A customer dropped off a Racing Zero rear wheel for me to work on.
One spoke was badly bent, and with the tension gone, the rim was wobbling "as if" it had twisted into a potato chip shape.
The customer had called me ahead of time, and we discussed the situation. If there are no dents or damage to the rim sidewall or bead hook, most of the time a bent spoke replacement will fix it.
So I replaced the bent spoke and started truing using just that spoke's nipple. When the largest wobble no longer appeared directly under the replaced spoke, that's considered the point right before spoke damage would occur — this is something I always mention. At that point, the rear wheel became "just slightly out of true," so I cleaned up the lateral runout a bit, and since the rim was sitting slightly toward the freewheel side, I finished with a final centering adjustment.
I'd slipped away from a work training seminar in Osaka city, so I had to get back soon. The customer asked if they could leave the wheel with me to have it fixed, but I told them "if I have 10 minutes, I can probably get it done." It turned out I didn't need to keep it after all. After installing the tire, the customer was in a rush, but asked if I could take some photos for the blog, so I snapped these shots in a hurry.
While working, the customer mentioned that at a nearby shop in the area (they told me which one, but I'll just say it's in Neyagawa City) they were told they'd need a complete rim and spoke replacement for about 60,000 yen. I guess the question is: would you take on that hassle if they were paying you 60,000 yen? If the rim and spokes are being sold at list price, they're not really overcharging on labor, but a complete spoke replacement is almost never necessary when replacing a rim. And of course, there's the usual lie they tell: "spokes are only sold to us as a complete wheel set."
Any shop that can order Fulcrum spare parts should know that individual spokes can be obtained one at a time... it's strange.
By the way, for this job at my shop, it was 2,600 yen (tax included) for the spoke and labor.
One spoke was badly bent, and with the tension gone, the rim was wobbling "as if" it had twisted into a potato chip shape.
The customer had called me ahead of time, and we discussed the situation. If there are no dents or damage to the rim sidewall or bead hook, most of the time a bent spoke replacement will fix it.
So I replaced the bent spoke and started truing using just that spoke's nipple. When the largest wobble no longer appeared directly under the replaced spoke, that's considered the point right before spoke damage would occur — this is something I always mention. At that point, the rear wheel became "just slightly out of true," so I cleaned up the lateral runout a bit, and since the rim was sitting slightly toward the freewheel side, I finished with a final centering adjustment.
I'd slipped away from a work training seminar in Osaka city, so I had to get back soon. The customer asked if they could leave the wheel with me to have it fixed, but I told them "if I have 10 minutes, I can probably get it done." It turned out I didn't need to keep it after all. After installing the tire, the customer was in a rush, but asked if I could take some photos for the blog, so I snapped these shots in a hurry.
While working, the customer mentioned that at a nearby shop in the area (they told me which one, but I'll just say it's in Neyagawa City) they were told they'd need a complete rim and spoke replacement for about 60,000 yen. I guess the question is: would you take on that hassle if they were paying you 60,000 yen? If the rim and spokes are being sold at list price, they're not really overcharging on labor, but a complete spoke replacement is almost never necessary when replacing a rim. And of course, there's the usual lie they tell: "spokes are only sold to us as a complete wheel set."
Any shop that can order Fulcrum spare parts should know that individual spokes can be obtained one at a time... it's strange.
By the way, for this job at my shop, it was 2,600 yen (tax included) for the spoke and labor.