyperon, you can avoid
building an ugly wheel where the valve hole lands
between the final crossing legs on the freewheel side.
The matching front wheel.
From the valve hole going clockwise, the spoke at the next rim hole
comes from the near flange as viewed from here.
Just to be clear,
this is a 24H equal-spoke-count wheel.
With 2:1 lacing or similar, both neighbors of the valve hole could
come from the near flange from your viewpoint.
The final crossing relationship is opposite the rear wheel —
the far flange is offset clockwise.
In other words, this front wheel, unlike the rear, is reverse-rim.
However, a left-right tangent laced, equal-spoke-count,
straight-spoke hub designed with
hub flange phase offset for reverse-rim shouldn't
exist...
But it does exist.
As far as I know, this is the only
left-right tangent laced, reverse-rim dedicated hub.
Other than reverse-rim, you can build wheels even on rims
with no hole offset specification at all.
Now that I think about it, there was previously a wheel
where the rim was reverse-rim but they forcibly built it
using a DT 180 straight-spoke disc hub
（which obviously is normal-rim only, without exception）,
reversing the spoke holes to prioritize valve hole phase —
a real piece of crap wheel (→this)(→this),
but pulling the hub out of this front wheel
would solve the problem!
That wheel had titanium spokes that kept loosening, so it was
sent back to the builder twice,
giving multiple opportunities between the initial build and subsequent truing
to notice it was reverse-rim
（I figured it out on first sight）,
but whether the builder was just too stupid,
or knew it was reverse-rim and forced the build anyway,
probably the former, but which is it?
I asked, but still haven't gotten a reply.