Another day with wheels (et cetera).
I received a rear wheel with an XT rear hub that we assembled here
from a customer (technically speaking).
The rim is a CX22 tubular, and when this was built,
only the version with a brake zone was available,
so it's a disc brake wheel,
but the rim has a brake zone.
FH-M8010 32H all CX-RAY
46-tooth JIS lacing with cross-lacing.
Typical of cyclocross, fine sand has worked its way into every gap,
creating that distinctive gritty buildup.
The M8000-series XT is
the last generation to have quick-release hubs,
and when the model number becomes M8010, it's through-axle,
and if there's a -B suffix at the end,
it becomes a BOOST hub. But with M8010, the rear hub is 142mm x 12mm diameter,
the same as disc road, so it's interchangeable.
The M9010 rear hub from the same generation of XTRM
later got a 28H version, but
M8010 only came in 32H and 36H.
The successor XT M8110
is 142mm x 12mm diameter with 28H available, but
the freebody becomes Microspline,
so running it with road or cyclocross bikes
becomes difficult.
This was built nine years ago during
the Kansai Cyclocross season (→here),
but this season at Miyama, a crash bent the dropout,
the derailleur got sucked into the wheel
and bent spokes. So all the spokes on the freewheel side
needed replacing. Since we also needed to replace all the nipples,
this meant a complete wheel rebuild.
The rear derailleur had its pulley cage
completely mangled, but by frankensteining parts
from another derailleur that had missing pantograph pieces,
we managed to resurrect it.
Unrelated to the derailleur wrapping incident,
all the non-drive side spokes on the JIS-laced right side
showed scratches and deformation from chain drops.
↑The spokes on the opposite side
are all intact.
CX-RAY doesn't normally develop rust staining, but
that there is rust staining means
it's from the splinters created by the chain drop.
The deformation from derailleur wrapping.
This wheel is built with a correct-hole rim treated as a true rim—
in other words, built normally. In that case, viewing the wheel from the right side,
if you follow the clockwise pattern of the last-cross pair of four spokes,
you get: non-drive side pointing inboard,
drive side pointing inboard,
non-drive side pointing outboard,
drive side pointing outboard,
but deformation only appears on the last one clockwise—
the drive side pointing outboard spoke.
↑like this.
Interestingly, when there are secondary impacts from derailleur wrapping,
damage doesn't affect the partner of the final cross, but rather
the same-direction spoke in the next final cross.
I carefully disassembled the wheel.
The image above shows the non-drive spokes on the JIS-laced right side.
Next, here are the drive side spokes on the JIS-laced right.
Four out of eight had deformation from wrapping.
When this wheel was built,
CX Sprint wasn't reliably available,
so it was built entirely in CX-RAY.
If we were to continue building it all in CX-RAY,
we might have reused the four undamaged spokes, but
since we're doing a half CX Sprint rebuild,
all the original drive-side spokes are discarded.
This rear wheel is JIS-laced (which on the drive side alone
is the same as Italian lacing), but
if it had been reverse Italian laced instead,
the damage from chain drops and
the damage from derailleur wrapping
would occur to the same spoke. Furthermore, regarding chain drops,
damage primarily affects the hub flange, so
the damage to non-drive spokes would be
less severe than with JIS/Italian lacing. This is likely
the reason "Americans use reverse Italian lacing
even on rim-brake rear wheels."
American-made complete wheels like PowerTap and ENVE
use broken-flange hubs with
reverse Italian lacing.
A spoke hub with non-drive-side cross-lacing
and a disassembled rim.
I placed the rim on a glass surface plate—
if it was clearly warped I planned to replace it—
and when it sits flush at one angle,
at the opposite angle it lifts just barely, so
I decided to reuse it.
I've written this many times before:
I've heard numerous times from shithead competitors spouting
"you can't true a wheel with cross-lacing" or such nonsense,
but we can do everything from re-spoking rims to
building a wheel from the state shown above—
tasks far more complex than truing—so
there's no way we can't do truing, which is lower-level work.
From here I'll build the wheel threading CX Sprint (not CX-RAY)
through the drive-side flange, and rather than the original
JIS lacing, I'll deliberately use reverse Italian lacing
to observe how it performs.
That said, mere long-term use alone for observation would be meaningless,
and derailleur wrapping has predictable results anyway, so
for chain drops I'd essentially be hoping they'd happen.
Even if they're a "customer (technically)" and not a regular customer,
I shouldn't treat them like a lab rat!
I thought, and I stopped myself.
Built.
Half CX Sprint, 46-tooth reverse Italian lacing.
I received a rear wheel with an XT rear hub that we assembled here
from a customer (technically speaking).
The rim is a CX22 tubular, and when this was built,
only the version with a brake zone was available,
so it's a disc brake wheel,
but the rim has a brake zone.
FH-M8010 32H all CX-RAY
46-tooth JIS lacing with cross-lacing.
Typical of cyclocross, fine sand has worked its way into every gap,
creating that distinctive gritty buildup.
The M8000-series XT is
the last generation to have quick-release hubs,
and when the model number becomes M8010, it's through-axle,
and if there's a -B suffix at the end,
it becomes a BOOST hub. But with M8010, the rear hub is 142mm x 12mm diameter,
the same as disc road, so it's interchangeable.
The M9010 rear hub from the same generation of XTRM
later got a 28H version, but
M8010 only came in 32H and 36H.
The successor XT M8110
is 142mm x 12mm diameter with 28H available, but
the freebody becomes Microspline,
so running it with road or cyclocross bikes
becomes difficult.
This was built nine years ago during
the Kansai Cyclocross season (→here),
but this season at Miyama, a crash bent the dropout,
the derailleur got sucked into the wheel
and bent spokes. So all the spokes on the freewheel side
needed replacing. Since we also needed to replace all the nipples,
this meant a complete wheel rebuild.
The rear derailleur had its pulley cage
completely mangled, but by frankensteining parts
from another derailleur that had missing pantograph pieces,
we managed to resurrect it.
Unrelated to the derailleur wrapping incident,
all the non-drive side spokes on the JIS-laced right side
showed scratches and deformation from chain drops.
↑The spokes on the opposite side
are all intact.
CX-RAY doesn't normally develop rust staining, but
that there is rust staining means
it's from the splinters created by the chain drop.
The deformation from derailleur wrapping.
This wheel is built with a correct-hole rim treated as a true rim—
in other words, built normally. In that case, viewing the wheel from the right side,
if you follow the clockwise pattern of the last-cross pair of four spokes,
you get: non-drive side pointing inboard,
drive side pointing inboard,
non-drive side pointing outboard,
drive side pointing outboard,
but deformation only appears on the last one clockwise—
the drive side pointing outboard spoke.
↑like this.
Interestingly, when there are secondary impacts from derailleur wrapping,
damage doesn't affect the partner of the final cross, but rather
the same-direction spoke in the next final cross.
I carefully disassembled the wheel.
The image above shows the non-drive spokes on the JIS-laced right side.
Next, here are the drive side spokes on the JIS-laced right.
Four out of eight had deformation from wrapping.
When this wheel was built,
CX Sprint wasn't reliably available,
so it was built entirely in CX-RAY.
If we were to continue building it all in CX-RAY,
we might have reused the four undamaged spokes, but
since we're doing a half CX Sprint rebuild,
all the original drive-side spokes are discarded.
This rear wheel is JIS-laced (which on the drive side alone
is the same as Italian lacing), but
if it had been reverse Italian laced instead,
the damage from chain drops and
the damage from derailleur wrapping
would occur to the same spoke. Furthermore, regarding chain drops,
damage primarily affects the hub flange, so
the damage to non-drive spokes would be
less severe than with JIS/Italian lacing. This is likely
the reason "Americans use reverse Italian lacing
even on rim-brake rear wheels."
American-made complete wheels like PowerTap and ENVE
use broken-flange hubs with
reverse Italian lacing.
A spoke hub with non-drive-side cross-lacing
and a disassembled rim.
I placed the rim on a glass surface plate—
if it was clearly warped I planned to replace it—
and when it sits flush at one angle,
at the opposite angle it lifts just barely, so
I decided to reuse it.
I've written this many times before:
I've heard numerous times from shithead competitors spouting
"you can't true a wheel with cross-lacing" or such nonsense,
but we can do everything from re-spoking rims to
building a wheel from the state shown above—
tasks far more complex than truing—so
there's no way we can't do truing, which is lower-level work.
From here I'll build the wheel threading CX Sprint (not CX-RAY)
through the drive-side flange, and rather than the original
JIS lacing, I'll deliberately use reverse Italian lacing
to observe how it performs.
That said, mere long-term use alone for observation would be meaningless,
and derailleur wrapping has predictable results anyway, so
for chain drops I'd essentially be hoping they'd happen.
Even if they're a "customer (technically)" and not a regular customer,
I shouldn't treat them like a lab rat!
I thought, and I stopped myself.
Built.
Half CX Sprint, 46-tooth reverse Italian lacing.