This should probably go in the Mech Forum, but given the components, it's probably more useful here...
So last night, I finally got away from work early enough to lace up the new wheelset: D3.1s, Hope Bulbs, DT Alpine IIIs, 16mm brass nipples. They didn't get tensioned for two reasons:
1. The rims don't come with a wrench for the proprietary nipple inserts
2. It took friggin an hour and a half just to lace both of them up...
DT lists a minimum spoke hole size of 2.3mm for hubs if you plan to use the Apline IIIs. The Hopes are 2.6mm and I cannot imagine building them up if the holes were any smaller. Each spoke was a squeeze, especially the elbows-in spokes where you had to flex a 13G spoke to clear th other flange while pushing it through the spoke hole. Normally, I'll lace the spokes the the hub and the rim one at a time. With these, you HAVE TO lace the whole hub first.
Also, mavic doesn't do the best job of chasing the threads for the nipple inserts, and since there are 32 holes per rim, that is a lot of opportunities for cross threading. It only takes one screw up to bung the whole rim, so that can be a tedious process, especially when about 4-5 holes on each rim have rough threads that just don't want to accept the insert straight.
Normally I enjoy building wheels, but in this case (especially with the potential for ruining an expensive rim), I'd say it's worth it to let your LBS do it for you.
Anyway, now that it's laced up, the rest of the process should be easy, just like any other wheel. I just need to swing by the LBS to borrow their Mavic spoke insert wrench, and loctite the inserts all the way in...
Fortunately I don't need them until next week.
So last night, I finally got away from work early enough to lace up the new wheelset: D3.1s, Hope Bulbs, DT Alpine IIIs, 16mm brass nipples. They didn't get tensioned for two reasons:
1. The rims don't come with a wrench for the proprietary nipple inserts
2. It took friggin an hour and a half just to lace both of them up...
DT lists a minimum spoke hole size of 2.3mm for hubs if you plan to use the Apline IIIs. The Hopes are 2.6mm and I cannot imagine building them up if the holes were any smaller. Each spoke was a squeeze, especially the elbows-in spokes where you had to flex a 13G spoke to clear th other flange while pushing it through the spoke hole. Normally, I'll lace the spokes the the hub and the rim one at a time. With these, you HAVE TO lace the whole hub first.
Also, mavic doesn't do the best job of chasing the threads for the nipple inserts, and since there are 32 holes per rim, that is a lot of opportunities for cross threading. It only takes one screw up to bung the whole rim, so that can be a tedious process, especially when about 4-5 holes on each rim have rough threads that just don't want to accept the insert straight.
Normally I enjoy building wheels, but in this case (especially with the potential for ruining an expensive rim), I'd say it's worth it to let your LBS do it for you.
Anyway, now that it's laced up, the rest of the process should be easy, just like any other wheel. I just need to swing by the LBS to borrow their Mavic spoke insert wrench, and loctite the inserts all the way in...
Fortunately I don't need them until next week.