Another day with wheels (and so on).
I received the front wheel from a customer that we'd previously rebuilt here at the shop.
The rim is a Duke carbon road rim, and
the hub is from Newmen, which is a parts brand of CUBE (a complete bike manufacturer).
It was originally built symmetrical with Pillar square aero spokes on both sides,
but I repositioned it with CX Sprint spokes—which have a higher spoke weight ratio—on the disc mount side
and laced the non-disc mount side differently.
When Shimano released the generation of XTR before the current one—their previous version when they made MTB components 12-speed—
they switched the freebody to Microspline. In contrast, SRAM's XD was like "we'll tell you the dimensions, so go ahead and make XD freebody hubs and wheels all you want
(though you'll need to buy the actual sprockets from us, naturally)"
whereas Microspline initially took the approach of
"don't you dare make aftermarket Microspline hubs and wheels without permission—we'll only allow a handful of manufacturers
to make them besides Shimano's own products." This policy caused high-end MTB component market share to tank
(the M9100 series XTR is so rare you'd swear it's a myth)—
but Newmen was one of the manufacturers actually permitted to make Microspline hubs at the time.
These Newmen front and rear hubs have a structural design where the inner pipe that receives the cartridge bearing's inner race
is omitted in both the hub body and freebody.
In such cases, the bearing rotation becomes noticeably stiff against through-axle compression,
and durability absolutely tanks. They tried to overcome this by using a strong press fit between the end cap and hub axle—
but they haven't actually succeeded.
The bearing preload adjustment requires a delicate touch: set it right at the point where lateral play in the hub axle disappears,
and tighten the through-axle gently to just where the wheel's lateral play vanishes.
You need to maintain this finicky handling consistently, but even so, the rear hub is already dead—
we rebuilt it with a DT hub in the past.
This wheel was originally built by an amateur friend of the customer's
—the kind of person who'd get offset rim sides backwards—
and we rebuilt it here at the shop.
Regarding the first rebuild we did in May 2023, the front wheel details are (→here) and the rear wheel (→here)
In December 2023 we rebuilt the rear wheel again (→here)
and the reason for that is (→here)
And since the front hub is also shot,
this article covers the rebuild.
Rebuilt.
I used a BITE (Bite) hub 24H—the 24H option from the two straight-spoke hub types Tni makes
(the LW Super front hub comes only in 20H configuration)—
laced with a forced 2-cross pattern on both sides.
I chose this hub because its dimensions are close to the original, so the spokes could be reused.
It's extremely tedious, so I almost never do this, but I unraveled the lacing and reused the spokes.
I'll re-tie the knots later.
I received the front wheel from a customer that we'd previously rebuilt here at the shop.
The rim is a Duke carbon road rim, and
the hub is from Newmen, which is a parts brand of CUBE (a complete bike manufacturer).
It was originally built symmetrical with Pillar square aero spokes on both sides,
but I repositioned it with CX Sprint spokes—which have a higher spoke weight ratio—on the disc mount side
and laced the non-disc mount side differently.
When Shimano released the generation of XTR before the current one—their previous version when they made MTB components 12-speed—
they switched the freebody to Microspline. In contrast, SRAM's XD was like "we'll tell you the dimensions, so go ahead and make XD freebody hubs and wheels all you want
whereas Microspline initially took the approach of
"don't you dare make aftermarket Microspline hubs and wheels without permission—we'll only allow a handful of manufacturers
to make them besides Shimano's own products." This policy caused high-end MTB component market share to tank
but Newmen was one of the manufacturers actually permitted to make Microspline hubs at the time.
These Newmen front and rear hubs have a structural design where the inner pipe that receives the cartridge bearing's inner race
is omitted in both the hub body and freebody.
In such cases, the bearing rotation becomes noticeably stiff against through-axle compression,
and durability absolutely tanks. They tried to overcome this by using a strong press fit between the end cap and hub axle—
but they haven't actually succeeded.
The bearing preload adjustment requires a delicate touch: set it right at the point where lateral play in the hub axle disappears,
and tighten the through-axle gently to just where the wheel's lateral play vanishes.
You need to maintain this finicky handling consistently, but even so, the rear hub is already dead—
we rebuilt it with a DT hub in the past.
This wheel was originally built by an amateur friend of the customer's
and we rebuilt it here at the shop.
Regarding the first rebuild we did in May 2023, the front wheel details are (→here) and the rear wheel (→here)
In December 2023 we rebuilt the rear wheel again (→here)
and the reason for that is (→here)
And since the front hub is also shot,
this article covers the rebuild.
Rebuilt.
I used a BITE (Bite) hub 24H—the 24H option from the two straight-spoke hub types Tni makes
(the LW Super front hub comes only in 20H configuration)—
laced with a forced 2-cross pattern on both sides.
I chose this hub because its dimensions are close to the original, so the spokes could be reused.
It's extremely tedious, so I almost never do this, but I unraveled the lacing and reused the spokes.
I'll re-tie the knots later.