A customer brought in the rear wheel of an original Cosmic Elite for repair.
A spoke has broken, so they're looking for a repair.
For information on the original Cosmic Elite and reinforced eyelets
（→see here）.
It's not a head break, but a fracture at the boundary with the threaded section.
Straight spokes tend to break on this side more often.
The customer for this wheel isn't really part of the "industry," but he knows people inside Mavic distributorships and people inside Campagnolo distributorships who are the most knowledgeable in Japan about their stuff. According to the person at the Mavic distributor, the spoke is discontinued and unobtainable. If the person inside is saying it, there's no mistake. That alone would be fine, but somehow I got recommended to Nomu Lab with expectations that "they probably can do something, they might even be able to make spokes" (※they can't). The person inside the Campagnolo distributor—the most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan—called during this work and told the customer to "treat them with proper courtesy." When I asked if we could use a spoke where the butted section dimensions matched Campagnolo's ○○○○○ since Mavic doesn't have the original, he said "you can't just say that'll work," which is true. By the way, the wheel name is redacted not because of our shop's trade secrets, but because I was specifically told not to write it here. We also talked about various other things, like whether Campagnolo's 12-speed sprockets work with current freebodies, and issues with the Bora Ultra rim (I'll write about that later), but I should mention that regarding the small-diameter retainer bearings in the Shamal Mille front hub that I wrote about before, I had noted that the ball diameter was the same but there was one fewer ball. The correction is that there are actually two fewer balls. I updated that. Guess people really are reading this—I can't write careless stuff.
Incidentally, this wheel's customer visited three other shops before coming to us, but they all said they couldn't fix it.
We had brass nipples in stock of the same length.
We reused the reinforced eyelet.
It's fixed.
↑The new spoke is in the middle of the image, and aside from the plain section below the head being slightly shorter than the original, there's almost no difference.
The spoke weight is pretty much the same too.
The customer had taken this wheel to Beck On, and they said "we can't fix it, but maybe Nomu Lab could," and that's how we got recommended.
I'd like to say "I never agreed to be your errand boy," but truth is, when I know someone who can do things I can't or does them better, I sometimes refer people elsewhere (though it's mostly just to my heart's mentor), so I'll let it slide.
The good part is they made a judgment call—they didn't touch it and make things worse, they just left it as-is. If they'd fiddled with it and failed, that'd be a mess to inherit.
Before that, the customer also brought it to Silvest Cycle, but after they said the wheel was beyond repair, they tried to sell them the current Cosmic model from their stock.
The reason they can't fix it is that all of them bundled together have far less knowledge, experience, and skill than I do alone—it's not that it can't be fixed.
I'll probably be told "don't get cocky over fixing just one wheel," but this customer had to visit multiple shops that couldn't fix just one wheel, so I'm definitely better than those guys.
This case is somewhat unusual in that the original spoke couldn't be obtained, but shops that can't repair this Cosmic probably also can't properly handle repairs (after-sales service) on current Cosmic models. Since this spoke has roughly 100% relative weight, if we're honoring the customer's request for repair, we should be able to handle it by substituting with a readily available 14g plain straight spoke. Unless the rim is bent or the brake zone is abnormally worn, you should make maximum effort.
When overseas mail order has only warranty as a merit compared to price, after-sales service, and warranty—and that's why the price is high—there's no reason to buy from a crappy shop anymore.
Anyway, the fact that they failed to upsell the current model is maximum uncool.
A spoke has broken, so they're looking for a repair.
For information on the original Cosmic Elite and reinforced eyelets
（→see here）.
It's not a head break, but a fracture at the boundary with the threaded section.
Straight spokes tend to break on this side more often.
The customer for this wheel isn't really part of the "industry," but he knows people inside Mavic distributorships and people inside Campagnolo distributorships who are the most knowledgeable in Japan about their stuff. According to the person at the Mavic distributor, the spoke is discontinued and unobtainable. If the person inside is saying it, there's no mistake. That alone would be fine, but somehow I got recommended to Nomu Lab with expectations that "they probably can do something, they might even be able to make spokes" (※they can't). The person inside the Campagnolo distributor—the most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan—called during this work and told the customer to "treat them with proper courtesy." When I asked if we could use a spoke where the butted section dimensions matched Campagnolo's ○○○○○ since Mavic doesn't have the original, he said "you can't just say that'll work," which is true. By the way, the wheel name is redacted not because of our shop's trade secrets, but because I was specifically told not to write it here. We also talked about various other things, like whether Campagnolo's 12-speed sprockets work with current freebodies, and issues with the Bora Ultra rim (I'll write about that later), but I should mention that regarding the small-diameter retainer bearings in the Shamal Mille front hub that I wrote about before, I had noted that the ball diameter was the same but there was one fewer ball. The correction is that there are actually two fewer balls. I updated that. Guess people really are reading this—I can't write careless stuff.
Incidentally, this wheel's customer visited three other shops before coming to us, but they all said they couldn't fix it.
We had brass nipples in stock of the same length.
We reused the reinforced eyelet.
It's fixed.
↑The new spoke is in the middle of the image, and aside from the plain section below the head being slightly shorter than the original, there's almost no difference.
The spoke weight is pretty much the same too.
The customer had taken this wheel to Beck On, and they said "we can't fix it, but maybe Nomu Lab could," and that's how we got recommended.
I'd like to say "I never agreed to be your errand boy," but truth is, when I know someone who can do things I can't or does them better, I sometimes refer people elsewhere (though it's mostly just to my heart's mentor), so I'll let it slide.
The good part is they made a judgment call—they didn't touch it and make things worse, they just left it as-is. If they'd fiddled with it and failed, that'd be a mess to inherit.
Before that, the customer also brought it to Silvest Cycle, but after they said the wheel was beyond repair, they tried to sell them the current Cosmic model from their stock.
The reason they can't fix it is that all of them bundled together have far less knowledge, experience, and skill than I do alone—it's not that it can't be fixed.
I'll probably be told "don't get cocky over fixing just one wheel," but this customer had to visit multiple shops that couldn't fix just one wheel, so I'm definitely better than those guys.
This case is somewhat unusual in that the original spoke couldn't be obtained, but shops that can't repair this Cosmic probably also can't properly handle repairs (after-sales service) on current Cosmic models. Since this spoke has roughly 100% relative weight, if we're honoring the customer's request for repair, we should be able to handle it by substituting with a readily available 14g plain straight spoke. Unless the rim is bent or the brake zone is abnormally worn, you should make maximum effort.
When overseas mail order has only warranty as a merit compared to price, after-sales service, and warranty—and that's why the price is high—there's no reason to buy from a crappy shop anymore.
Anyway, the fact that they failed to upsell the current model is maximum uncool.