I'm finally off that wobbly, S-bent, elliptical, spongey Ambrosio Excellence. Wow. What a misnomer. Thanks to Chombo for the Vee and Jam Pony bikes for hooking up the spokes.
Such a nice afternoon to build a wheel. I cued up the fittingly ridiculous 'Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift' and grabbed one of my RatPack Hustle won beers, and set to work.
The first part, unwinding that damn Ambrosio was the hardest part. My hand hurt after this:
The old build was so tight that the spokes had practically fused together at the crossings.
I cleaned up my hub a bit and inspected the spoke holes. This would be the third wheel I've built with it. Some of the holes are stretched a bit in the direction of their spokes, but that's nothing to be concerned about. I think it was Jobst Brandt who said that if relacing a hub, you should always do it in the same direction, or the new stresses may be an issue and you would risk flange failure. I'm not gonna argue with Jobst.
One thing worth mentioning is how awesome it is to build a wheel while leaving your cogs on it! The spokes cleared the 14 and 15 tooth DA cogs with ease. I think the last time I built on this hub it had 15/16 cogs and was much more difficult.
The hot headed American gaijin kept getting himself into trouble with the young Yakuza hopefuls, as I relaxed, chuckled and brought the new rim into tension. Tonally, I knew this would be a clean build, without so much as glancing at the TS-2's caliper. It rings out beautifully.
..and here we are, all done. Bozoku style. I'm ready for some pedestrian clearing Dorifto chase scenes.
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