A customer brought in a Racing Zero for service.
Before coming in, they called to ask about red spoke inventory for Racing Zero.
So I asked, "Are they straight spokes or aero spokes?"
and they said aero spokes, so I told them
while we don't have enough for a complete wheel rebuild,
we do keep a few spares on hand for repairs,
so we'd probably be able to fix it.
That's how we ended up with
the Racing Zero shown in the image above.
↑There's one black spoke twisted off, and apparently it's a temporary measure
to keep the nipple from falling into the rim.
And you can even see from this distance how bent
the red spoke next to it is.
↑This one
Fixed.
↑Red bendy
(Just wanted to say that)
Anyway, regarding this: the customer ordered "Racing Zero red spokes" from Silvest Cycle,
but received straight spokes like the current model,
and apparently it's being treated as the customer's mistake
so they're stuck having to pay for them even though they don't need them.
This Racing Zero is supposedly a 2008 model,
but the customer told them "2009 spokes,"
so it's being said the mistake in ordering was the customer's fault.
No, that's not right.
This Racing Zero, where the hub/spokes/rim were red/red/red on the first-generation model,
had its colors changed to black/red/black.
It debuted in 2008 with its final year being 2009,
so the customer's bike might be a 2008 model,
but since production continued the next year, the 2009 model is identical.
The 2010 Racing Zero came in a panda white-and-black theme
with straight black spokes.
Fulcrum spokes becoming straight like Campagnolo happened
first with the 2WAY-FIT, and as I've outlined above,
2008→there's no 2WAY-FIT, so red straight spokes don't exist either
2010→the clincher model switched to straight black spokes
So when ordering by year for "red spokes," 2008 and 2010 are fine,
but 2009 has both versions in production,
so without confirming whether the spec is clincher or not
and ordering 2WAY-FIT spokes,
it can't be said the fault lies entirely with the customer.
If you ask me, this is the shop's mistake.
(In fact, when the customer first called about this,
I asked about the spoke type first, not the year.
That way there's no room for error.)
And the idea of it—forcing a customer to buy parts they might never use
because "you screwed up, so deal with it"—
seems a bit lacking in consideration, don't you think?
At around ¥1,700 per spoke times 3 spokes, that's over ¥5,000.
(Actually we repaired one spoke on the front wheel too, so 3 spokes total)
↑Our in-stock red aero spokes
↑The red straight spokes Silvest Cycle sold
Since these spokes were unopened and new,
we took them in exchange for our aero spokes.
I mean, what's the point of keeping them if they won't use them
There's a very good chance we'll use them at our shop in the future, so frankly it's a help.
We only charged the customer for the labor.
Before coming in, they called to ask about red spoke inventory for Racing Zero.
So I asked, "Are they straight spokes or aero spokes?"
and they said aero spokes, so I told them
while we don't have enough for a complete wheel rebuild,
we do keep a few spares on hand for repairs,
so we'd probably be able to fix it.
That's how we ended up with
the Racing Zero shown in the image above.
↑There's one black spoke twisted off, and apparently it's a temporary measure
to keep the nipple from falling into the rim.
And you can even see from this distance how bent
the red spoke next to it is.
↑This one
Fixed.
↑Red bendy
(Just wanted to say that)
Anyway, regarding this: the customer ordered "Racing Zero red spokes" from Silvest Cycle,
but received straight spokes like the current model,
and apparently it's being treated as the customer's mistake
so they're stuck having to pay for them even though they don't need them.
This Racing Zero is supposedly a 2008 model,
but the customer told them "2009 spokes,"
so it's being said the mistake in ordering was the customer's fault.
No, that's not right.
This Racing Zero, where the hub/spokes/rim were red/red/red on the first-generation model,
had its colors changed to black/red/black.
It debuted in 2008 with its final year being 2009,
so the customer's bike might be a 2008 model,
but since production continued the next year, the 2009 model is identical.
The 2010 Racing Zero came in a panda white-and-black theme
with straight black spokes.
Fulcrum spokes becoming straight like Campagnolo happened
first with the 2WAY-FIT, and as I've outlined above,
2008→there's no 2WAY-FIT, so red straight spokes don't exist either
2010→the clincher model switched to straight black spokes
So when ordering by year for "red spokes," 2008 and 2010 are fine,
but 2009 has both versions in production,
so without confirming whether the spec is clincher or not
and ordering 2WAY-FIT spokes,
it can't be said the fault lies entirely with the customer.
If you ask me, this is the shop's mistake.
(In fact, when the customer first called about this,
I asked about the spoke type first, not the year.
That way there's no room for error.)
And the idea of it—forcing a customer to buy parts they might never use
because "you screwed up, so deal with it"—
seems a bit lacking in consideration, don't you think?
At around ¥1,700 per spoke times 3 spokes, that's over ¥5,000.
(Actually we repaired one spoke on the front wheel too, so 3 spokes total)
↑Our in-stock red aero spokes
↑The red straight spokes Silvest Cycle sold
Since these spokes were unopened and new,
we took them in exchange for our aero spokes.
There's a very good chance we'll use them at our shop in the future, so frankly it's a help.
We only charged the customer for the labor.