Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

This is a new tyre from Veloflex of Italy – the successor to the ‘Black’ model.  The Corsa uses the same classic file-tread pattern, a Kevlar puncture layer, and a very supple, handmade, 320tpi casing.

As far as I’m concerned these are the pinnacle of road clinchers.  If you run them at ‘normal’ pressure the ride quality, feel, and traction of these tyres is better than anything else I’ve ridden – they’re simply a joy to ride.  Resist the urge to pump them up to 145psi and instead run them the same as your regular tyres – for some reason NZers love to over-inflate their tyres which doesn’t make any sense based on how rough the roads are here!

The tyres are claimed at 180g but, as anyone who has purchased any ‘handmade in Italy’ product knows, Italian scales tend to measure a bit lighter than those based in other countries :-)  True weight averages around 200g.

Of course there must be some downsides: tyre wear isn’t great (I generally get 3000km out of a rear, and 4-5000km from a front) and their puncture resistance is nowhere near, say, a GP4000s so running over a Tui bottle isn’t a great idea.

If you’re looking for a tyre to put on your ‘Sunday’ wheels give these a go.  I’ve got them in stock at $100/each – email or call to order.

Bryce from Cycletech dropped off three of the new 26″ Crest rims for a couple of builds: One pair for Jack’s Pro2 7 speed XC wheels and another for Helen’s upcoming rebuild.

The Crest is basically a new version of the 355 rim with Stan’s updated “Bead Socket Technology” – the external width is the same but the inner width is 2mm wider on the new rim.

Two of the rims were 346 grams, the other was 347 grams – claimed weight is 340 grams. I measured the ERD of all three rims at 543mm.

I’m back from holiday and in the workshop.

I’ve got a couple of really cool wheelsets (like brown King road hubs with white / black spokes)  to build over the next few weeks so I’m excited to be back.

I didn’t do much riding while I was away but I did spend some time in one of these aqua-trikes :-D

I’ll be out of the workshop from December 24th until January 11th and I won’t have email contact during this time.

I’ll be heading through Gisbourne to Te Kaha where I stayed last year riding around the East Cape, then to the Coromandel for a few days of exploring at Hot Water Beach and back through Te Urewera National Park stopping off to see my parents for a few days in Napier.

I’ll be sun-tanned and ready to build wheels upon my return :-)

Have a great Christmas,

Tristan

These KCNC parts showed up from the USA today – the light weight steel rotors are a mere 85g each, and the quick release levers are 46g a pair.

The quick release levers look really well made, feel solid, and have good clamping force. The local KCNC importer doesn’t import these for some strange reason and instead suggests the CarbonTi skewers which I found to feel cheap and have poor clamping force despite their high sticker price.

The rotors are destined for Cameron’s bike and two pairs of the KCNC skewers are spoken for, but I do have one spare pair of black skewers and all going well I’ll be keeping a few colours in stock. At $110 /pair they’re good value compared to the $170 Tune AC16&17 which are 33g / pair.

This is a Powertap SL+ hub which usees the wireless Ant+ transmission laced with bladed DT Swiss Aerolite spokes to a Kinlin XR-270 rim.

I laced the non-driveside using a standard 3x pattern, and I used a 1x all heads-in pattern for the driveside.  The Powertap’s strain gauges are mounted around the axle and as a result the hub transfers drive torque to teh non driveside flange.  The 1x driveside pattern helps to increase the non-driveside spoke tension.  Also, the center-flange measurements for the Powertaps hubs are not very good so the 1x pattern effectively widens this side of the hub and increases lateral stiffness.

All up the wheel is 1010g.