Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

Here is a quick-reference chart for Rolhoff Speed Hub 14 spoke length.

These calcs will work with disc or non-disc hubs – remember that all Rohloffs are 32 hole and to be laced 2x both sides.

If you’re using spokes available in 2mm increments then round up to the next size, ie: if the chart suggests 261mm then round up to 262mm.

I’ve found that DT Swiss nipples work the best for the high exit angle caused by the Rohloffs large flanges and I generally avoid DT Swiss rims as I’ve found the eyelets restrict the rotation of the spoke nipple.

Rohloffs seem a bit intimidating to build at first but once you’ve done a few they’re actually very easy – the symmetrical flanges and large distance between spoke holes makes them easy to lace and the flange spacing builds into a pretty stiff rear wheel.

The Stan’s ZTR hubs have arrived and they look really good.

The front hub weighs 162g, the rear 250g – in total that’s lighter than a pair of DT Swiss 240s 6-bolt hubs for about half the price!

All front hubs are pretty straight forward and there is generally little to go wrong:  two bearings held on an axle.  The rear hub is the important one – a poor quality freehub mechanism spells the death of a rear hub.  The Stan’s design is quite straight forward – there is a large 15mm diameter axle running end-to-end supporting the freehub body and hub shell.  Each endcap is removable and the hub can be disaembled with two 5mm allen keys and one 10mm.  Once the driveside endcap is removed the freehub body pulls straight off the axle.

The freehub is a fairly standard 3-pawl system and each pawl has it’s own spring.  There wasn’t much grease in the freehub, probably so it sounds loud in the showroom, but I’ll add a bit of oil to keep things running smoothly.  The freehub is sealed using a tapered contact seal – I’ve never seen one of these used for this purpose before.

All the parts are replaceable and the Stan’s importer has promised to keep all small parts available which is great news should anything go wrong or get damaged.

The included quick release levers are good quality, reasonable weight, and have a secure, positive feel.

All up I’m impressed.  Durability has yet to be tested in local conditions but guys in the USA have been using these hubs for a while now with no problems.

The KinLin rims are fantastic and becoming quite popular world-wide…despite this there is nowhere I’ve seen which has a comprehensive list of specs and pros / cons of the rims.  Specs are at the top of the page, general pros and cons of these rims are below.  Please ask questions if there is something I have not covered.

For wheelbuilders / industry guys you’re welcome to use this info but please credit the source by linking to this page.

Model name: Kinlin XR-300
Clincher

Average weight: 460g

Drillings: 16, 18, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36

Rim width (at brakepads): 18.5mm
Depth: 30.3mm

ERD: 579mm

Model name: Kinlin XR-270
Clincher

Average weight: 445g

Drillings: 20, 24, 28, 32, 36

Rim width (at brakepads): 19.6mm
Depth: 26.6mm

ERD: 585mm

Model name: Kinlin XR-200
Clincher

Average weight: 388g

Drillings: 20, 24, 28, 32

Rim width (at brakepads): 18.4mm
Depth: 22.3mm

ERD: 595mm

Model name: Kinlin TB-25
Tubular

Average weight: 440g

Drillings: 18, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36

Rim width (at brakepads): 18.8mm
Depth: 25.2mm

ERD: 589mm

Pros:
Excellent stiffness to weight ratio
Extremely durable (even the XR-200)
Available in a wide range of drillings.

Cons:
Pinned joint (although joint seems are quite smooth)
Brake pulse not uncommon
Brake surface perhaps softer than other rims. Brakepad choice is important.
Brake surface is narrower than some rims

Brakepads:
Any brakepad designed for alloy rims will work. I suggest KoolStop Salmon pads as they will leave the brake surface unscathed and offer excellent brake power and modulation in all weather. Brakepad lifespan is still good.

I’ve been testing a few designs of new rim decals and have come up with these.  They’re vinyl-cut, UV-stabilized, very high quality, and I think they look great.  I stocking them in a good selection of colours and having custom colours is no problem.

What would you like your wheels to look like?

Almost all modern hubs use sealed cartridge bearings  – only Shimano and the higher end Campy hubs use loose ball bearings.

Despite these hubs being common-place the tools required to correctly remove and replace the bearings are not.  To correctly install the new bearings they need to be gently pressed into place by their outside race – this prevents the force required to install the bearing from being transmitted though the balls and cages and damaging the new bearing before they’re even fitted.  Most bike shops try to accomplish this by using a socket which ‘closely’ matches the outer bearing race – I’ve seen a lot of high end hubs damaged by botched installations (and I have to confess to damaging a hub myself in my younger days!)

This tool is something I built to make sure cartridge bearings are installed correctly every time without any damage to the hub.  I  machine special press adaptors to suit each type of bearing on a lathe, and the center pin guides these adaptors and keeps them (and the bearings) square to the hub shell.   After applying a thin coat of Loctite 641 to help lubricate the bearing while installing I use a soft-faced hammer to gently tap the bearings into place.  Because the adaptors and bearings are held square to the hub there is no risk of damage to the new bearings or the hub.

I have bearing adapters to fit most of the common hubs I work on and if I encounter something a bit strange then I machine a new adapter to suit.

Some pics showing a Tune Mag180 rear hub.  The plastic box in the background keeps all the bearing adapters organized.

pics

The press tool's base clamped in the vise	The lower bearing adapter on the base
The freehub body resting on the lower adapter	The new bearing (coated in Loctite 641) and upper adapter in place
The driver fitted on top. The top of the driver is gently tapped with a soft-faced hammer	The bearing fitted
The hub sitting on the lower adapter	A different upper adapter fitted for the larger bearing on the driveside of the hub
The driveside bearing fitted	All done!

With every wheel I build I include an information sheet which shows the lateral and vertical trueness of the wheel as well as the spoke tension on each side of the wheel.  I’ve been doing this for just shy of 3 years now and although I’ve taken some flak over the geekyness of it the concept seems to be catching on with a NZ bike shop doing a similar sheet and even Park Tool writing a spider chart for their TM-1 tension meter.  As they say copying is the best form of flattery :-)

3 years ago most bike shops didn’t have a spoke tension meter, let alone know how to use one.  Luckily things have come a long way and now I even get requests by home mechanics to buy TM-1’s.

But what good is using a precision device like the TM-1 if you don’t know how accurate it is?

Park Tool offer a re-calibration service for the TM-1 but I wasn’t about to send my tool back to the USA and be without it for a month so I designed and built a jig to be able to do my own calibration (as well as run stress / strain tests on spokes – but that’s another story.)

The jig is a very solid device made from cold-rolled 32mm steel square bar.  At one end the spoke is held by it’s j-bend, at the other end a load cell is attached to a linear slide running on two parallel guide pins and a thrust bearing.  By turning the knob the spoke is put under tension and can be measured by the load cell.  The load cell is a very accurate and repeatable strain gauge which has almost no temperature or humidity dependence.  My loadcell is a Seltron STC-100 and is it’s regulated and read by a Rinstrum R310 display – both of these are very expensive bits of kit.

Here is shown a typical calibration process.  The loadcell is zeroed before a spoke is attached to the device then tension is applied.  The spoke is read with the TM-1 and the units are compared with the tool’s conversion table.  I typically test two different spoke tensions on three types of spoke: DT Swiss Revolution, DT Swiss Competition and Sapim CX-Ray but the jig will accept any j-bend spoke and has future capability for spokes such as Mavic Zicral.

In doing calibrations for the time the tension meter with typically over-read or under-read by up to 10kgf.  My personal tension meter is calibrated on a monthly basis and rarely needs any on-going adjustment so it seems there is just a settling process for the tools.

This procedure is not limited to the TM-1 and will work with any brand – please contact me if you have a tension meter you wish to calibrate.