A customer dropped off the rear wheel from a Shamal Ultra (high-end rim) for service.
The derailleur cage on the rear derailleur—which had been upgraded with a bigger pulley—either
suddenly cracked and got caught in the rear wheel, or
the dropout was bent, or the low-end adjustment bolt was loosened too much and the derailleur got tangled in the spokes.
I'm not sure which, but in any case, the rear derailleur upgraded for bigger pulleys got caught up in the wheel.
If it happened while shifting in gears other than low gear, that would point to the first scenario,
but based on the situation, it looks like that's what happened.
※I received a comment pointing out that I'd written "pulley 'ゲージ' (gauge)" when it should be "pulley 'ケージ' (cage)".
I've made the correction. Thank you for catching that.
It's a mistake I tend to make, and
I've actually gone back and corrected all instances of "gauge" in past posts before.
Crack!
Crackity crack!
Out of 7 spokes on one side, 5 have damage, and 1 spoke on the opposite side has damage too.
Even with scratches, I don't replace spokes if they're not bent.
Unless the damage is deep—like gouged out—or
the customer specifically requests it, that's the call I make.
In the end, I replaced 3 spokes.
To determine whether there are any hidden bent spokes that are hard to see due to spoke tension,
I loosened a separate spoke almost all the way, but
it was fine, so I flipped it and reused it (the damage is less visible that way).
When a spoke is bent, its effective length becomes
the shortest distance across the bend, so
you end up with a "wheel where spokes of different lengths are mixed,"
and this causes runout from that mismatch.
In fact, when I first received the wheel, it had quite a bit of lateral wobble.
If you try to true a wheel with bent spokes still mixed in,
taking out the side-to-side wobble creates up-and-down wobble, and vice versa.
Once I replaced the 3 bent spokes, the runout caused by spoke deformation disappeared.
Also, just adjusting the nipples on the 3 replacement spokes and the 1 spoke I'd completely loosened earlier—
4 locations total—pretty much got the wheel trued.
The derailleur cage on the rear derailleur—which had been upgraded with a bigger pulley—either
suddenly cracked and got caught in the rear wheel, or
the dropout was bent, or the low-end adjustment bolt was loosened too much and the derailleur got tangled in the spokes.
I'm not sure which, but in any case, the rear derailleur upgraded for bigger pulleys got caught up in the wheel.
If it happened while shifting in gears other than low gear, that would point to the first scenario,
but based on the situation, it looks like that's what happened.
※I received a comment pointing out that I'd written "pulley 'ゲージ' (gauge)" when it should be "pulley 'ケージ' (cage)".
I've made the correction. Thank you for catching that.
It's a mistake I tend to make, and
I've actually gone back and corrected all instances of "gauge" in past posts before.
Crack!
Crackity crack!
Out of 7 spokes on one side, 5 have damage, and 1 spoke on the opposite side has damage too.
Even with scratches, I don't replace spokes if they're not bent.
Unless the damage is deep—like gouged out—or
the customer specifically requests it, that's the call I make.
In the end, I replaced 3 spokes.
To determine whether there are any hidden bent spokes that are hard to see due to spoke tension,
I loosened a separate spoke almost all the way, but
it was fine, so I flipped it and reused it (the damage is less visible that way).
When a spoke is bent, its effective length becomes
the shortest distance across the bend, so
you end up with a "wheel where spokes of different lengths are mixed,"
and this causes runout from that mismatch.
In fact, when I first received the wheel, it had quite a bit of lateral wobble.
If you try to true a wheel with bent spokes still mixed in,
taking out the side-to-side wobble creates up-and-down wobble, and vice versa.
Once I replaced the 3 bent spokes, the runout caused by spoke deformation disappeared.
Also, just adjusting the nipples on the 3 replacement spokes and the 1 spoke I'd completely loosened earlier—
4 locations total—pretty much got the wheel trued.