Another day of wheelbuilding (details omitted).
A customer dropped off ENVE 1-45 rims with me.
They brought the hubs too.
Front is a Chris King R45, rear is a PowerTap G3.
Although the title says "for cyclocross," these hubs aren't specifically suited for 'cross—it's just that the wheel build was requested for cyclocross use.
Front wheel is done.
Black CX-RAY spokes.
The fact that I'm doing a four-cross lacing pattern
is really where the cyclocross consideration shows.
With the Chris King hub, the rotation has a weight to it like working through honey,
but the smoothness is remarkable—absolutely zero catch or resistance.
If I were to compare it to a cup-and-cone design, the Dura-Ace hub has that same quality of
"smoothness with a sense of robustness."
If I evaluate not just the initial light rotation but also durability under neglected, hard use,
Chris King is my top choice.
Rear wheel is done too.
It's a half-comp, 36-hole lacing, but with large flanges on both sides,
so the correction for different spoke lengths and hole positions is quite good.
Since I'm used to handling factory-built wheels and hand-built wheels with tied-and-soldered spokes,
which have minimal spoke deflection on the non-freewheel side,
occasionally when I squeeze an untied, hand-built wheel
the flex on the non-freewheel side feels surprisingly large and makes me nervous (though that should be normal),
but this wheel seems to have good tension on the non-freewheel side despite being untied.
Now, I haven't forgotten (hehe).
Since these are new hubs, I'm justtruing them last.
As always, what diameter I use for the inner dimension before shrinking is a trade secret.
A customer dropped off ENVE 1-45 rims with me.
They brought the hubs too.
Front is a Chris King R45, rear is a PowerTap G3.
Although the title says "for cyclocross," these hubs aren't specifically suited for 'cross—it's just that the wheel build was requested for cyclocross use.
Front wheel is done.
Black CX-RAY spokes.
The fact that I'm doing a four-cross lacing pattern
is really where the cyclocross consideration shows.
With the Chris King hub, the rotation has a weight to it like working through honey,
but the smoothness is remarkable—absolutely zero catch or resistance.
If I were to compare it to a cup-and-cone design, the Dura-Ace hub has that same quality of
"smoothness with a sense of robustness."
If I evaluate not just the initial light rotation but also durability under neglected, hard use,
Chris King is my top choice.
Rear wheel is done too.
It's a half-comp, 36-hole lacing, but with large flanges on both sides,
so the correction for different spoke lengths and hole positions is quite good.
Since I'm used to handling factory-built wheels and hand-built wheels with tied-and-soldered spokes,
which have minimal spoke deflection on the non-freewheel side,
occasionally when I squeeze an untied, hand-built wheel
the flex on the non-freewheel side feels surprisingly large and makes me nervous (though that should be normal),
but this wheel seems to have good tension on the non-freewheel side despite being untied.
Now, I haven't forgotten (hehe).
Since these are new hubs, I'm justtruing them last.
As always, what diameter I use for the inner dimension before shrinking is a trade secret.