I received a Ksyrium SLE (a wheelset) from a customer.
Both wheels felt loose, so they wanted me to tighten them if possible,
and apparently the centering on the rear wheel has gotten pretty off.
Starting with the front wheel—there was barely any lateral runout with no centering issue.
But sure enough, it was loose, so I increased spoke tension separately from truing.
The front wheel of the Ksyrium is the most transformed in this post.
There's definitely a noticeable difference when riding.
There was a scratch on the brake zone,
but no dents or bulges, so there's no problem with use.
Next, the rear wheel had fine lateral runout on both sides.
As for the centering issue, when I apply the freewheel-side dimension to the non-freewheel side, there's a gap at the hub.
In other words, the rim is shifted toward the non-freewheel side,
which isn't the kind of centering drift that develops over years of use. It was like that from the start.
Rough lateral truing + first centering correction
Second centering correction...which was actually the third. It had shifted by about the thickness of a sheet of paper, and I got the center back.
I adjusted this mostly just by tightening, but the freewheel-side spoke tension doesn't move the rim as much as the non-freewheel side does.
Yet I got the center back with barely loosening the non-freewheel side at all—that means I was able to tighten the freewheel side that much.
Actually, if a wheel already has good tension, you can't tighten the freewheel side that much.
The fact that I could means it was in a loose state to begin with,
but this time the front wheel was actually even looser.
Since it's the same customer, I'll cover both together.
I received the front and rear wheels of a Neutron (a wheelset), but I forgot to take a full photo of the front wheel.
Starting with the front wheel.
They said it felt loose on climbs, so
I tensioned it more than just fixing the centering.
Since the original wasn't that loose, it's not as dramatically transformed as the Ksyrium was.
For the rear wheel, there was a shift toward the non-freewheel side of about one sheet of paper thickness, so
I did freewheel-focused truing plus some bonus tightening,
first deliberately shifting it hard toward the freewheel side,
then corrected it by tightening only the non-freewheel side unilaterally to get it centered. This tensioned up noticeably by feel too.
What's scary is that some wheel manufacturers ship wheels with centering errors exceeding the amount I intentionally created here.
I'm looking at you, Mavic.
What's even scarier is that some shops pass these on to customers just as they come.
Didn't notice any issues, so I didn't touch the hub in particular,
but I did replace a bent pawl-return spring on the freewheel
and did a grease-up on the ratchet section.
There were a lot of areas where rim machining debris was flaking off, so
I cleaned up the stuff that was really visible.
Both wheels felt loose, so they wanted me to tighten them if possible,
and apparently the centering on the rear wheel has gotten pretty off.
Starting with the front wheel—there was barely any lateral runout with no centering issue.
But sure enough, it was loose, so I increased spoke tension separately from truing.
The front wheel of the Ksyrium is the most transformed in this post.
There's definitely a noticeable difference when riding.
There was a scratch on the brake zone,
but no dents or bulges, so there's no problem with use.
Next, the rear wheel had fine lateral runout on both sides.
As for the centering issue, when I apply the freewheel-side dimension to the non-freewheel side, there's a gap at the hub.
In other words, the rim is shifted toward the non-freewheel side,
which isn't the kind of centering drift that develops over years of use. It was like that from the start.
Rough lateral truing + first centering correction
Second centering correction...which was actually the third. It had shifted by about the thickness of a sheet of paper, and I got the center back.
I adjusted this mostly just by tightening, but the freewheel-side spoke tension doesn't move the rim as much as the non-freewheel side does.
Yet I got the center back with barely loosening the non-freewheel side at all—that means I was able to tighten the freewheel side that much.
Actually, if a wheel already has good tension, you can't tighten the freewheel side that much.
The fact that I could means it was in a loose state to begin with,
but this time the front wheel was actually even looser.
Since it's the same customer, I'll cover both together.
I received the front and rear wheels of a Neutron (a wheelset), but I forgot to take a full photo of the front wheel.
Starting with the front wheel.
They said it felt loose on climbs, so
I tensioned it more than just fixing the centering.
Since the original wasn't that loose, it's not as dramatically transformed as the Ksyrium was.
For the rear wheel, there was a shift toward the non-freewheel side of about one sheet of paper thickness, so
I did freewheel-focused truing plus some bonus tightening,
first deliberately shifting it hard toward the freewheel side,
then corrected it by tightening only the non-freewheel side unilaterally to get it centered. This tensioned up noticeably by feel too.
What's scary is that some wheel manufacturers ship wheels with centering errors exceeding the amount I intentionally created here.
What's even scarier is that some shops pass these on to customers just as they come.
Didn't notice any issues, so I didn't touch the hub in particular,
but I did replace a bent pawl-return spring on the freewheel
and did a grease-up on the ratchet section.
There were a lot of areas where rim machining debris was flaking off, so
I cleaned up the stuff that was really visible.