A customer placed an order at our shop
for a street-use hybrid bike, so I sourced
and sold it, but
I serviced the front and rear wheels.
Unmarked rim, unmarked hub,
14-gauge plain black spokes and brass nipples,
both wheels are 36H laced in standard 6x6 JIS pattern.
Starting with the rear wheel.
The rim being off-center to the left
is not ideal (←actually, it's not good at all),
but the radial runout was terrible.
Also, this is a common spec even on this type of complete bike,
but the rim tape width doesn't match at all.
At least there are no spots where rim holes
are visible from the tape edges
(though that could happen with age and use).
I corrected the radial and lateral runout, and centered it.
The tension wasn't slack,
but I adjusted it with a slight increase in tightness.
Next, the front wheel.
The temporary center is off,
but with such bad lateral runout,
if I search I might find a perfectly centered position.
The radial runout was better than the rear wheel (not perfect, mind you).
I fixed the front wheel too.
Even though it's not a tubeless rim,
I double-wrapped it with Stans tape that fits the width
before
after
At the customer's request, I changed the tube valve
to Schrader type.
Since I enlarged the valve hole,
it's an irreversible modification.
What I'm trying to say with this post is not
"Even on cheap wheels like this, our shop properly services them
to the limit of material precision and my technical ability!"
but rather . . .
"If you don't do this, V-brake adjustment will
never set up properly!"
↑brake lever not squeezed
↑brake lever squeezed fully
↑with just a tiny gap between
the brake pads and rim,
while the wheel spins
Ahhh, that feels good!
for a street-use hybrid bike, so I sourced
and sold it, but
I serviced the front and rear wheels.
Unmarked rim, unmarked hub,
14-gauge plain black spokes and brass nipples,
both wheels are 36H laced in standard 6x6 JIS pattern.
Starting with the rear wheel.
The rim being off-center to the left
is not ideal (←actually, it's not good at all),
but the radial runout was terrible.
Also, this is a common spec even on this type of complete bike,
but the rim tape width doesn't match at all.
At least there are no spots where rim holes
are visible from the tape edges
(though that could happen with age and use).
I corrected the radial and lateral runout, and centered it.
The tension wasn't slack,
but I adjusted it with a slight increase in tightness.
Next, the front wheel.
The temporary center is off,
but with such bad lateral runout,
if I search I might find a perfectly centered position.
The radial runout was better than the rear wheel (not perfect, mind you).
I fixed the front wheel too.
Even though it's not a tubeless rim,
I double-wrapped it with Stans tape that fits the width
before
after
At the customer's request, I changed the tube valve
to Schrader type.
Since I enlarged the valve hole,
it's an irreversible modification.
What I'm trying to say with this post is not
"Even on cheap wheels like this, our shop properly services them
to the limit of material precision and my technical ability!"
but rather . . .
"If you don't do this, V-brake adjustment will
never set up properly!"
↑brake lever not squeezed
↑brake lever squeezed fully
↑with just a tiny gap between
the brake pads and rim,
while the wheel spins
Ahhh, that feels good!