My life is slowly gathering fragments of normality since I've been back in Vancouver. Mountain bike rides, dinner with friends, decent night's sleep, cheese, the resurrection my car, and an emotional reunion with my toolbox. The toolbox and pile of on-sale bike parts I ordered while we were away in China came together yesterday into what I hope to be my finest wheel build to date.
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| Silver Hope Pro 2 Evo, DT Swiss Comp DB spokes, and a lettuce. |
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| Some nice cale, and a Hope Pro 2 Evo. |
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| Carbon-based lifeforms in the garden. |
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| Brass monkeys... no wait, I mean nipples. |
The fun part of these wheels is clearly the Chinese carbon rims that I brought back from, surprise, China. The factory make the rims to order so I chose a unidirectional carbon top layer and matte finish. They don't have that "HELLO, DID YOU NOTICE I HAVE CARBON FIBER ON MY BICYCLE? No? Well, check it out, ok? LOOK, I'M WAVING IT RIGHT IN YOUR FACE! Oh please look at me. You're not looking at me are you? You're looking at that other titanium bike now. Oh, I feel so ugly and alone." factor of glossy weave finish, which I am pleased about. They're almost exactly the dimensions of Stan's Flow rims, so nice and wide. The rear weighs 886g and the front 743g with a wrap of electrical tape around the rim. I make that 1629g for the pair. The price worked out almost exactly the same as Hope Hoops wheels with the same hubs, spokes, and Flow rims which weigh 1886g. I'm pretty happy that such a conventional looking pair of wheels with non-exotic components can work out reasonably priced and a nice weight. We'll see how they hold up to riding.
