I replaced a customer's chain.
This was over a year ago
(according to the image metadata: July 15, 2018),
when I replaced a 9000 Dura-Ace chain with a new one.
In the image above, you can already see the chain stretch is quite pronounced.
While not perfectly evenly spaced,
I laid out the Kaichō Mini (Japanese chain measuring tool) like stations along the chain.
The edge (1st)
2nd
3rd
4th
This is bad news. Even the Kaichō Mini was shocked (probably).
At that point Ilectured asked the customer
to replace their chain more frequently going forward.
The chainrings are worn down smooth as butter.
Before (look at those gaps)
After
In this condition, chain skip would almost certainly occur, so
I told them the outer chainring needed replacement.
The next morning, they reported skipping all over the place on flat ground
during their climbing workout
(that day was "inner gear only" punishment),
and they swapped out the chainring right after.
When you have a new chain,
pedaling feels like there's no mechanical loss,
and it feels great (at least you notice the difference right after buying new),
but if you ignore that feeling and just think about cost,
with Campagnolo where sprockets are expensive,
replacing the chain more frequently ends up being cheaper overall.
With Shimano, unless the sprocket is Dura-Ace,
you can buy a new sprocket for about double the chain price,
so it's easy to procrastinate on replacement (in my case).
Also, even when I know tubular tires are getting sketchy,
I think "just use it one more day today, then I'll peel it off and replace it,"
and never get around to it, eventually causing an avoidable flat somewhere out on the road (in my case).
After this incident, the customer
started replacing chainrings pretty regularly.
Actually, front chainrings aren't something
you typically replace that frequently.
They started replacing chains pretty regularly,
so there shouldn't be any issues from that standpoint, but for some reason they don't last a year.
It's true they ride a lot of kilometers.
I don't know the real reason, but according to this customer,
"chainrings that come after the spare parts batch
wear abnormally fast compared to the original spec ones."
Actually, after that first outer chainring replacement,
we replaced it one more time.
Then in March 2019,
we ordered the same chainring (FC-9000 50T),
but it still hasn't arrived.
The arrival date display has been confirmed a few times,
but keeps reverting to "TBD" or getting pushed back significantly.
The spare parts for a previous generation Dura-Ace aren't being supplied steadily?
Are you kidding me?
This is a separate issue, but when the PD-R9100 came out,
the supply of PD-9000 pedal shafts ended
(probably because they weren't selling well; the +4mm long shaft is still available).
The part numbers for PD-9000 and PD-R9100 pedal shafts
are not the same, so they're not compatible.
The PD-9000 pedal shaft kit
comes with needle roller bearings, but
the PD-R9100 doesn't.
They're not absent from the pedal body itself,
so repair apparently became unavailable.
In any case, if your PD-9000 pedals get gritchy,
you're supposed to just buy a new PD-R9100.
Also, in the early days of the R9100 release,
I think quite a few shops were still stocking
PD-9000 (non-repairable) parts. That's pretty harsh too.
・・・So does that mean when the FC-9000 chainring wears out,
I'm supposed to replace it with an FC-R9100?
Is the slow supply of spare parts meant to encourage that?
True, there is shifting compatibility across crankset generations.
Let's say the customer had some circumstance where
they couldn't swap cranksets because a third-party power meter sensor
was stuck to their FC-9000—
but that would be an unofficial hack anyway, so
Shimano doesn't care,
and besides, the R9100 has power meter models too,
so just switch to those already—
that would be the response I'd expect.
But this customer's crankset is an FC-SR70,
an SRM Shimano-made crankset
built on the 9000-spec platform.
If you don't use the original 9000 outer chainring,
the gaps won't line up aesthetically.
Hmm, I think this is still within the period where we should be
providing support for this.
This is yet another issue, but
I replaced the FC-6750 chainring
with a StrongLight compatible one (gaps line up with the crank arm).
I did this just the other day, and it turns out the 6750 chainring
is still available in both black and silver.
The reason I didn't go with the original is that the StrongLight one
was faster to obtain, and since the customer runs 6770 electronic shifting,
a noticeable worsening of shift quality shouldn't happen
(StrongLight CT2 and Praxis Works chainrings
don't have poor shifting performance to begin with).
What I'm getting at is:
I can get previous-generation Ultegra chainrings,
so why can't I get
current-generation Dura-Ace chainrings right away?
Pedal shafts too—PD-9000 and PD-7900 are discontinued,
but the earlier PD-7810 is still available now.
That's because while production did end,
they made plenty of them back then cost be damned,
and some stock apparently remains.
Dura-Ace repair parts are supplied for seven years
after production ends.
In the annual catalog, the 9000 ran until 2016,
and the R9100 started in 2017, so
the 9000 outer chainring should be supplied・・・
Oh wait, we are supplying it,
it's just unavailable for nearly a year.
But by that logic the PD-9000 pedal shaft should also・・・。
This is something I've written about before,
There's a caption that appeared on a catalog page,
accompanying the disassembled 750-series XT rear derailleur,
To support your long relationship with a single product.
This phrase
disappeared sometime around 2012. The image is the same though.
And another separate matter.
On October 8, 2019
I ordered 22 rear right spokes for the WH-9000-C50-CL,
but as of now I've only received 7.
The rest are scheduled to arrive March 8, 2020.
This would never happen with Racing Zero, Bora, or Zonda wheels.
Even Bora WTO, which had no immediate spare parts ready for its new release,
already has plenty of spare spokes stocked at our shop.
What if there really was a customer who needed this spoke
to repair their 9000 wheel?!
What? "If there really was"—what does that mean?
It's because this spoke is for
the silly personal project of "trying to change the spoke weight ratio on my Neutron front wheel."
I know you're going to say the rim heights are totally different,
but the rear right uses tangent lacing, so
it comes closer to the length of a radial lacing with a lower-profile rim.
Thank goodness there was no poor soul trying to repair their WH-9000-C50
who couldn't get the spokes!
・・・Or rather, if someone other than my customers
had needed this spoke for wheel repair (resolved with 7 or fewer spokes)
and it was here instead of available to them,
would that be my fault or Shimano's?
Finally.
Last year, a customer's Neil Pryde frame that had 5600-series 10-speed 105 shifters
got upgraded to 11-speed Ultegra,
but before that the STI lever broke,
so I lent them my ST-7801 to install.
The front derailleur hanger also bent, so I replaced it,
but the cable pull ratio doesn't match on 7900-series and later front derailleurs.
For a front derailleur compatible with 7800-series,
aside from Shimano originals, even first-gen SRAM Rival 10-speed will work.
Actually, I think Shimano changed their cable pull ratio with the 7900
specifically to prevent that.
I won't blame anyone for the original 7800-series component parts being unavailable.
Here's a quiz: what aftermarket front derailleur did I use for the repair?
Try to guess. The answer is below.
The answer was FSA.
The shifting performance was surprisingly not bad(might have even been better than Rival).
By the way, I'm asking that applause for this post be limited to those who got the quiz right.
Addendum: Correct answers below—there's no way there were this many!
Actually, I bet most people are thinking "I've never seen this before!"
This was over a year ago
(according to the image metadata: July 15, 2018),
when I replaced a 9000 Dura-Ace chain with a new one.
In the image above, you can already see the chain stretch is quite pronounced.
While not perfectly evenly spaced,
I laid out the Kaichō Mini (Japanese chain measuring tool) like stations along the chain.
The edge (1st)
2nd
3rd
4th
This is bad news. Even the Kaichō Mini was shocked (probably).
At that point I
to replace their chain more frequently going forward.
The chainrings are worn down smooth as butter.
Before (look at those gaps)
After
In this condition, chain skip would almost certainly occur, so
I told them the outer chainring needed replacement.
The next morning, they reported skipping all over the place on flat ground
during their climbing workout
(that day was "inner gear only" punishment),
and they swapped out the chainring right after.
When you have a new chain,
pedaling feels like there's no mechanical loss,
and it feels great (at least you notice the difference right after buying new),
but if you ignore that feeling and just think about cost,
with Campagnolo where sprockets are expensive,
replacing the chain more frequently ends up being cheaper overall.
With Shimano, unless the sprocket is Dura-Ace,
you can buy a new sprocket for about double the chain price,
so it's easy to procrastinate on replacement (in my case).
Also, even when I know tubular tires are getting sketchy,
I think "just use it one more day today, then I'll peel it off and replace it,"
and never get around to it, eventually causing an avoidable flat somewhere out on the road (in my case).
After this incident, the customer
started replacing chainrings pretty regularly.
Actually, front chainrings aren't something
you typically replace that frequently.
They started replacing chains pretty regularly,
so there shouldn't be any issues from that standpoint, but for some reason they don't last a year.
It's true they ride a lot of kilometers.
I don't know the real reason, but according to this customer,
"chainrings that come after the spare parts batch
wear abnormally fast compared to the original spec ones."
Actually, after that first outer chainring replacement,
we replaced it one more time.
Then in March 2019,
we ordered the same chainring (FC-9000 50T),
but it still hasn't arrived.
The arrival date display has been confirmed a few times,
but keeps reverting to "TBD" or getting pushed back significantly.
The spare parts for a previous generation Dura-Ace aren't being supplied steadily?
Are you kidding me?
This is a separate issue, but when the PD-R9100 came out,
the supply of PD-9000 pedal shafts ended
(probably because they weren't selling well; the +4mm long shaft is still available).
The part numbers for PD-9000 and PD-R9100 pedal shafts
are not the same, so they're not compatible.
The PD-9000 pedal shaft kit
comes with needle roller bearings, but
the PD-R9100 doesn't.
They're not absent from the pedal body itself,
so repair apparently became unavailable.
In any case, if your PD-9000 pedals get gritchy,
you're supposed to just buy a new PD-R9100.
Also, in the early days of the R9100 release,
I think quite a few shops were still stocking
PD-9000 (non-repairable) parts. That's pretty harsh too.
・・・So does that mean when the FC-9000 chainring wears out,
I'm supposed to replace it with an FC-R9100?
Is the slow supply of spare parts meant to encourage that?
True, there is shifting compatibility across crankset generations.
Let's say the customer had some circumstance where
they couldn't swap cranksets because a third-party power meter sensor
was stuck to their FC-9000—
but that would be an unofficial hack anyway, so
Shimano doesn't care,
and besides, the R9100 has power meter models too,
so just switch to those already—
that would be the response I'd expect.
But this customer's crankset is an FC-SR70,
an SRM Shimano-made crankset
built on the 9000-spec platform.
If you don't use the original 9000 outer chainring,
the gaps won't line up aesthetically.
Hmm, I think this is still within the period where we should be
providing support for this.
This is yet another issue, but
I replaced the FC-6750 chainring
with a StrongLight compatible one (gaps line up with the crank arm).
I did this just the other day, and it turns out the 6750 chainring
is still available in both black and silver.
The reason I didn't go with the original is that the StrongLight one
was faster to obtain, and since the customer runs 6770 electronic shifting,
a noticeable worsening of shift quality shouldn't happen
(StrongLight CT2 and Praxis Works chainrings
don't have poor shifting performance to begin with).
What I'm getting at is:
I can get previous-generation Ultegra chainrings,
so why can't I get
current-generation Dura-Ace chainrings right away?
Pedal shafts too—PD-9000 and PD-7900 are discontinued,
but the earlier PD-7810 is still available now.
That's because while production did end,
they made plenty of them back then cost be damned,
and some stock apparently remains.
Dura-Ace repair parts are supplied for seven years
after production ends.
In the annual catalog, the 9000 ran until 2016,
and the R9100 started in 2017, so
the 9000 outer chainring should be supplied・・・
Oh wait, we are supplying it,
it's just unavailable for nearly a year.
But by that logic the PD-9000 pedal shaft should also・・・。
This is something I've written about before,
There's a caption that appeared on a catalog page,
accompanying the disassembled 750-series XT rear derailleur,
To support your long relationship with a single product.
This phrase
disappeared sometime around 2012. The image is the same though.
And another separate matter.
On October 8, 2019
I ordered 22 rear right spokes for the WH-9000-C50-CL,
but as of now I've only received 7.
The rest are scheduled to arrive March 8, 2020.
This would never happen with Racing Zero, Bora, or Zonda wheels.
Even Bora WTO, which had no immediate spare parts ready for its new release,
already has plenty of spare spokes stocked at our shop.
What if there really was a customer who needed this spoke
to repair their 9000 wheel?!
What? "If there really was"—what does that mean?
It's because this spoke is for
the silly personal project of "trying to change the spoke weight ratio on my Neutron front wheel."
I know you're going to say the rim heights are totally different,
but the rear right uses tangent lacing, so
it comes closer to the length of a radial lacing with a lower-profile rim.
Thank goodness there was no poor soul trying to repair their WH-9000-C50
who couldn't get the spokes!
・・・Or rather, if someone other than my customers
had needed this spoke for wheel repair (resolved with 7 or fewer spokes)
and it was here instead of available to them,
would that be my fault or Shimano's?
Finally.
Last year, a customer's Neil Pryde frame that had 5600-series 10-speed 105 shifters
got upgraded to 11-speed Ultegra,
but before that the STI lever broke,
so I lent them my ST-7801 to install.
The front derailleur hanger also bent, so I replaced it,
but the cable pull ratio doesn't match on 7900-series and later front derailleurs.
For a front derailleur compatible with 7800-series,
aside from Shimano originals, even first-gen SRAM Rival 10-speed will work.
Actually, I think Shimano changed their cable pull ratio with the 7900
specifically to prevent that.
I won't blame anyone for the original 7800-series component parts being unavailable.
Here's a quiz: what aftermarket front derailleur did I use for the repair?
Try to guess. The answer is below.
The answer was FSA.
The shifting performance was surprisingly not bad
By the way, I'm asking that applause for this post be limited to those who got the quiz right.
Addendum: Correct answers below—there's no way there were this many!
Actually, I bet most people are thinking "I've never seen this before!"