Carbon rims and radial trueness

Lateral trueness is easy; radial trueness is hard. I'm always looking for better tools, and this morning I was researching Morningstar tools. They offer a dial-based truing gauge that will fit to a Park TS-2. Slowtwitch was the first review that popped up. Buried within an article on wheel building is a point about the difference between carbon and aluminum rims:

This is also the point where carbon and aluminum wheels differ. Carbon rims are much stiffer than aluminum. Put simply, the amount that you can radially manipulate a carbon rim is MUCH less than aluminum. As such, when adjusting radial trueness, you need to adjust many more spokes. Think of it as shifting the entire rim up or down – rather than bending a part of that rim to be more straight. Instead of adjusting 4 spokes, I might adjust 8 or 10. This also brings up the point that carbon wheels rely much more on roundness of the rim itself for a straight wheel; an imperfect rim cannot be manipulated very much (unlike aluminum). 

This is why cheap carbon rims are a really bad idea. There are plenty of other reasons why cheap carbon is a bad idea--labor conditions in those Chinese factories, for starters. Next up would be a total lack of warranty coverage for manufacturing defects.

Want a legit rim and customer service? See Brandon at the Bike Hub Store. Always great service and they're the only consumer source of Gigantex rims that I've found:

http://www.bikehubstore.com/category-s/124.htm

Getting back on that horse

It is almost July, and that means cross season is almost upon us. That means taking a break from riding all the wheels I've been building, and returning to the truing stand. What have I been riding? On the road bike, a lovely Pacenti SL23 wheelset with a 20 hole White Industries H2 on the front, and a 24 hole Powertap SL (with G3 internals) on the rear. These are shod with 700 x 25 mm Contis. Life below 90 psi is splendid.

Ongoing impressions of the Pacenti:

• They work very well with standard size road brake pads, exhibiting none of the pulsing I was experiencing with V-brakes. I suspect this has something to do with the length of the pad.
• Mounting tires is a real challenge. I suspect this is because of the tubeless rim design. Once I get a frame with the proper clearance, these will be an excellent candidate for the 28 mm Hutchinsons.
• My initial concern about the low spoke count was unfounded. These rims are plenty stiff for someone who goes 175.

What I am working on today:

• Relacing a rear 24 hole White Industries T-11 (Campy) onto a 50 mm Yishun carbon tubular. This will be straight gauge spokes in 2x (drive), 0x (non drive) pattern. This will be my rear wheel for cross.
• Relacing a rear 24 hole White Industries T-11 (Shimano) onto a 50 mm Yishun carbon tubular. This will be the same pattern as the above wheel. 
• Lacing a front 20 hole White Industries T-11 onto a 50 mm Yishun carbon tubular. This will be 0x with straight gauge spokes. This will be my front wheel for cross.

I'll go into the relacing in a separate post.

Here's the assembly line for today:

• T-11 hub--titanium cassette body--no gouging, unlike Chris King.
• 12mm brass nipples drying out after soaking overnight in triflow. Lube those nipples when building with carbon!
• Spokes and the all important spoke ruler.
• Lastly, my trusty and calibrated Park Tool TS-2 stand.

Updates to follow!