Nomu Lab Wheel No. 2 is complete!
The rim is a Tni carbon tubular rim, 38mm deep model.
With Nomu Lab Wheel No. 1's AL300 rim, it was only available as a bare rim,
so I had to build it myself, which I actually appreciated.
But with this rim, Tni now offers a factory-built complete model too.
So if I'm still going to build and sell them, there have to be
differentiation points compared to off-the-shelf wheels.
I'll get into that.
The rim distinguishes between front and rear.
There are four spoke hole counts: 18H, 20H, 24H, and 28H.
18H and 20H are for front wheels, 24H and 28H are for rear wheels.
This rim has a part number WH007 from the manufacturer (not Tni),
but even among the same WH007 model,
↑there's a front/rear distinction, and the rear rim has instructions to orient the freewheel side this way when building.
I thought the rear rim might have different hole patterns due to the spoke approach angles being different left and right,
but they look identical at first glance...
Wait, the rear rim actually has a slightly different shape left and right!
It's subtly an offset rim. Clever!
You can build a rear wheel with a front 20H rim,
but you shouldn't build a front wheel with rear 24H or 28H rims.
Starting with the front wheel.
The 18H and 20H rims have a catalog weight of 340g. I measured 347g.
For Nomu Lab Wheel No. 2, I'm making 20H the front standard.
Of course, 18H builds are available on request too.
The hub is a Tni Evolution.
With No. 1, I built everything with DT Competition spokes,
but with this rim depth, I thought using non-aero spokes on the front wasn't right,
so I switched to Sapim CX-RAY spokes.
Up to this point, the specs are basically the same as Tni's factory-built model.
You might think I should just buy the off-the-shelf front wheel from them,
but there are several reasons I don't want to.
First of all, I want to build it myself.
On Tni Sport's website, the rim interior diameter nominal value is listed as 584mm,
but from my measurements, it's clearly around 567mm.
If I trusted that 584mm figure and calculated spoke length based on it,
while ordering the rim at the same time, I'd have been in serious trouble.
I had a hunch something was off, so I ordered just the rim first,
measured the interior diameter, and only ordered spokes the next day. Safe!
Without getting these actual numbers down, I can't respond quickly if a spoke breaks.
The second reason is nipples.
Sapim CX-RAY spokes come with one aluminum nipple per spoke.
If the spokes are silver, you get silver nipples; if black, black nipples,
but this is a trap.
Black nipples are fine enough, but silver nipples have a problem I can't overlook,
so I never use them. They just keep piling up.
I thought I'd use them on my own wheel, and I did build one with them,
but sure enough, problems arose, so I realized I can't use them on customer wheels.
I can't write what the problem is.
So I use DT aluminum nipples instead.
The rear-only 24H and 28H rims have a catalog weight of 336g.
I measured 349g.
For Nomu Lab Wheel No. 2, I'm making 24H the rear standard.
↑As I mentioned earlier, I'm building it as a 4-6 cross, with the non-freewheel side using soldered double-butted spokes.
On the manufacturer's off-the-shelf model, the non-freewheel side uses radial spokes,
so tension is loose. With just a slight weight increase (not on the rim periphery)
we dramatically improve wheel stiffness and balance—that's the key point.
When I build wheels, I don't solder everything (laugh).
But when I'm given a 38mm carbon rim condition and
want to build the theoretically strongest hand-built wheel, soldering was necessary this time.
About pricing.
With No. 1, there's a 5000 yen difference between the 12000 yen front and 17000 yen rear
due to the hub price difference. Strictly speaking, the rear also has four more spokes,
but anyway, calculating for carbon 38mm with Competition spokes came to
38000 yen front / 43000 yen rear.
I upgraded the front spokes to CX-RAY, and since Competition spokes are 80 yen each
while CX-RAY are 340 yen, that's a 260 yen difference × 20 spokes = 5200 yen markup.
I rounded it out to a 5000 yen increase, so
front 43000 yen / rear 43000 yen came out the same price front and rear.
Individual front or rear sales are of course available too.
The actual measured weight is front 523g, rear 759g.
Tni's factory-built model has a catalog weight of front 550g / rear 735g
with a list price of 105000 yen.
The rim is a Tni carbon tubular rim, 38mm deep model.
With Nomu Lab Wheel No. 1's AL300 rim, it was only available as a bare rim,
so I had to build it myself, which I actually appreciated.
But with this rim, Tni now offers a factory-built complete model too.
So if I'm still going to build and sell them, there have to be
differentiation points compared to off-the-shelf wheels.
I'll get into that.
The rim distinguishes between front and rear.
There are four spoke hole counts: 18H, 20H, 24H, and 28H.
18H and 20H are for front wheels, 24H and 28H are for rear wheels.
This rim has a part number WH007 from the manufacturer (not Tni),
but even among the same WH007 model,
↑there's a front/rear distinction, and the rear rim has instructions to orient the freewheel side this way when building.
I thought the rear rim might have different hole patterns due to the spoke approach angles being different left and right,
but they look identical at first glance...
Wait, the rear rim actually has a slightly different shape left and right!
It's subtly an offset rim. Clever!
You can build a rear wheel with a front 20H rim,
but you shouldn't build a front wheel with rear 24H or 28H rims.
Starting with the front wheel.
The 18H and 20H rims have a catalog weight of 340g. I measured 347g.
For Nomu Lab Wheel No. 2, I'm making 20H the front standard.
Of course, 18H builds are available on request too.
The hub is a Tni Evolution.
With No. 1, I built everything with DT Competition spokes,
but with this rim depth, I thought using non-aero spokes on the front wasn't right,
so I switched to Sapim CX-RAY spokes.
Up to this point, the specs are basically the same as Tni's factory-built model.
You might think I should just buy the off-the-shelf front wheel from them,
but there are several reasons I don't want to.
First of all, I want to build it myself.
On Tni Sport's website, the rim interior diameter nominal value is listed as 584mm,
but from my measurements, it's clearly around 567mm.
If I trusted that 584mm figure and calculated spoke length based on it,
while ordering the rim at the same time, I'd have been in serious trouble.
I had a hunch something was off, so I ordered just the rim first,
measured the interior diameter, and only ordered spokes the next day. Safe!
Without getting these actual numbers down, I can't respond quickly if a spoke breaks.
The second reason is nipples.
Sapim CX-RAY spokes come with one aluminum nipple per spoke.
If the spokes are silver, you get silver nipples; if black, black nipples,
but this is a trap.
Black nipples are fine enough, but silver nipples have a problem I can't overlook,
so I never use them. They just keep piling up.
I thought I'd use them on my own wheel, and I did build one with them,
but sure enough, problems arose, so I realized I can't use them on customer wheels.
I can't write what the problem is.
So I use DT aluminum nipples instead.
The rear-only 24H and 28H rims have a catalog weight of 336g.
I measured 349g.
For Nomu Lab Wheel No. 2, I'm making 24H the rear standard.
↑As I mentioned earlier, I'm building it as a 4-6 cross, with the non-freewheel side using soldered double-butted spokes.
On the manufacturer's off-the-shelf model, the non-freewheel side uses radial spokes,
so tension is loose. With just a slight weight increase (not on the rim periphery)
we dramatically improve wheel stiffness and balance—that's the key point.
When I build wheels, I don't solder everything (laugh).
But when I'm given a 38mm carbon rim condition and
want to build the theoretically strongest hand-built wheel, soldering was necessary this time.
About pricing.
With No. 1, there's a 5000 yen difference between the 12000 yen front and 17000 yen rear
due to the hub price difference. Strictly speaking, the rear also has four more spokes,
but anyway, calculating for carbon 38mm with Competition spokes came to
38000 yen front / 43000 yen rear.
I upgraded the front spokes to CX-RAY, and since Competition spokes are 80 yen each
while CX-RAY are 340 yen, that's a 260 yen difference × 20 spokes = 5200 yen markup.
I rounded it out to a 5000 yen increase, so
front 43000 yen / rear 43000 yen came out the same price front and rear.
Individual front or rear sales are of course available too.
The actual measured weight is front 523g, rear 759g.
Tni's factory-built model has a catalog weight of front 550g / rear 735g
with a list price of 105000 yen.