Another wheel build today (and so on).
I built the rear wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #8 using a hub from Q'AUTO (Quoto), Shimano's learning-type automatic shifting component.
It uses an offset rim,
but since it's "a wheel built with the AL22W rim we sourced in-house,"
it meets the specifications for Nomu Lab Wheel #8.
FH-U6060 hub, 28H
Competé/CX Sprint, 4-cross JIS lacing
Turquoise aluminum nipples.
As for wire tying... I'll probably do it.
A flat cable emerges from the hub shaft with the same connector shape as the EW-SD300.
This connects to the Di2 rear derailleur, and conveniently, all current Di2 rear derailleurs—including road models—are now single-pivot designs.
With single-pivot design, the body parts other than the pulley cage don't swing during shifting, so the relationship between the frame and the rear derailleur connector remains fixed. Because of this, there's no need to make the electronic cable extra long to account for derailleur movement.
With this hub, the electrical power generated by the dynamo also supplies power to the Di2 rear derailleur,
so a seatpost battery is unnecessary.
This is unrelated to Quoto, but I once heard from a customer about someone who bought an FC-R9100P—a Dura-Ace crankset with a power meter—online and tried to install it themselves, but carelessly snapped the wire connecting the left and right cranks. When they consulted Shimano about it
(apparently there's a consultation-only support window),
they were essentially told "That's your problem" (quite the summary),
and that was the end of it.
The Hollowtech II road cranksets have had a tradition since the first model, the FC-7800, of not selling the right crank as a spare part (→here).
However, with Shimano's power meter-equipped cranksets, the wire connecting the left and right is attached to the left crank side, so while it's a financial hit, it can be obtained.
Remembering this story made me wonder whether there's a recovery method if the Quoto hub cable gets snapped.
If there isn't, in addition to the financial cost of buying a new hub, there'd also be the hassle of rebuilding the wheel.
The Quoto cable isn't something you set once and never touch again—you need to disconnect and reconnect it every time you remove and install the rear wheel.
But users who adopted Quoto before weren't in the habit of being careful with the cable during that process, so it's definitely something to watch out for.
I checked, and the cable can be replaced.
In the image above, you can see factory grease seeping around the spline that's a different color from the hub body.
There's a dedicated tool called TL-FH18 that goes on this part,
allowing the freewheel body to be removed.
The specified tightening torque for this spot is 180–200 Nm.
Apart from the wheel itself, it would be impossible to loosen or tighten with just a hub on its own.
During initial factory assembly, it's definitely done with the hub fixed in a jig.
The cable spare part has part number Y3K598050 and comes with heat-shrink tubing and a cable tie in addition to the flat cable. These are used to secure it to the hub shaft, which is integrated with the internal unit.
The Quoto hub's part number is FH-U6060.
R denotes road, M denotes mountain, and U denotes urban. CUES (Cues) has U8000-series, U6000-series, and U4000-series hubs, but this hub doesn't carry the U8000 designation.
Di2 component parts initially had 7 in the tens place (like the Di2 9970 from the 7900 group), but starting with the R9100 road component group, the last digits changed from 70 to 50, with 20 added for STI levers with disc brakes—that became the naming convention.
This hub has a unique 60 ending that hasn't appeared before,
designated as FH-U6060.
And this is currently the only CUES-grade hub.
The Di2 rear derailleurs that Shimano envisions as compatible are not the U6000-series but the U8000-series:
the RD-U8050-GS and
RD-U8050-SGS.
However, the GS version is 1×10S,
while the SGS version is 1×10 or 1×11S.
The GS and SGS have identical pantograph geometry.
CUES uses an LG (Link Glide) chain, which is 11-speed width but compatible with 10S and 9S as well, so the chain doesn't change even when the sprocket count does.
The reason the pulley cage length determines sprocket count is that CUES 11-speed sprockets come in two finish variants: the CS-LG700 and CS-LG400. Both offer 11–45T and 11–50T configurations.
For 10-speed sprockets,
the CS-LG400-10 comes in
11–39T, 11–43T, and 11–48T,
while the CS-LG300-10 comes in
11–39T and 11–48T.
Impressive how it's following SRAM's MTB and road XPLR tooth count configurations
In contrast, the RD-U8050 rear derailleur
has allowable sprocket tooth ranges of
43T min/max for GS,
45T min/50T max for SGS.
Since the GS has a maximum of 43T, it's incompatible with both the 11-speed 11–45T and 11–50T,
which is why it's excluded.
Most people don't know this, but the rear derailleur pulley cage length—listed from shortest to longest—comes in SS, GS, and SGS. These are each
SS Super Sport
GS Grand Sport
SGS Super Grand Sport
—acronyms unique to Shimano's nomenclature.
Since the first letter of the short-cage SS appears to mean Short (short), it's easy to get confused and think "SGS is shorter than GS (I don't know what GS means, but maybe it's short GS?)," which is confusing.
I built the rear wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #8 using a hub from Q'AUTO (Quoto), Shimano's learning-type automatic shifting component.
It uses an offset rim,
but since it's "a wheel built with the AL22W rim we sourced in-house,"
it meets the specifications for Nomu Lab Wheel #8.
FH-U6060 hub, 28H
Competé/CX Sprint, 4-cross JIS lacing
Turquoise aluminum nipples.
As for wire tying... I'll probably do it.
A flat cable emerges from the hub shaft with the same connector shape as the EW-SD300.
This connects to the Di2 rear derailleur, and conveniently, all current Di2 rear derailleurs—including road models—are now single-pivot designs.
With single-pivot design, the body parts other than the pulley cage don't swing during shifting, so the relationship between the frame and the rear derailleur connector remains fixed. Because of this, there's no need to make the electronic cable extra long to account for derailleur movement.
With this hub, the electrical power generated by the dynamo also supplies power to the Di2 rear derailleur,
so a seatpost battery is unnecessary.
This is unrelated to Quoto, but I once heard from a customer about someone who bought an FC-R9100P—a Dura-Ace crankset with a power meter—online and tried to install it themselves, but carelessly snapped the wire connecting the left and right cranks. When they consulted Shimano about it
(apparently there's a consultation-only support window),
they were essentially told "That's your problem" (quite the summary),
and that was the end of it.
The Hollowtech II road cranksets have had a tradition since the first model, the FC-7800, of not selling the right crank as a spare part (→here).
However, with Shimano's power meter-equipped cranksets, the wire connecting the left and right is attached to the left crank side, so while it's a financial hit, it can be obtained.
Remembering this story made me wonder whether there's a recovery method if the Quoto hub cable gets snapped.
If there isn't, in addition to the financial cost of buying a new hub, there'd also be the hassle of rebuilding the wheel.
The Quoto cable isn't something you set once and never touch again—you need to disconnect and reconnect it every time you remove and install the rear wheel.
But users who adopted Quoto before weren't in the habit of being careful with the cable during that process, so it's definitely something to watch out for.
I checked, and the cable can be replaced.
In the image above, you can see factory grease seeping around the spline that's a different color from the hub body.
There's a dedicated tool called TL-FH18 that goes on this part,
allowing the freewheel body to be removed.
The specified tightening torque for this spot is 180–200 Nm.
Apart from the wheel itself, it would be impossible to loosen or tighten with just a hub on its own.
During initial factory assembly, it's definitely done with the hub fixed in a jig.
The cable spare part has part number Y3K598050 and comes with heat-shrink tubing and a cable tie in addition to the flat cable. These are used to secure it to the hub shaft, which is integrated with the internal unit.
The Quoto hub's part number is FH-U6060.
R denotes road, M denotes mountain, and U denotes urban. CUES (Cues) has U8000-series, U6000-series, and U4000-series hubs, but this hub doesn't carry the U8000 designation.
Di2 component parts initially had 7 in the tens place (like the Di2 9970 from the 7900 group), but starting with the R9100 road component group, the last digits changed from 70 to 50, with 20 added for STI levers with disc brakes—that became the naming convention.
This hub has a unique 60 ending that hasn't appeared before,
designated as FH-U6060.
And this is currently the only CUES-grade hub.
The Di2 rear derailleurs that Shimano envisions as compatible are not the U6000-series but the U8000-series:
the RD-U8050-GS and
RD-U8050-SGS.
However, the GS version is 1×10S,
while the SGS version is 1×10 or 1×11S.
The GS and SGS have identical pantograph geometry.
CUES uses an LG (Link Glide) chain, which is 11-speed width but compatible with 10S and 9S as well, so the chain doesn't change even when the sprocket count does.
The reason the pulley cage length determines sprocket count is that CUES 11-speed sprockets come in two finish variants: the CS-LG700 and CS-LG400. Both offer 11–45T and 11–50T configurations.
For 10-speed sprockets,
the CS-LG400-10 comes in
11–39T, 11–43T, and 11–48T,
while the CS-LG300-10 comes in
11–39T and 11–48T.
In contrast, the RD-U8050 rear derailleur
has allowable sprocket tooth ranges of
43T min/max for GS,
45T min/50T max for SGS.
Since the GS has a maximum of 43T, it's incompatible with both the 11-speed 11–45T and 11–50T,
which is why it's excluded.
Most people don't know this, but the rear derailleur pulley cage length—listed from shortest to longest—comes in SS, GS, and SGS. These are each
SS Super Sport
GS Grand Sport
SGS Super Grand Sport
—acronyms unique to Shimano's nomenclature.
Since the first letter of the short-cage SS appears to mean Short (short), it's easy to get confused and think "SGS is shorter than GS (I don't know what GS means, but maybe it's short GS?)," which is confusing.