Another wheel day (hereinafter omitted).
A customer dropped off a Racing Zero front wheel with me.
The bead hook shows no deformation,
but the rim itself is bent like a potato chip.
There was one spoke with damage.
If it's just surface finish wear, I'd reuse it,
but this one has a fairly deep gouge, so I'm replacing it.
With the Racing 3 or original Racing 1 rims from the other day,
they don't share rims with other models or specifications,
so stickers are applied to the rim.
What I mean is, for example, with black Shamal Ultra from Gold or Titanium Gray onwards,
since it shares the rim with Eurus,
there's no sticker on the rim.
The original Racing 1 comes in black and silver rims,
but the stickers applied are all the same type—just one kind—so
they come with stickers from the start.
This black Racing Zero rim shares its rim with the aluminum nipple version of the black Racing 1,
and that Racing 1 is already discontinued, but
even among Racing Zeros of the same generation, there are various specifications like
Bright Label and Dark Label, and also thereinforced limited edition Red Passion (※) and Competizione,
so they're supplied without stickers.
※Red Passion differs from the regular model not
in the rim but only in spoke color... or so I thought,
but the sticker specifications are also different (→here), making it impossible to get matching ones.
Stickers are sold as front and rear rim sets,
but at our shop we sell them individually.
Though it's not something people usually notice,
Shamal Ultra and Racing Zero rims have different rim heights front and rear.
So the stickers come in two different heights, and they're not interchangeable.
Along the same lines, there's the common comment: "The tubeless valve on 2WAY-FIT,
the rear one is shorter so it's harder to pump air,"
but tubeless valve length only comes in one size, so it's the rim height that differs.
This sticker situation, being sold separately and all,
sometimes when I tell customers the price, they say "forget it,"
so I've done repairs without stickers before,
but this time the customer wants the sticker included.
Previously, with Shamal Mille and Racing Zero Nite rim replacements,
across four separate jobs, each needing one front and one rear rim,
and all four wanting sticker replacements,
the Shamal Mille and Racing Zero Nite stickers
happened to run out perfectly in a short period—a miracle!—but
typically I end up with leftover stickers from one or the other.
Sometimes if I have stock it works out perfectly,
but there have been incidents like thekidney stone Nyoro absence incident (→here）（→here),
so you have to be careful.
Today it's nice and crispy!
I loosened the tension completely over about half the circumference.
The spoke that's missing is just one I completely loosened and fell out—
nothing special about it.
↑This spoke looks bad too.
The rim bent like a chip because it hit a truck, apparently,
and this is what happened to the spoke that took the impact.
I removed it from the flange.
This is a flange that slides in horizontally,
and even though there are nipples that haven't been loosened at all for about half the circumference,
I can get the spoke head out of the flange, so
I can get to this state in a flash.
Among the conditions that make nipples harder to turn (high resistance)—
crispy threadlocker, aluminum corrosion, spoke tension, etc.—
spoke tension is eliminated here,
so loosening the nipples becomes easier in this state.
The rims before and after rebuilding
when aligned perfectly at a certain phase
there's a gap at the opposite phase.
The 14 spokes I'm reusing.
The stamp reads "four vertical."
We've got stock, yeah.
Built.
↑The replaced spoke
The spoke with the damage,
was bent right at the damaged spot.
A customer dropped off a Racing Zero front wheel with me.
The bead hook shows no deformation,
but the rim itself is bent like a potato chip.
There was one spoke with damage.
If it's just surface finish wear, I'd reuse it,
but this one has a fairly deep gouge, so I'm replacing it.
With the Racing 3 or original Racing 1 rims from the other day,
they don't share rims with other models or specifications,
so stickers are applied to the rim.
What I mean is, for example, with black Shamal Ultra from Gold or Titanium Gray onwards,
since it shares the rim with Eurus,
there's no sticker on the rim.
The original Racing 1 comes in black and silver rims,
but the stickers applied are all the same type—just one kind—so
they come with stickers from the start.
This black Racing Zero rim shares its rim with the aluminum nipple version of the black Racing 1,
and that Racing 1 is already discontinued, but
even among Racing Zeros of the same generation, there are various specifications like
Bright Label and Dark Label, and also the
so they're supplied without stickers.
※Red Passion differs from the regular model not
in the rim but only in spoke color... or so I thought,
but the sticker specifications are also different (→here), making it impossible to get matching ones.
Stickers are sold as front and rear rim sets,
but at our shop we sell them individually.
Though it's not something people usually notice,
Shamal Ultra and Racing Zero rims have different rim heights front and rear.
So the stickers come in two different heights, and they're not interchangeable.
Along the same lines, there's the common comment: "The tubeless valve on 2WAY-FIT,
the rear one is shorter so it's harder to pump air,"
but tubeless valve length only comes in one size, so it's the rim height that differs.
This sticker situation, being sold separately and all,
sometimes when I tell customers the price, they say "forget it,"
so I've done repairs without stickers before,
but this time the customer wants the sticker included.
Previously, with Shamal Mille and Racing Zero Nite rim replacements,
across four separate jobs, each needing one front and one rear rim,
and all four wanting sticker replacements,
the Shamal Mille and Racing Zero Nite stickers
happened to run out perfectly in a short period—a miracle!—but
typically I end up with leftover stickers from one or the other.
Sometimes if I have stock it works out perfectly,
but there have been incidents like the
so you have to be careful.
Today it's nice and crispy!
I loosened the tension completely over about half the circumference.
The spoke that's missing is just one I completely loosened and fell out—
nothing special about it.
↑This spoke looks bad too.
The rim bent like a chip because it hit a truck, apparently,
and this is what happened to the spoke that took the impact.
I removed it from the flange.
This is a flange that slides in horizontally,
and even though there are nipples that haven't been loosened at all for about half the circumference,
I can get the spoke head out of the flange, so
I can get to this state in a flash.
Among the conditions that make nipples harder to turn (high resistance)—
crispy threadlocker, aluminum corrosion, spoke tension, etc.—
spoke tension is eliminated here,
so loosening the nipples becomes easier in this state.
The rims before and after rebuilding
when aligned perfectly at a certain phase
there's a gap at the opposite phase.
The 14 spokes I'm reusing.
The stamp reads "four vertical."
We've got stock, yeah.
Built.
↑The replaced spoke
The spoke with the damage,
was bent right at the damaged spot.