The latest in our "shittohit" series of projects, the XLR8 Wheels 2001 Trek 2300 is finally getting a complete rebuild. The bike came to us with a Shimano WH-6600 rear wheel. We are not a fan of the radial driveside lacing (makes no sense whatsoever) and the rusty old spokes (that were now well beyond their fatigue life).
We found a nice old 20 hole Ritchey Zero hub in the used hubs drawer, and calculated the spoke bracing angles using our own developed spoke length, target tensions and bracing angle calculator.
As the wheels were originally offered by Shimano with driveside radial lacing and internal nipples, we thought it was time to sort out these two issues. The former because we were certainly not going to use radial lacing on the driveside, and the latter because we wanted to match the aesthetics of a Shimano front wheel it would be paired with.
A quickly fashioned wooden jig and some time with the drill, and we enlarged the spoke holes to accommodate external nipples, and angled them perfectly for the spoke bracing angled from the Ritchey hub. As the rim comes in at around the 500g mark, there should be plenty of meat to ensure this is no issue.
Some smart spoke selection (say that four times in a row!), some special large nipple washers and this low spoke count rear should be stiff and reliable. Sapim Leader plain gauge on the driveside, with Sapim Race on the other. We're stoked with the outcome.