～さんシリーズの表題ですが、
For the title of this ～さん series,
when it comes to major wheel manufacturers,
I'd just use the model name alone, like "Kishirium 125さん" or "Racing ZERO さん"
but when I think that alone might not ring a bell,
I'll sometimes include the maker's name too.
Just now I typed "Spinergy" kind of unconsciously.
Was it because I thought "Zerolight さん" alone wouldn't get the message across,
or did my subconscious judge Spinergy to be minor?
I honestly can't say why.
A customer brought in a Zerolight for me to work on.
It's a wheel built with Zyron fiber spokes.
Both wheels had a bit of runout,
but the rear wheel's center was offset toward the non-freehub side.
I don't like loosening the non-freehub side,
but the freehub side has spokes running nearly straight down under the rim,
so even with significant tightening the center won't shift.
Still, I managed to correct the center and remove the runout
mostly just by adjusting the freehub side nipples.
With Zyron spokes, that part that looks like a nipple
can't be treated as a nipple for spoke trueing.
On a normal wheel, the nipple and spoke are separate parts,
and the spoke doesn't rotate in sync with the nipple.
↑If they do rotate in sync (twist) like this,
you need to either untwist the spoke itself
or engineer it so they don't rotate together in the first place.
The specific method is covered in a past entry (メシノタネコード).
Next, with composite spokes like R-SYS,
the hub-side spoke head and rim-side nipple section are bonded to the carbon spoke section,
so when you turn the nipple part,
all sections rotate in sync.
At this point, if you don't remove the TraComp ring
that's press-fit into the hub and in contact with the spoke head,
the rotation won't sync properly.
So when adjusting composite spoke nipples,
you need to remove the TraComp ring.
Surely no shop would cut that corner.
(Though I'm writing this knowing some might.)
Now, with these Zyron spokes,
the spoke and nipple section are also integral,
but the spoke section isn't a rigid material like carbon—
in its untensioned state it's so flexible you could tie it like string,
so when you turn the nipple tool, the spoke twists.
That's the difference from composite spokes.
The R-SYS rim has threads cut directly into the rim holes,
but the Zerolight rim is just a plain hole.
So you have to remove the tire and everything else,
then turn the nut from the outside to adjust.
↑That tool that looks like a nipple wrench
is actually used to stop the nut from spinning with the spoke.
Actually, I only got this tool very recently.
There was a possibility I'd be adjusting a Zerolight soon, so I ordered it,
but this job just happened to come in two days after I got the tool.
Until now, I'd had to turn down several Zerolight truing jobs
because I didn't have the tool. Now I can handle them.
Separate from this, someone brought a Zerolight to the shop that sold it to them
(Sylvest Cycle Umeda Store) for truing,
and they were turned down because "we don't have the tool."
If it had been a different shop, maybe that'd be understandable,
but the shop that sold the wheel should support it—
they pushed back on that.
They got told something like
"we can't stock a tool just for one service,"
so the customer said "fine, I'll buy the special tool myself,
and you can borrow it from me to do the truing."
The result? They got the lateral runout reasonably close,
but introduced horrible axial runout—
an eccentric rear wheel in the worst sense—
and when mounted in the frame, the center was visibly off.
Basically, they botched it completely.
And of course they charged full labor.
That rear wheel came to our shop afterward.
The customer had the tool, so I borrowed it and fixed it,
but a quick job couldn't take out the axial runout,
so I basically half-disassembled and rebuilt it—
took about as long as building a wheel from scratch.
Since the customer had patronized us before, I cut the price quite a bit,
but even so it was cheaper than replacing the wheel.
This happened quite a while back,
and since then I'd been thinking I really needed to get the special Zerolight tool,
but nothing particularly urgent came up, so I forgot about it.
Now I can finally do it.
For the title of this ～さん series,
when it comes to major wheel manufacturers,
I'd just use the model name alone, like "Kishirium 125さん" or "Racing ZERO さん"
but when I think that alone might not ring a bell,
I'll sometimes include the maker's name too.
Just now I typed "Spinergy" kind of unconsciously.
Was it because I thought "Zerolight さん" alone wouldn't get the message across,
or did my subconscious judge Spinergy to be minor?
I honestly can't say why.
A customer brought in a Zerolight for me to work on.
It's a wheel built with Zyron fiber spokes.
Both wheels had a bit of runout,
but the rear wheel's center was offset toward the non-freehub side.
I don't like loosening the non-freehub side,
but the freehub side has spokes running nearly straight down under the rim,
so even with significant tightening the center won't shift.
Still, I managed to correct the center and remove the runout
mostly just by adjusting the freehub side nipples.
With Zyron spokes, that part that looks like a nipple
can't be treated as a nipple for spoke trueing.
On a normal wheel, the nipple and spoke are separate parts,
and the spoke doesn't rotate in sync with the nipple.
↑If they do rotate in sync (twist) like this,
you need to either untwist the spoke itself
or engineer it so they don't rotate together in the first place.
The specific method is covered in a past entry (メシノタネコード).
Next, with composite spokes like R-SYS,
the hub-side spoke head and rim-side nipple section are bonded to the carbon spoke section,
so when you turn the nipple part,
all sections rotate in sync.
At this point, if you don't remove the TraComp ring
that's press-fit into the hub and in contact with the spoke head,
the rotation won't sync properly.
So when adjusting composite spoke nipples,
you need to remove the TraComp ring.
Surely no shop would cut that corner.
(Though I'm writing this knowing some might.)
Now, with these Zyron spokes,
the spoke and nipple section are also integral,
but the spoke section isn't a rigid material like carbon—
in its untensioned state it's so flexible you could tie it like string,
so when you turn the nipple tool, the spoke twists.
That's the difference from composite spokes.
The R-SYS rim has threads cut directly into the rim holes,
but the Zerolight rim is just a plain hole.
So you have to remove the tire and everything else,
then turn the nut from the outside to adjust.
↑That tool that looks like a nipple wrench
is actually used to stop the nut from spinning with the spoke.
Actually, I only got this tool very recently.
There was a possibility I'd be adjusting a Zerolight soon, so I ordered it,
but this job just happened to come in two days after I got the tool.
Until now, I'd had to turn down several Zerolight truing jobs
because I didn't have the tool. Now I can handle them.
Separate from this, someone brought a Zerolight to the shop that sold it to them
(Sylvest Cycle Umeda Store) for truing,
and they were turned down because "we don't have the tool."
If it had been a different shop, maybe that'd be understandable,
but the shop that sold the wheel should support it—
they pushed back on that.
They got told something like
"we can't stock a tool just for one service,"
so the customer said "fine, I'll buy the special tool myself,
and you can borrow it from me to do the truing."
The result? They got the lateral runout reasonably close,
but introduced horrible axial runout—
an eccentric rear wheel in the worst sense—
and when mounted in the frame, the center was visibly off.
Basically, they botched it completely.
And of course they charged full labor.
That rear wheel came to our shop afterward.
The customer had the tool, so I borrowed it and fixed it,
but a quick job couldn't take out the axial runout,
so I basically half-disassembled and rebuilt it—
took about as long as building a wheel from scratch.
Since the customer had patronized us before, I cut the price quite a bit,
but even so it was cheaper than replacing the wheel.
This happened quite a while back,
and since then I'd been thinking I really needed to get the special Zerolight tool,
but nothing particularly urgent came up, so I forgot about it.
Now I can finally do it.