A customer brought in their Bora One for service.
They didn't want anything done to the wheels themselves—
the front wheel vibrates when descending, so they asked me to take a look.
The hub had significant play in it, and it wasn't natural wear—
it looked like someone who didn't understand the mechanics had tampered with it.
From the way I'm phrasing this, you can probably tell
it wasn't the customer who did the tinkering.
The front tire was taped on with tubular tape,
but the protective film hadn't been peeled off.
And it covered quite a large section.
If you're pushing hard through corners, the tire might actually come off.
After checking everything, I found that the main cause of
the vibration on descents was headset adjustment gone wrong.
This is an older Bora One from the narrow rim era with an internal nipple,
so when truing the wheel, you need to remove the tire.
The rear tire wasn't actually stuck on with rim cement—
it was just mounted on a thin, dried-out cement bed like a spare tire,
not properly glued down at all.
Just letting the air out and the tire slid right off.
I mentioned it like a spare tire, but if you use a proper tubular spare
with rim cement pre-applied to the base,
it holds on pretty firmly.
Since they'll be using tubular tape going forward,
I'm removing the thin cement bed that exists only on the rear rim using acetone.
Speaking of acetone, it seems you can't buy it anonymously anymore.
At 東急ハ○ズ they have 500cc and 1000cc cans,
and only the 1000cc requires ID and written statement of purpose at purchase,
so I was buying the slightly more expensive 500cc per unit.
But recently you can't buy 500cc anonymously either.
At モナ○ウ, acetone purchases are only available through FAX, not online,
and you also have to write down your intended use,
plus it's prohibited to sell or resell it (←not that I would).
What a hassle.
They didn't want anything done to the wheels themselves—
the front wheel vibrates when descending, so they asked me to take a look.
The hub had significant play in it, and it wasn't natural wear—
it looked like someone who didn't understand the mechanics had tampered with it.
From the way I'm phrasing this, you can probably tell
it wasn't the customer who did the tinkering.
The front tire was taped on with tubular tape,
but the protective film hadn't been peeled off.
And it covered quite a large section.
If you're pushing hard through corners, the tire might actually come off.
After checking everything, I found that the main cause of
the vibration on descents was headset adjustment gone wrong.
This is an older Bora One from the narrow rim era with an internal nipple,
so when truing the wheel, you need to remove the tire.
The rear tire wasn't actually stuck on with rim cement—
it was just mounted on a thin, dried-out cement bed like a spare tire,
not properly glued down at all.
Just letting the air out and the tire slid right off.
I mentioned it like a spare tire, but if you use a proper tubular spare
with rim cement pre-applied to the base,
it holds on pretty firmly.
Since they'll be using tubular tape going forward,
I'm removing the thin cement bed that exists only on the rear rim using acetone.
Speaking of acetone, it seems you can't buy it anonymously anymore.
At 東急ハ○ズ they have 500cc and 1000cc cans,
and only the 1000cc requires ID and written statement of purpose at purchase,
so I was buying the slightly more expensive 500cc per unit.
But recently you can't buy 500cc anonymously either.
At モナ○ウ, acetone purchases are only available through FAX, not online,
and you also have to write down your intended use,
plus it's prohibited to sell or resell it (←not that I would).
What a hassle.