Another wheel day (details omitted).
A customer brought me the rear wheel of a first-generation Racing 1.
Being the original generation from the era when there were three models—Racing 1, 3, and 5—
it's the flagship model, and while tubular versions existed,
this one is a clincher (WO) spec.
With clincher rims, the brake zone gets worn down by brake shoe friction,
and eventually it can't withstand the force of air pressure pushing the bead hooks outward—something that doesn't happen with tubular rims—and then...
The rim explodes.
BOOM!
The rim needs replacement, but fortunately this rim is still available.
Pretty impressive.
The freewheel body is aluminum, specifically designed for Shimano 10-speed.
The hub rotation feels rough, so I'll do an overhaul.
On both sides, the bearing seals weren't properly seated in the cone groove.
They wouldn't fall out on their own, so whoever worked on this hub previously messed up.
Yeah, it's pretty dirty.
I removed the freewheel body first.
At that point, the hub's rough rotation almost completely disappeared,
which means the damaged bearing is only on the freewheel body side.
Further inspection revealed that only the outer bearing was damaged, so I removed it.
In cases like this, the hub shaft often gets secondary rust or scuff marks
just below where the bearing sits, but
this time it was fine.
By the way, this is an old-style shaft without butting,
so there are compatibility issues with the freewheel body (more on that later).
The wear marks on the hub cone and cup are clean and well-defined,
with no pitting tendency.
The ball bearings don't shine like new ones,
but I didn't feel they needed replacement, so I'm reusing them.
The pawl spring on the freewheel body was bent.
Before
After
This is the right end cone nut.
I washed the spokes as well,
but they didn't come out very clean.
These spokes come in only two types—front and rear—
and the rear spokes are the same length on both sides.
The hub dimensions are adjusted to make this work.
Designing for left-right symmetry to reduce spare parts inventory
is the same principle used in Shimano's first complete wheel, the WH-7700,
but the WH-7701 switched to radial lacing on the freewheel side,
so the spoke lengths differ between sides.
Reducing spare parts inventory is a smart consideration,
but improving the wheel design (as thought to be better) is still more important.
Until Racing Zero came out, this was Fulcrum's only aluminum-spoked wheel,
and Campagnolo's comparable model at that time was the Eurus
with G3 steel spokes and a medium-height rim as their flagship,
so aluminum spokes had no varieties, meaning no markings on the spoke heads.
But later production runs got a "single vertical line" marking.
↑This is the black-butted aluminum spoke
from the era when they came in bags,
and it also has no marking.
The small hole near the valve hole appears to be necessary for manufacturing,
and it happened to align with a spoke hole, so
when viewed from inside, it looks like this.
The spare rim has a more modest diameter for this hole.
On 2WAY-FIT rims, this hole is carefully sealed.
Built.
I cleaned the hub as well.
I'm not installing the freewheel body yet because
if the customer wants to upgrade to an 11-speed freewheel body,
installing new bearings and springs on the original 10-speed body would be wasteful.
This Racing 1 has an old-style shaft, but
a first-generation Racing Zero I recently worked on
had a new-style shaft and was able to accept a white aluminum 11-speed freewheel body.
The 2005 Racing 1 has an old-style shaft,
the 2006 Racing 1 has a new-style shaft (everything else was the same as 2005),
and Racing Zero debuted in 2007, so
unless it's been heavily modified,
all Racing Zero models should have new-style shafts.
↑This is the 10-speed-only freewheel body in this case.
It has a round hole that fits the old-style shaft.
For Shimano 10-speed or 11-speed steel freewheel bodies,
they're usually found on new-style shafts,
but the hole is actually larger than on old-style freewheel bodies,
so they can still fit old-style shafts.
Shimano 11-speed white aluminum freewheel bodies
or Campagnolo aluminum freewheel bodies
have cutouts that only fit new-style shafts.
So the options I can offer the customer are:
・Keep the 10-speed freewheel body→replace bearing and spring
・Want 11-speed without changing the shaft→swap for steel 11-speed freewheel
・Want white aluminum 11-speed→need to replace hub shaft
When I tighten the right end nut without the freewheel body,
the serration sits further inward than it should,
so I deliberately offset the center.
Whether it lines up perfectly when I install the freewheel body
remains to be seen, but if it doesn't, I'll just fine-tune it.
Addendum:
I contacted the customer, and we decided to fix the 10-speed freewheel body, but
I got the offset direction wrong,
so the center runout actually got worse.
Man, I'm an idiot abababaabababababaabababaa
Fixed it.
By the way, there's still more to this story
Separately, another customer brought me a Racing 1 rear wheel.
They'd accidentally mounted it backward on a roof rack
(rear wheel facing forward) and
went CRASH
By following the tire's label position,
you can clearly see the impact point.
The rim dent transferred yellow paint to the tire,
and just past that
is where the rim is dented.
It was a severe impact, but it didn't cause a pinch flat.
Yep, rim replacement it is.
I noticed while disassembling that
Fulcrum aluminum spokes don't have the final crossing woven.
So spoke overlap should be like this,
but somehow one spot was woven.
If this Racing 1 were a 2005 model and a later-generation marked spoke had been used as a spare,
I could definitively say whoever repaired it made a mistake. But
it's a new-shaft model, so it's a 2006 or later,
and all the spokes had markings.
But a factory assembly error seems unlikely.
Built.
This is an 8/9/10-speed steel freewheel body, but
the customer has modified it for 11-speed.
This is where the serrations should normally be,
just barely outside the shaft face.
Of course, I centered this one properly.
Before rebuild
After rebuild
![DSC02</div>
<div class=]()
A customer brought me the rear wheel of a first-generation Racing 1.
Being the original generation from the era when there were three models—Racing 1, 3, and 5—
it's the flagship model, and while tubular versions existed,
this one is a clincher (WO) spec.
With clincher rims, the brake zone gets worn down by brake shoe friction,
and eventually it can't withstand the force of air pressure pushing the bead hooks outward—something that doesn't happen with tubular rims—and then...
The rim explodes.
BOOM!
The rim needs replacement, but fortunately this rim is still available.
Pretty impressive.
The freewheel body is aluminum, specifically designed for Shimano 10-speed.
The hub rotation feels rough, so I'll do an overhaul.
On both sides, the bearing seals weren't properly seated in the cone groove.
They wouldn't fall out on their own, so whoever worked on this hub previously messed up.
Yeah, it's pretty dirty.
I removed the freewheel body first.
At that point, the hub's rough rotation almost completely disappeared,
which means the damaged bearing is only on the freewheel body side.
Further inspection revealed that only the outer bearing was damaged, so I removed it.
In cases like this, the hub shaft often gets secondary rust or scuff marks
just below where the bearing sits, but
this time it was fine.
By the way, this is an old-style shaft without butting,
so there are compatibility issues with the freewheel body (more on that later).
The wear marks on the hub cone and cup are clean and well-defined,
with no pitting tendency.
The ball bearings don't shine like new ones,
but I didn't feel they needed replacement, so I'm reusing them.
The pawl spring on the freewheel body was bent.
Before
After
This is the right end cone nut.
I washed the spokes as well,
but they didn't come out very clean.
These spokes come in only two types—front and rear—
and the rear spokes are the same length on both sides.
The hub dimensions are adjusted to make this work.
Designing for left-right symmetry to reduce spare parts inventory
is the same principle used in Shimano's first complete wheel, the WH-7700,
but the WH-7701 switched to radial lacing on the freewheel side,
so the spoke lengths differ between sides.
Reducing spare parts inventory is a smart consideration,
but improving the wheel design (as thought to be better) is still more important.
Until Racing Zero came out, this was Fulcrum's only aluminum-spoked wheel,
and Campagnolo's comparable model at that time was the Eurus
with G3 steel spokes and a medium-height rim as their flagship,
so aluminum spokes had no varieties, meaning no markings on the spoke heads.
But later production runs got a "single vertical line" marking.
↑This is the black-butted aluminum spoke
from the era when they came in bags,
and it also has no marking.
The small hole near the valve hole appears to be necessary for manufacturing,
and it happened to align with a spoke hole, so
when viewed from inside, it looks like this.
The spare rim has a more modest diameter for this hole.
On 2WAY-FIT rims, this hole is carefully sealed.
Built.
I cleaned the hub as well.
I'm not installing the freewheel body yet because
if the customer wants to upgrade to an 11-speed freewheel body,
installing new bearings and springs on the original 10-speed body would be wasteful.
This Racing 1 has an old-style shaft, but
a first-generation Racing Zero I recently worked on
had a new-style shaft and was able to accept a white aluminum 11-speed freewheel body.
The 2005 Racing 1 has an old-style shaft,
the 2006 Racing 1 has a new-style shaft (everything else was the same as 2005),
and Racing Zero debuted in 2007, so
unless it's been heavily modified,
all Racing Zero models should have new-style shafts.
↑This is the 10-speed-only freewheel body in this case.
It has a round hole that fits the old-style shaft.
For Shimano 10-speed or 11-speed steel freewheel bodies,
they're usually found on new-style shafts,
but the hole is actually larger than on old-style freewheel bodies,
so they can still fit old-style shafts.
Shimano 11-speed white aluminum freewheel bodies
or Campagnolo aluminum freewheel bodies
have cutouts that only fit new-style shafts.
So the options I can offer the customer are:
・Keep the 10-speed freewheel body→replace bearing and spring
・Want 11-speed without changing the shaft→swap for steel 11-speed freewheel
・Want white aluminum 11-speed→need to replace hub shaft
When I tighten the right end nut without the freewheel body,
the serration sits further inward than it should,
so I deliberately offset the center.
Whether it lines up perfectly when I install the freewheel body
remains to be seen, but if it doesn't, I'll just fine-tune it.
Addendum:
I contacted the customer, and we decided to fix the 10-speed freewheel body, but
I got the offset direction wrong,
so the center runout actually got worse.
Man, I'm an idiot abababaabababababaabababaa
Fixed it.
By the way, there's still more to this story
Separately, another customer brought me a Racing 1 rear wheel.
They'd accidentally mounted it backward on a roof rack
(rear wheel facing forward) and
went CRASH
By following the tire's label position,
you can clearly see the impact point.
The rim dent transferred yellow paint to the tire,
and just past that
is where the rim is dented.
It was a severe impact, but it didn't cause a pinch flat.
Yep, rim replacement it is.
I noticed while disassembling that
Fulcrum aluminum spokes don't have the final crossing woven.
So spoke overlap should be like this,
but somehow one spot was woven.
If this Racing 1 were a 2005 model and a later-generation marked spoke had been used as a spare,
I could definitively say whoever repaired it made a mistake. But
it's a new-shaft model, so it's a 2006 or later,
and all the spokes had markings.
But a factory assembly error seems unlikely.
Built.
This is an 8/9/10-speed steel freewheel body, but
the customer has modified it for 11-speed.
This is where the serrations should normally be,
just barely outside the shaft face.
Of course, I centered this one properly.
Before rebuild
After rebuild
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