A customer dropped off a Ksyrium SL (high-end wheel set) with me.
First, the front wheel — it was a complete mess.
The lateral runout wasn't too bad, but the rim centering was way off.
More than one yen coin thick (←thickness, not diameter, just to be clear).
The gap between the brake shoe and rim was set tight, so we're talking about the kind of spacing you'd have without squeezing the brake lever.
On top of that, when I spun it on the truing stand, the wheel was pulsing up and down with visible deflection.
The radial runout was so bad you could see it with your naked eye without even measuring precisely.
I figured something had to be wrong, so I asked the customer about it.
Turns out they'd recently had the front rim replaced with a new one at some shop.
In other words, this is a wheel that another shop left half-finished and the customer ended up taking home.
Half-baked work Final finishing, basically.
As long as I can figure out what went wrong, that's fine.
I asked the customer please not to tell me which shop it was.
Because if I found out, I'd definitely write here calling them out by name saying
"Don't sell customers half-finished wheels, you idiots."
So I genuinely don't know which shop it was,
but seriously — don't sell customers half-finished wheels. You morons. ←End up writing it anyway
The rear wheel is supposed to be in original build state, but it also had centering issues.
Not nearly as bad as the front wheel, though.
First, the front wheel — it was a complete mess.
The lateral runout wasn't too bad, but the rim centering was way off.
More than one yen coin thick (←thickness, not diameter, just to be clear).
The gap between the brake shoe and rim was set tight, so we're talking about the kind of spacing you'd have without squeezing the brake lever.
On top of that, when I spun it on the truing stand, the wheel was pulsing up and down with visible deflection.
The radial runout was so bad you could see it with your naked eye without even measuring precisely.
I figured something had to be wrong, so I asked the customer about it.
Turns out they'd recently had the front rim replaced with a new one at some shop.
In other words, this is a wheel that another shop left half-finished and the customer ended up taking home.
As long as I can figure out what went wrong, that's fine.
I asked the customer please not to tell me which shop it was.
Because if I found out, I'd definitely write here calling them out by name saying
"Don't sell customers half-finished wheels, you idiots."
So I genuinely don't know which shop it was,
but seriously — don't sell customers half-finished wheels. You morons. ←End up writing it anyway
The rear wheel is supposed to be in original build state, but it also had centering issues.
Not nearly as bad as the front wheel, though.