A customer brought in a Racing Speed for repair.
A spoke is missing.
It's broken right at the thread junction.
This is actually a pretty rare case—a fatigue-related spoke break.
The customer said it snapped suddenly with a crack during the race.
I recovered the nipple and the specialized washer.
Now, this is a separate incident, but at one shop (Silvestro Cycle Umeda) they did a spoke replacement on a Racing Speed (I forget if it was the XLR or just the 50mm-high version) and right after that, the customer noticed something bothering them and brought the wheel in to us. There was a slight bulge on the inner rim near the apex where your fingernail could catch it. When I shined a light inside the rim, I could see that this oval washer in the photo had been installed rotated 90 degrees, and tightening the nipple down like that had made the rim bulge inward. It was obviously a complete botch job, so I told them they should go lodge a complaint—they could even use my name. Then I sent the wheel back.
I don't know how that turned out (they probably swept it under the rug anyway), but the same customer went to compete in a corporate team race in Gunma, and while riding, the front brake came loose and started sliding on top of the tire as it rotated, with the front brake cable fully extended and rattling. They managed to grab the rear brake and come to a stop. I don't know how that turned out either. They probably swept that under the rug too.
Because the rider kept going for a while after the spoke broke, you can see metallic dust scattered around from the spoke head being scraped.
The damage was mostly to the spoke head...
Actually, it was the inside of the bearing adjustment cone nut. I cleaned the hub before reassembling it.
All fixed.
When the customer first brought it in for this spoke repair, apparently another shop quoted them about 40,000 yen. They wouldn't tell me which shop it was, saying there's a chance I might write about it here. Wow, do I really seem like that kind of person?
Anyway, this should be a simple one-spoke replacement job. But even if it was a full rebuild, the complete spoke kit for this generation Racing Speed—the RSF-SK (18 spokes + 18 washers + 18 nipples)—has a list price of 12,470 yen including tax, so the labor would come out to 27,530 yen.
The spoke I replaced was the one farther from the sea turtle side.
A spoke is missing.
It's broken right at the thread junction.
This is actually a pretty rare case—a fatigue-related spoke break.
The customer said it snapped suddenly with a crack during the race.
I recovered the nipple and the specialized washer.
Now, this is a separate incident, but at one shop (Silvestro Cycle Umeda) they did a spoke replacement on a Racing Speed (I forget if it was the XLR or just the 50mm-high version) and right after that, the customer noticed something bothering them and brought the wheel in to us. There was a slight bulge on the inner rim near the apex where your fingernail could catch it. When I shined a light inside the rim, I could see that this oval washer in the photo had been installed rotated 90 degrees, and tightening the nipple down like that had made the rim bulge inward. It was obviously a complete botch job, so I told them they should go lodge a complaint—they could even use my name. Then I sent the wheel back.
I don't know how that turned out (they probably swept it under the rug anyway), but the same customer went to compete in a corporate team race in Gunma, and while riding, the front brake came loose and started sliding on top of the tire as it rotated, with the front brake cable fully extended and rattling. They managed to grab the rear brake and come to a stop. I don't know how that turned out either. They probably swept that under the rug too.
Because the rider kept going for a while after the spoke broke, you can see metallic dust scattered around from the spoke head being scraped.
The damage was mostly to the spoke head...
Actually, it was the inside of the bearing adjustment cone nut. I cleaned the hub before reassembling it.
All fixed.
When the customer first brought it in for this spoke repair, apparently another shop quoted them about 40,000 yen. They wouldn't tell me which shop it was, saying there's a chance I might write about it here. Wow, do I really seem like that kind of person?
Anyway, this should be a simple one-spoke replacement job. But even if it was a full rebuild, the complete spoke kit for this generation Racing Speed—the RSF-SK (18 spokes + 18 washers + 18 nipples)—has a list price of 12,470 yen including tax, so the labor would come out to 27,530 yen.
The spoke I replaced was the one farther from the sea turtle side.