Wheels are the part that I believe should be all black. I'd have liked mango too. But, beautiful. Ride report!

I have exactly the same front hub and spokes laced radial, any idea what spoke tension she built it with? I only ask as I was surprised by the advice I got from CK customer support.

She said she tensioned them to 115 which was nearly the max (I think 120 is the max). Said it should feel pretty "snappy".

wrong again, you're at the end of the line...go back to around post #452 for the true head of the pack....

well these look nice but, look forward to a full report on how they climb, decent, carve through the wind

Bianchi - the wheels look nice...roundish even # of spokes, etc....I just hope you don't need this much help picking out new handlebars...much less (god forbid) you should raise the corpse of Campy versus Shimano....

Are you sure she was talking about the front? CK customer support quoted 65kg max when laced radial for the R45 front hub with 24 hole....

thanks. I felt that I did need help, even though when I started this project out, I didn't think I did. I thought I had a good foundation, turns out I really didn't. After the project, I dont know if it was as much as needing helping choosing a wheel as being indecisive between the two. I felt strongly about researching or asking for input because the purchase of these wheels was a large purchase. much larger than i would spend on any other part on my bike. The enve wheels were damn near the total cost of my bike, so to drop that much on wheels was hard to swallow.

Regardless, I know this has been drawn out. Partly from me and partly from others. I do greatly appreciate everyone's participation and support. This has been a lot of fun for me and look forward to the next couple weeks of reviewing these wheels.

I just sent her an email to get the numbers. I dont know exactly so i would rather ask to get you the proper info.

Cool, let us know as I'd be very interested. The reason they quoted that figure was that with radial lace the hub flanges stretch which can result in bearing fit issues. CK can supply larger bearings if it becomes an issue but I have laced mine at 65kg and cant tell a difference in ride so will leave it - tho I did use spoke freeze to be sure nothing loosens over time. 65 seems low to me, tho not that low I guess. Id be interested to know what yours are built to simply out of interest, your builder obviously knows what works and lots of experience

I also asked the question if different spoke counts result in a different tension limit, since with radial lace the total flange tension = the total rim compression, this changes with spoke count. with 24 spokes at 65kg there is about 125kg flange tension so i wondered if 20 spokes would result in a spoke tension limit closer to 75kg resulting in less chance of loosening - and the same flange tension. I never got an answer unfortunately....

Interestingly the Chris King Manual for Maintenance of R45's doesn't suggest any caution beyond: inspection of spoke elbows for lack of forming ridge, use of locking nipples and following spoke manufacturers recommendations with regard to spoke tension.

65kg sounds awfully light. I would be surprised if they were to design a front hub as recently as the R45 was designed and not make it compatible with radial lacing to reasonable limits (i.e. 120kgf). Hmmmm,..... who in customer support did you talk to?

I've heard of distortion issues with some of the light thai and chinese hubs, but, hadn't heard of any concerns with R45's.

bianchi10 - thank you for a very informative, as well entertaining thread! Congratulations on the wheels - I'm sure that there are more than just a few of us who are envious.

This is the email I got when I asked:
I am about to build a front wheel using an R45 hub and plan on using radial lacing. What spoke tension is acceptable for an R45 hub? I'm using the 24 hole hub.
thanks.

reply:

"With our hubs we have a limit of 120 KGF (or 1200 NM) with the 3x pattern, if you're looking to use a radial lace we do not recommend going more than 65 KGF (or 650 NM.)


Hope this helps."

From a guy called Chris Kessler.

I then replied:
I have actually built the wheel now and it is currently sitting at about 90 KGF. I guess I need to reduce it. I have already ridden it like this, am I likely to have done any damage?

The response:
If you're preload is set correctly and there is no play in the front wheel then you should be fine. Worst case would be a little bit of hub shell stretch, if this happens you can send the wheel in to us and we can instal an oversized bearing. But if you have just recently built them you should be fine.

I didnt ask why he quoted NM.....

If this is a blanket response then it is likely based on the hub with highest hole count, so as spoke count reduces, flange tension reduces, therefore spoke tension could be increased without problem. Unfortunately they never responded to that question.

I like the decals on the rim better than the ones on mine. Must have changed recently. Got mine last summer.

I think one of the fun reasons to with CK hubs is that they offer colors. If I was going to get black not sure I'd go for CK again. I can't tell any difference between them and my other set with WI hubs except the CKs require more maintenance. I've had to tighten the bearings on both front and back a couple times. Never touched the WI and they have more mileage.

I dont know if this is front AND back set to 120KGF or if she is talking just the back. I responded asking if that was for both front and back or just rear. waiting for response.

From Jude:

"120 KGF. To go higher would stretch the CK flanges. We calibrate all our gauges in house so it's an accurate 120KGF. A lot of LBS' seem to have ambiguous accuracy because they have no way of calibrating."

Sounds like rear drive side.

Congratulations on the nice looking set of wheels. I am almost certain that you will love these wheels because I have built up these wheels two more times since the first set.

1) 2011 HED. C2 rims, black Sapim CX-Ray spokes F28lacedx2 and R32lacedx3, red Prolock Hex nipples, black WI MI5/H3 hubs, +6000 miles (perfectly true and not requiring any adjustment since mile 1 almost 18 month ago)
2) 2012 HED. C2 rims, silver Sapim CX-Ray spokes F32lacedradial and R32lacedx3, brass nipples, silver WI MI5/H3 hubs, 500 miles on them
3) 2013 HED. C2 rims, silver Sapim CX-Ray spokes F32lacedx3 and R32x3, brass nipples, and silver WI T-11 hubs (waiting for an 11-speed build)

So the question now is what tires are you going to put on these wheels?

I have tried several tires on them:

1) Continental TT 23c - these expanded to 24.5 mm, which were very, very smooth rolling, but lasted only 1000 miles (95-100 psi front, 105-110 psi rear)
2) Vittoria Open Pave EVO CG 24c - these expanded to 25.5 mm, are very smooth rolling, and the rear tire lasted 2500 miles (90-95 psi front, 100 psi rear)
3) Continental GP4000s 25c - these expanded to 27.5 mm, are smooth rolling but not as soft feeling as the Vittorias (80-85 psi front, 90-95 psi rear), 500 miles so far

I also am waiting to put on some Vittoria Corso EVO CX 23c and 25c tires on these wheels.

I weigh 200 lbs so your pressures could be lower - I have only had two punctured flats and a final flat through tire threads of the Continental TT when I decided to replace them.

Try to find the most supple tire and thinnest inner tubes and ride them at the lowest pressures you dare - the smoothness of tires on these wider rims will blow your mind away.

I have used only Vittoria Ultra-Light Butyl 20-23 inner tubes for all of these tires because I was not bold enough to use latex tubes, which should only improve the ride.

These wheels were supposed to be my training wheels while I decided on (and saved for) a set of carbon wheels (ENVE 3.4 tubular) - however, I still kept on going back again and again to these HED. C2 rims!

Ride them in good health, ride them safely, and ride them like your stole them!

Mark

I will use specialized turbo pro's. love the tire. If that happens for some reason to feel different (In a bad way) with this wheel combo, I MIGHT do the conti 4000s !!! I had several back experiences with conti in years past and I simply didn't want to invest money into another set and be disappointed when i had so many other options out there. Every demo wheel I used from Jude was the same 4000s tire and I liked them.

That's because the 4000S are the best!

The CKR45 hub sound REALLY grew on me, which is weird because I hated them so much at first.. Since mine are brand new I would imagine there will be a break in period? They are really quiet now and excited for them to buzzzzzzzz louder. Any idea how long it will take or how many miles till they get louder?

you need to try tubeless clinchers, you will never want to go back to a tubed tire.

Yeah, looks good b10. Let us know how they feel.

I doubt that. Running the wide HED rim at 90psi or even a little under offers almost all of the ride quality advantages of a tubeless clincher without the hassles associated with tubeless. The hassles of tubeless I found to be many such as very tough to mount and dismount tires even at home much less on the side of the road when its cold and wet outside. There are very few tubeless tires to choose from. Sealant mess. The biggest disadvantage which happened to me personally and others is that there is very little protection to the brake track of the rim due to the low tubeless pressures. It may be fine on smooth roads but take a hit on a Ohio pothole and instead of a simple pinch flat you get a folded brake track. I have seen this happen a handful of times around here. The second issue may very well be the same on the wider non tubeless rim but so far we have not seen it.