Another wheel day (and so on).
A customer brought in a front wheel built with a Planet X
rim and hub for me to work on.
The rim is an R50, a 50mm-high
carbon tubular rim.
The hub is also from Planet X,
20H Sapim Race reverse J-bend radial laced
with brass nipples.
The customer wanted this front wheel converted to disc brake compatible,
and for a 20H disc front hub,
the only option we can offer at the shop
is the Tni LW Super,
but that's been out of stock for a while, so
the customer sourced their own hub...
↑This one.
But according to the customer, it's a sketchy hub,
so they asked me to first check if it's even
possible to build a wheel with it.
The flange holes for straight spokes
are unusually large and have a peculiar shape.
The customer suggested
that with the straight spoke heads flattened,
they might be like sliced king trumpet mushroom-shaped heads—
T-head spokes, in other words—
so I investigated.
Sure enough, there is an angle where the spoke head catches,
but the engagement is shallow and worrying, and
at this angle, the spokes pull out.
I tried inserting a cupped washer
under the spoke head neck,
but that didn't fit properly either.
Next, I tried treating it as a hub-side nipple,
and it fit perfectly.
My guess is that this hub
is designed for carbon spokes, with the hub-side geometry
matching universal nipples.
It built up.
Mystery hub, 20H, half CX sprint,
forced left-right 2-cross lacing.
The spoke trajectory has strong directionality,
and I couldn't weave the final cross.
Therefore, I couldn't tie in the spokes.
The customer's preference was
all silver spokes with silver nipples,
but this was actually a rare opportunity to play around
with hub-side nipple colors
(since hub-side nipples usually require proprietary ones,
hubs using universal nipples are uncommon).
A customer brought in a front wheel built with a Planet X
rim and hub for me to work on.
The rim is an R50, a 50mm-high
carbon tubular rim.
The hub is also from Planet X,
20H Sapim Race reverse J-bend radial laced
with brass nipples.
The customer wanted this front wheel converted to disc brake compatible,
and for a 20H disc front hub,
the only option we can offer at the shop
is the Tni LW Super,
but that's been out of stock for a while, so
the customer sourced their own hub...
↑This one.
But according to the customer, it's a sketchy hub,
so they asked me to first check if it's even
possible to build a wheel with it.
The flange holes for straight spokes
are unusually large and have a peculiar shape.
The customer suggested
that with the straight spoke heads flattened,
they might be like sliced king trumpet mushroom-shaped heads—
T-head spokes, in other words—
so I investigated.
Sure enough, there is an angle where the spoke head catches,
but the engagement is shallow and worrying, and
at this angle, the spokes pull out.
I tried inserting a cupped washer
under the spoke head neck,
but that didn't fit properly either.
Next, I tried treating it as a hub-side nipple,
and it fit perfectly.
My guess is that this hub
is designed for carbon spokes, with the hub-side geometry
matching universal nipples.
It built up.
Mystery hub, 20H, half CX sprint,
forced left-right 2-cross lacing.
The spoke trajectory has strong directionality,
and I couldn't weave the final cross.
Therefore, I couldn't tie in the spokes.
The customer's preference was
all silver spokes with silver nipples,
but this was actually a rare opportunity to play around
with hub-side nipple colors
(since hub-side nipples usually require proprietary ones,
hubs using universal nipples are uncommon).