I took in a Racing Zero wheel from a customer (technically).
The original owner of this wheel (let's call him T) had lent it to someone else (let's call him H), but then it passed to the current owner (K.Y) without going back through T first.
The rear rim had a major dent from buckling, so I scrapped the rear wheel.
I thought the front wheel would be fixable with just adjustment, but 13 out of 16 nipples are completely seized and won't turn.
Since the front hub and spoke relationship is a "hook" type, I loosened what I could and lightly tapped the spoke head from the inside to relieve the spoke tension.
Even in that state, I couldn't turn the nipples while holding the spoke firmly with a spoke holder tool—they just snapped cleanly.
This is a bit out of order chronologically, but during my time working at the shop, I encountered cases like this where seized nipples became hopeless. Since there's no deflection visible on a glass surface plate, it should be fixable by replacing nearly all the spokes. The brake zone wear isn't too bad either.
The hub rotation was gritty, so I pulled out the internals. These are USB bearings from the black ball race era. I'm going to upgrade them to CULT.
↑Swapped in CULT (※) bearings.
※Cancer Ultimate Level Technology
It's built. I'm doing the spokes in a stylish heist pattern (apparently that's a step up from a stylish theft). With 16 spokes, the pattern is 6 black → 5 red → 5 silver.
Right side
Left side
The valve hole is centered in the 6 black spokes,
Red spokes are positioned near the red part of the sticker, and silver spokes near the white part. This sticker has "RACING" and "ZERO" split up and mixed in different orientations, so
Flip it over and it looks like this.
The original owner of this wheel (let's call him T) had lent it to someone else (let's call him H), but then it passed to the current owner (K.Y) without going back through T first.
The rear rim had a major dent from buckling, so I scrapped the rear wheel.
I thought the front wheel would be fixable with just adjustment, but 13 out of 16 nipples are completely seized and won't turn.
Since the front hub and spoke relationship is a "hook" type, I loosened what I could and lightly tapped the spoke head from the inside to relieve the spoke tension.
Even in that state, I couldn't turn the nipples while holding the spoke firmly with a spoke holder tool—they just snapped cleanly.
This is a bit out of order chronologically, but during my time working at the shop, I encountered cases like this where seized nipples became hopeless. Since there's no deflection visible on a glass surface plate, it should be fixable by replacing nearly all the spokes. The brake zone wear isn't too bad either.
The hub rotation was gritty, so I pulled out the internals. These are USB bearings from the black ball race era. I'm going to upgrade them to CULT.
↑Swapped in CULT (※) bearings.
※Cancer Ultimate Level Technology
It's built. I'm doing the spokes in a stylish heist pattern (apparently that's a step up from a stylish theft). With 16 spokes, the pattern is 6 black → 5 red → 5 silver.
Right side
Left side
The valve hole is centered in the 6 black spokes,
Red spokes are positioned near the red part of the sticker, and silver spokes near the white part. This sticker has "RACING" and "ZERO" split up and mixed in different orientations, so
Flip it over and it looks like this.