A customer dropped off the front wheel of a 3T Merculio 60 for repair.
It's a wheel with a special structure featuring hub-side nipples and rim-side spoke heads.
The wheel got twisted in a pretty brutal pile-up where another bike landed on top of it,
and apparently 1 or 2 spokes were bent.
If it really was just 1 or 2 spokes, there wouldn't be any lateral runout to worry about, so I'd normally repair it without removing the tubular tire.
But in reality, way more spokes were bent than that.
Turning the hub-side nipples is a real pain,
but the rear hub freehub side is even worse.
↑Like this—there were 6 bent spokes on one side.
With 18H total (9 spokes per side), that means 2 out of 3 are damaged.
Looking at the rim-side hook feature
"SAPIM" is stamped on the spoke head, so the manufacturer is definitely Sapim.
The spoke's butted section dimensions (spoke gauge) match the CX-RAY as well,
so basically these are CX-RAY spokes in straight-gauge format.
If these were proprietary parts, I'd have to source OEM spokes
or do a full spoke replacement with something else,
so I was lucky I could fix it with CX-RAY straight-gauge spokes we keep in stock.
On the opposite side from the 6 severely bent spokes,
I found 1 spoke with deformation at the spoke head.
Total spokes needing replacement: 7.
Removed the 7 damaged spokes.
Fixed.
↑The 6 spokes from one side
There's one that's crumpled at the hub end,
but the others look pretty straight overall...except
at the rim end they're mangled.
↑The single spoke from the other side
Even after all that damage, the carbon rim's hook section didn't shatter or explode—that's impressive.
I'm not sure if the Merculio rim is light for its height
(whether its height-to-weight ratio is excellent),
but aside from the valve hole, there are no other holes in the outer part,
and the rim walls away from the spoke head hook section flex inward with just a light finger press—they're really thin.
So I'd guess it's reasonably light.
Though honestly, if you're going to make such a complicated structure,
and the rim isn't light, you might as well just use a normal rim.
It's a wheel with a special structure featuring hub-side nipples and rim-side spoke heads.
The wheel got twisted in a pretty brutal pile-up where another bike landed on top of it,
and apparently 1 or 2 spokes were bent.
If it really was just 1 or 2 spokes, there wouldn't be any lateral runout to worry about, so I'd normally repair it without removing the tubular tire.
But in reality, way more spokes were bent than that.
Turning the hub-side nipples is a real pain,
but the rear hub freehub side is even worse.
↑Like this—there were 6 bent spokes on one side.
With 18H total (9 spokes per side), that means 2 out of 3 are damaged.
Looking at the rim-side hook feature
"SAPIM" is stamped on the spoke head, so the manufacturer is definitely Sapim.
The spoke's butted section dimensions (spoke gauge) match the CX-RAY as well,
so basically these are CX-RAY spokes in straight-gauge format.
If these were proprietary parts, I'd have to source OEM spokes
or do a full spoke replacement with something else,
so I was lucky I could fix it with CX-RAY straight-gauge spokes we keep in stock.
On the opposite side from the 6 severely bent spokes,
I found 1 spoke with deformation at the spoke head.
Total spokes needing replacement: 7.
Removed the 7 damaged spokes.
Fixed.
↑The 6 spokes from one side
There's one that's crumpled at the hub end,
but the others look pretty straight overall...except
at the rim end they're mangled.
↑The single spoke from the other side
Even after all that damage, the carbon rim's hook section didn't shatter or explode—that's impressive.
I'm not sure if the Merculio rim is light for its height
(whether its height-to-weight ratio is excellent),
but aside from the valve hole, there are no other holes in the outer part,
and the rim walls away from the spoke head hook section flex inward with just a light finger press—they're really thin.
So I'd guess it's reasonably light.
Though honestly, if you're going to make such a complicated structure,
and the rim isn't light, you might as well just use a normal rim.