Back to wheels again today (and so on...).
A customer brought in a Velomax hub for me to work with.
It's not a specialized hub for straight-gauge or double-butted spokes,
but a regular hub for standard spokes—and the lacing holes aren't in paired-spoke phase,
so I can build a wheel with an ordinary rim that has the same spoke count.
I'll be building this one on a TB-25 tubular rim.
Velomax was acquired by Easton.
When Easton was expanding their bicycle parts division,
acquiring Velomax for wheel production must have made business sense.
For about a year after the acquisition, they continued with the double branding "Easton Velomax,"
but after that it became the Easton brand exclusively.
Easton originally specialized in sports equipment using various alloys—
they have significant market share in things like baseball bats and hockey sticks.
Stuff like the inner legs of RockShox front suspension forks
and parts of Dura-Ace seatposts (everything but the saddle clamp) have been Easton-made.
Got the rear wheel built.
All-Campagnolo 16-spoke lacing.
Got the front wheel built too.
The customer wanted inpoke radial lacing,
but with those thick flanges, I was worried there might be interference issues if I went with inpoke...
but it worked out fine.
Thick flanges are actually a good thing—they make spoke breakage less likely.
(Traditional hubs like Dura-Ace tend to have somewhat thick flanges.)
"Affordable aluminum-rim tubular wheels" are a niche market,
but precisely because it's niche, there's no complete bikes in that category.
In today's era where carbon rims are the norm,
I'd actually say tubular tire demand is a bit higher than it used to be,
but maybe the economics just don't work out.
A customer brought in a Velomax hub for me to work with.
It's not a specialized hub for straight-gauge or double-butted spokes,
but a regular hub for standard spokes—and the lacing holes aren't in paired-spoke phase,
so I can build a wheel with an ordinary rim that has the same spoke count.
I'll be building this one on a TB-25 tubular rim.
Velomax was acquired by Easton.
When Easton was expanding their bicycle parts division,
acquiring Velomax for wheel production must have made business sense.
For about a year after the acquisition, they continued with the double branding "Easton Velomax,"
but after that it became the Easton brand exclusively.
Easton originally specialized in sports equipment using various alloys—
they have significant market share in things like baseball bats and hockey sticks.
Stuff like the inner legs of RockShox front suspension forks
and parts of Dura-Ace seatposts (everything but the saddle clamp) have been Easton-made.
Got the rear wheel built.
All-Campagnolo 16-spoke lacing.
Got the front wheel built too.
The customer wanted inpoke radial lacing,
but with those thick flanges, I was worried there might be interference issues if I went with inpoke...
but it worked out fine.
Thick flanges are actually a good thing—they make spoke breakage less likely.
(Traditional hubs like Dura-Ace tend to have somewhat thick flanges.)
"Affordable aluminum-rim tubular wheels" are a niche market,
but precisely because it's niche, there's no complete bikes in that category.
In today's era where carbon rims are the norm,
I'd actually say tubular tire demand is a bit higher than it used to be,
but maybe the economics just don't work out.