Originally Posted by
Dan Burkhart
Turn the wheel so the valve is a the 6 o'clock position. Stand to the side of the bike (does not matter which side) and look down at the valve. The first spoke to the left of the valve should go to the flange on the other side.(away from you) If this is not the case, as I suspect looking at what I can see of your photos, it was laced incorrectly.
This rule is nearly universal although I have seen rare exceptions. CR 18 rims would certainly not be an exception to this rule.
The one thing that seems universal is that half the world understands left-hand and right-hand drilling one way, and the other half understands it the other.
I'm not saying I'm right, but what seems to be the most logical definition to me is that by RH I mean: from the drive side, with the valve at the bottom of the wheel, the spoke next to the valve on that side of the wheel is to the right side of the valve.
So in that sense, lots of old ballooner rims were left-hand drilled. And Sun Rims in the '80s and '90s mostly seemed to be left hand drilling, IIRC. But I just checked my CR-18s and they're right-hand.