Another day, another wheel (you know the rest).
A customer dropped off the front and rear wheels
from their Yamaha e-bike.
Since I'm working on the front wheel today, I've only got shots of that.
The 50C Gravel King SK on there
probably wasn't original equipment.
They're running a tubeless-ready tire
with an inner tube.
Unmarked 32-hole hub with 14-gauge plain black spokes
laced 4-cross, reverse Italian style.
With 32 holes, 6-cross lacing is the standard, so
I'm not sure why they went with 4-cross.
The customer said the wheel kept loosening up,
so they wanted it inspected.
When I got it, the spoke tension was completely slack,
and while the lateral runout might have come from loose nipples,
there was also radial runout,
and the wheel center was off too.
Since someone may have trued it later,
I can't say whether the centering error was original.
The rim tape is that polypropylene packing-strap material
you often see on factory wheels.
I don't know if this rim is tubeless-ready,
but rims with a bead-seat depression in the middle
frequently end up with this type of tape—which fits the rim width before deformation—
getting dragged into the depression, leaving one edge or the other
without proper tape coverage. It's a common sight.
The spoke length is on the short side, but
both sides reach the spoke slot properly,
so technically it's the right length.
These brass nipples with a 3.4mm wrench width feel terrible when turning.
I can't tell if it's the nipples themselves or
a problem with whatever's been applied to the spoke threads for lubrication.
And while I'm at it, I also dislike the pointless beveling
on the outer corners of the nipple hex.
The customer asked for an inspection, but
if I just did lateral and radial truing, centering, and
checked for twisted spokes (which you can't see on round spokes),
I had a feeling this wheel would start loosening again pretty quickly.
So I decided to do a complete nipple replacement
and rebuild the wheel.
The spokes are budget-grade items from Shun Li
(顺立), a Chinese manufacturer.
If I swapped these out for DT's black champion spokes,
the resistance to spoke breakage would honestly be
about 10 times better, but
this time I decided to keep the original spokes.
If we were going with black champions, I'd switch to 6-cross lacing.
I disassembled the wheel.
I removed just the outpokes from the left flange,
cleaned the threads, and applied thread-lock compound.
For all the remaining spokes,
I made sure the outpoke and inpoke relationship wouldn't reverse,
applied thread-lock to the cleaned spokes,
and reinstalled them in the hub.
Centering—spot on.
All built.
It looks pretty much the same as before the rebuild,
but I've upgraded the nipples to DT's silver aluminum ones.
I switched the rim tape to a proper adhesive type.
It's the right width,
doesn't get dragged into the depression or slip,
and it already conforms to the shape of the depression.
A customer dropped off the front and rear wheels
from their Yamaha e-bike.
Since I'm working on the front wheel today, I've only got shots of that.
The 50C Gravel King SK on there
probably wasn't original equipment.
They're running a tubeless-ready tire
with an inner tube.
Unmarked 32-hole hub with 14-gauge plain black spokes
laced 4-cross, reverse Italian style.
With 32 holes, 6-cross lacing is the standard, so
I'm not sure why they went with 4-cross.
The customer said the wheel kept loosening up,
so they wanted it inspected.
When I got it, the spoke tension was completely slack,
and while the lateral runout might have come from loose nipples,
there was also radial runout,
and the wheel center was off too.
Since someone may have trued it later,
I can't say whether the centering error was original.
The rim tape is that polypropylene packing-strap material
you often see on factory wheels.
I don't know if this rim is tubeless-ready,
but rims with a bead-seat depression in the middle
frequently end up with this type of tape—which fits the rim width before deformation—
getting dragged into the depression, leaving one edge or the other
without proper tape coverage. It's a common sight.
The spoke length is on the short side, but
both sides reach the spoke slot properly,
so technically it's the right length.
These brass nipples with a 3.4mm wrench width feel terrible when turning.
I can't tell if it's the nipples themselves or
a problem with whatever's been applied to the spoke threads for lubrication.
And while I'm at it, I also dislike the pointless beveling
on the outer corners of the nipple hex.
The customer asked for an inspection, but
if I just did lateral and radial truing, centering, and
checked for twisted spokes (which you can't see on round spokes),
I had a feeling this wheel would start loosening again pretty quickly.
So I decided to do a complete nipple replacement
and rebuild the wheel.
The spokes are budget-grade items from Shun Li
(顺立), a Chinese manufacturer.
If I swapped these out for DT's black champion spokes,
the resistance to spoke breakage would honestly be
about 10 times better, but
this time I decided to keep the original spokes.
If we were going with black champions, I'd switch to 6-cross lacing.
I disassembled the wheel.
I removed just the outpokes from the left flange,
cleaned the threads, and applied thread-lock compound.
For all the remaining spokes,
I made sure the outpoke and inpoke relationship wouldn't reverse,
applied thread-lock to the cleaned spokes,
and reinstalled them in the hub.
Centering—spot on.
All built.
It looks pretty much the same as before the rebuild,
but I've upgraded the nipples to DT's silver aluminum ones.
I switched the rim tape to a proper adhesive type.
It's the right width,
doesn't get dragged into the depression or slip,
and it already conforms to the shape of the depression.