New wheels!
After much anxiety, my new wheels arrived late Thursday afternoon. All’s well that ends well, I guess, but it sure was frustrating when they hadn’t arrived on my drop-dead date of Wednesday and I couldn’t get any response from the wheelbuilder.
Then, I had them delivered to the library so that there was no way for the carrier to miss making the delivery and I wouldn’t be trapped at home waiting. The mailman apparently decided that since the library doesn’t open to the public until 1pm on Thursdays, that he’d just stick a “Sorry you weren’t home” note in the bookdrop, rather than knock on the door. So much for Express Mail overnight delivery by noon service.
New rear wheel on the left, old one on the right. New wheel is wearing my “hills” cassette and my “flatlands” cassette is mounted on the old wheel. The color of the new wheels varies by light and angle, which is kinda neat in one way, but on the other hand, they seldom match the bike’s blue trim.
Here they are mounted on Yellow Bike, which is fully kitted-out for the day’s ride at the BikeJournal ReUnion. Dual DiNotte headlights and battery packs, Blackburn Delphi 4.0 cyclometer and Arkel map case grace the bars.
Two blue Nalgene On-The-Go water bottles in yellow cages, and my Topeak Road Morph G tire pump strapped to the seat tube.
And from the rear we have the ride’s “License Plate” hanging from the saddle, Arkel Tailrider rack trunk bag, and CatEye LD-1000 taillight.
From any angle, the new wheels give Yellow Bike a distinctive look. Better still, they ride sweet.
My boss at Winton Branch called and chewed them out, then called me over at Sully Branch. When I phoned the post office, the poor guy thought he was going to get another earful. I just wanted to verify their hours. They close at 5:30. I wouldn’t get out of work until six. Drat.
But, my boss at Sully Branch overheard and knows the whole story of the wheels and offered to drive me over to the post office on my break. Yippie!
Arriving back at Sully Branch, I opened the boxes to the appropriate Oooos and Ahhhhs. Then I bungeed the box to my rack for the ride home.
It took me about an hour to change tires, tubes, cassettes and brakes, then I went out for a shakedown run. In the first 100 feet I could feel difference.
Gone was the shimmy from the rear wheel being out-of-true both radially and laterally. Gone was the flexiness and “junk shake” from the front end. The wheels feel strong like they’ll roll over anything without a fuss, and yet, they aren’t bone shakers either. They seem to even out all but the worst bumps in the road.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear the freehub. It’s a very quiet one. Yet, the little sound it makes is very expensive sounding. The hubs are private labeled with Mike’s house brand, SpeedCific. No indication of who the OEM is, but they did a fine job. The axles are oversized and strong, they sport sealed cartridge bearings, and the finish is flawless.
I chose Velocity Aerohead hoops for the front, and Aerohead O/C for the rear. They’re a strong semi-aero profile. The spoke bed is off-center to the non-drive side (left) on the rear (hence the O/C designation). This supposedly lets the wheelbuilder even out the tension between the sides of the wheel allowing for less tension on the drive side and more on the non-drive side.
The front wheel is radially laced with 28 double-butted 14ga/17ga (2.0mm/1.5mm) spokes. This means the spokes are thinner in the middle and thicker on the ends which makes them lighter and more aero without sacrificing strength at the ends, which is where spokes always break. Additionally, they have a little give, which contributes to ride quality.
Radial lacing is when the spokes come straight out from the hub, without crossing one another. It looks a little prettier and sends a message to those in the know that these aren’t machine made wheels. Radial lacing wasn’t possible until recent advances in materials and construction. To make a strong radial laced wheel, the spokes must be under really high tension, since no spoke can share the load with a crossed neighbor. They tend to rip right out of hubs that aren’t strong enough for radial lacing.
The rear wheel continues on the off-center theme with both different spokes and a different lacing pattern on each side. The non-drive side (the left) is usually subjected to less load than the drive side, (the right, where gears are.) On my wheels, the non-drive side uses the same spokes as the front wheel and is laced two-cross, which means each spoke crosses two others.
The drive side needs to be stronger for two reasons. First it receives power from the drivetrain and transmits it to the hoop. Second, to make room for modern cassettes (the gear cluster), the spokes are “dished” in towards the center of the hub. The reduced angle means more tension is required. I chose double-butted 14ga/15ga (2.0mm/1.7mm) spokes for this side, and they’re laced three-cross, which means each spoke crosses and shares load with three others.
Combined, these features make a very strong, yet reasonably light wheel. The set of two weighs only 1609 grams, which is excellent for an everyday wheelset and pretty darned good for a racing one. Particularly since the rear uses the “standard” 32 spokes, and the front, while it has fewer, is still ten spokes away from the “low spoke count” category.
New brakes too!
I also love my new Kool-Stop (black) brake pads. The brake pads grab the rim and I didn’t want the old ones, which had collected grit and flakes of aluminum from the old wheels, grinding into the new rims.
Kool-Stop (salmon) are reputedly the best pads in the world for wet conditions. They make the black ones for the dry (and green ones for ceramic wheels.) And yet, you can’t find them in any LBS in town. I had to order them in. Five dollars a set for pad and $12 shipping.
They are worth every penny and more. First, they can haul the bike down to zero from 42.5 MPH on a steep downgrade without turning to smoke. (Or, as was the case the the Delta Aztecs I’ve used most recently, peeling off in layers.)
Next, they seem much grippier than other pads I’ve used. This makes them a one-finger brake. Even at stop signs at the bottom of screaming descents this past weekend, one finger per lever is all it takes for smooth, safe and rapid stops. Finally, they modulate easily. Other pads I’ve used have a fine line between gently slowing and lock-up. With the Kool-Stops I can easily adjust my rate of deceleration.
I give Kool-Stops my highest recommendation. I’ll be replacing the linear pull brake pads on Bike with them too. Since Bike is my rain bike, it’ll get Kool-Stop (salmon).
