Dan Artley, my good friend and gracious host, wrote: <snip>
If you build the wheels yourself you can be as partic'lar as you wish. I like to line up the Campagnolo on the hub so it and the rim sticker are in the same line of sight, and of course, pulling spokes on the inside! ++++++++++++++++++++ Well, Dan, that's fine and well, but let me share my own "meshugah" (craziness) of wheel-building and such.
1) the spokes that are most nearly parallel must bracket the valve hole. I'll reverse the direction of spokes on one flange if I have to, but I just hate having to mess with pumping up tires when the valve is offset into a compromised position. It just don't need to be thatway.
2) It's about the tire label, not the rim label. I insist on having the tire label at the valve hole. Always. Why? makes it much easier to find whether there is a piece of glass or such stuck in the tire after a flat. Once I find the leak in the tube, there are only two places that the tire could be affected, if the tire label was roughly centered on the valve hole, which then indexes the valve and tube to the tire.
Why, this might have saved me a minute or two over the past four decades or so. But it does look cool, too.
harvey "no psychobabble" sachs
mcLean va