Another day, another wheel (you know how it goes).

A customer brought in both front and rear wheels
from a Rovail Alpinist CLX II
requesting a rebuild.
Today I'm working on the front wheel.
It's the same model as the front and rear wheels
I rebuilt through yesterday, but this is a separate job, just to be clear.


There was what you'd call "hub hair" (fine filaments)
attached to the hub shell,
but this isn't really something I'd recommend—
it peels the anodizing off aluminum hub shells
and strips the clear coat off carbon ones too.
For steel hub shells on commuter bikes,
it does have the intended effect of preventing rust bloom
and maintaining a shiny finish,
but that's really its only proper use.

Plus, the front hub rotation was extremely stiff.
When I held both axle ends and spun the rim,
it would stop within ten seconds,
so I had to replace the bearings.


All rebuilt.


I switched the fewer-spoke side
from Aerolite to CX Sprint spokes
and laced the final cross on the high spoke count side.
I'll tie and solder the spokes later.


↑The bearings I replaced
These are ceramic bearings,
but what I used as replacements were brand new steel ball bearings.

That pale orange seal, which breaks bearing industry standards,
is characteristic of DT bearings—


and the outer race has laser markings reading DT SWISS.
The orange seal with ridges between inner and outer races
is installed facing outward on both sides,
while the other side uses a black seal with no ridges
between inner and outer races—
it's a contact/non-contact seal design.