NOS XTR wheelset puzzle....

Bicycles.....never simple. *Sigh*

So I picked up a NOS XTR 950/Mavic X517 wheelset on ebay last week for a good deal. They arrived yesterday, and are certainly NOS, no brake rub, perfect skewers, beautiful. I bought them because I've been through 3 or 4 used wheelsets on my Ted Wojcik and I'm sick of dealing with issues, I just want to ride the bike. The last wheelset I had was M950 hubs laced to 90's Velocity Deep V's, I could get them true, but they had a slight hop I could not seem to rectify. The other thing that drove me crazy was the way they would always settle to one spot on the truing stand-spin the wheel slowly, and instead of just slowing to a stop, it would roll back and forth and always end up with one spot (the decal area on both rims, strangely) at the bottom. I just assumed it had something to do with the slight hop.

So now I have this NOS wheelset.....and they do the same thing. They are true, they do not hop, but both will roll back and forth and settle in the same spot each time. What the F? Is this just a common thing and I'm being obsessive? Is it because they have never been used, and just where the grease has settled in the hub or something? Prior to this wheelset I just assumed it was my ham-fisted attempts at truing wheels, but I haven't touched these.

Any thoughts?

Under the decal is the join in the rim, and there is an extra piece that pins the two ends together (they may also be welded). As a result it's slightly heavier. If you really want to do something about it, you will notice that the valve is opposite and put on a heavier valve cap...

Alternatively, stop spending time looking at your wheels. Go and ride your bike instead.

Good. I like it when the solution is 'I am an idiot/obsessive.' This is a solvable problem, at least until the next opportunity to be an idiot/obsessive arrives. Wash, rinse, repeat!

I have a mint set of Judy's on the way and with the new wheels it's gonna be a blast.

Thanks for the input.

Obsessed roadies and trackies add weights to sort this out. I would never do this, but now you've pointed it out it might worry me for a nanosecond or three

I've always wondered if anyone balanced a wheel like you do car wheels.
What's worse are tyres though. Many have 'kinks' in them or like one set of mine (would be the slick) a 'flat spot' and why the hell can they not seem to line up both sides of the moulds!

Its rare these days, but some tyres do have marks - usually 3 dots -you line up with the valve for balance purposes.

Good info Chopper, I'll keep an eye out for that. I'm going to have another look at the XTR/DeepV wheelset, it's been a few months since I hung them up in frustration, they may not be as bad as I thought they were, perhaps good for my '96 Intense Uzzi....another build that could use better wheels.

On of the worst things about the wheelset issues I've been having is the tires I use, those Continental Traction/Leader Pro models are TOUGH to mount when new. Every time I thought I had it solved those things went on and off. Broken in a bit now though!

Yes!
This annoys me too, once in the school holidays I spent ages trying to get them on so the skin wall was equal all the way round, I thought I'd done something wrong when fitting them!