A customer dropped off the rear wheel from their Nomulab Wheel #5 (のむラボホイール５号) for service.
The rim and hub shell both needed replacement.
That meant the spokes on the anti-freewheel side, which are twisted together, couldn't be reused,
and I didn't want to reuse the aluminum nipples either.
I could carefully disassemble the freewheel-side spokes and reuse them,
but they're not expensive parts, and
I'd regret pinching pennies here only to have the freewheel-side spokes snap down the road,
so I decided not to reuse those either.
This meant basically a complete parts swap.
I would only be reusing the freebody itself, but if that were the case there'd be no need to disassemble this wheel.
Since it was going to be disposed of anyway, I went ahead and took it apart.
↑The rim is bent from buckling.
All assembled.
Evolite hub 24H black half-competition 4-cross lacing with wire tensioning.
The hub before the rebuild wasn't an Evolite hub but a Novatech 482SL,
so both ends were black rather than silver.
There's no individual pricing for the hub itself,
but there is pricing for the complete hub and for the freebody alone,
so when needed we can sell "everything except the freebody" as separate parts.
Red aluminum nipples, just like before the rebuild.
As for the title "Theseus's Ship"—it's the philosophical problem of whether
an object remains the same thing if all of its component parts are replaced with different ones.
But for this customer, this rear wheel
is still their Nomulab Wheel #5, nothing has changed about that.
The rim and hub shell both needed replacement.
That meant the spokes on the anti-freewheel side, which are twisted together, couldn't be reused,
and I didn't want to reuse the aluminum nipples either.
I could carefully disassemble the freewheel-side spokes and reuse them,
but they're not expensive parts, and
I'd regret pinching pennies here only to have the freewheel-side spokes snap down the road,
so I decided not to reuse those either.
This meant basically a complete parts swap.
I would only be reusing the freebody itself, but if that were the case there'd be no need to disassemble this wheel.
Since it was going to be disposed of anyway, I went ahead and took it apart.
↑The rim is bent from buckling.
All assembled.
Evolite hub 24H black half-competition 4-cross lacing with wire tensioning.
The hub before the rebuild wasn't an Evolite hub but a Novatech 482SL,
so both ends were black rather than silver.
There's no individual pricing for the hub itself,
but there is pricing for the complete hub and for the freebody alone,
so when needed we can sell "everything except the freebody" as separate parts.
Red aluminum nipples, just like before the rebuild.
As for the title "Theseus's Ship"—it's the philosophical problem of whether
an object remains the same thing if all of its component parts are replaced with different ones.
But for this customer, this rear wheel
is still their Nomulab Wheel #5, nothing has changed about that.